SummaryOn the outside, Faith Madison is the very picture of a
sophisticated New Yorker. Slim, blond, stylish, Faith has a
life many would envy. Overcoming a childhood marked by
tragedy, married to a successful investment banker and
having raised two grown daughters, Faith has enjoyed her
role as mother and wife, and the good life that emanates
from their bustling Manhattan town house. But every step of
the way, Faith has carried within her a secret she could
divulge to no one. And with it, she has kept an even more
painful secret from herself.
For Faith, it is the sudden death of her stepfather--a man
who, like her husband, Alex, always remained just beyond
her reach--that will touch off a journey of change and
revelation. At the funeral, painful memories flood back--
and an old friend reenters Faith's life. Faith is greeting
mourners, when she hears a voice behind her and a single
word that brings a quick smile to her face: "Fred." Only
one person aside from her older brother, Jack, called her
that. Brad Patterson was Jack's best friend, a long, lanky
boy who teased, tormented, and protected Faith when they
fancied themselves "The Three Musketeers" as kids. When
Jack died years later, Faith and Brad came together again
in their common, inconsolable grief, then lost touch once
more amid the demands of families and busy lives a
continent apart.
Now a lawyer in California, Brad has reentered Faith's life
just as she is making a decision that plunges her marriage
into crisis. Determined to fulfill a long-held desire for a
career of her own, Faith applies to law school against her
husband's wishes, igniting a barrage of anger and
recrimination. Faith's only solace is the correspondence
she has begun with Brad, a man trapped in an empty marriage
of his own, a friend she once lost and has found again.
Soon e-mails are flying between them, bridging three
thousand miles, sharing much-needed friendship, support,
laughter. And as these two childhood friends rediscover
each other, something extraordinary is beginning to happen.
In the safety of their friendship, Brad will find the
courage to make a decision he should have made years
before. And Faith, too, is changing, beginning to believe
in herself--and in her right to grab hold of her dreams.
Gathering a strength she never knew she had, Faith is
finally ready to face the most painful step of all: of
sharing the secret that has long been haunting her, and
truly opening up her heart for the first time in her life.
With unerring insight into the hearts of husbands and
wives, lovers and families, Danielle Steel tells a wise and
moving story of the secrets that wound and the choices that
heal--and of the second chances that come only once in a
lifetime. Additional InformationDanielle Steel's 56th bestselling novel is about family and
friendship, about one woman's struggle to break free from
the past--and the man who helps her triumph. And most of
all, it is about daring to believe in...Answered Prayers.
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