Fern Michaels - The Future Scrolls

The Future Scrolls — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "The Future Scrolls" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234567...50

Table of Contents

Also by Fern Michaels...

ABOUT FACE
KENTUCKY RICH
KENTUCKY HEAT
KENTUCKY SUNRISE
PLAIN JANE
CHARMING LILY
WHAT YOU WISH FOR
THE GUEST LIST
LISTEN TO YOUR HEART
CELEBRATION
YESTERDAY
FINDERS KEEPERS
ANNIES RAINBOW
SARAS SONG
VEGAS SUNRISE
VEGAS HEAT
VEGAS RICH
WHITEFIRE
WISH LIST
DEAR EMILY

One

The public address system was announcing the arrival of Nationals flight 344 from Los Angeles at gate West 22.

Dani Arnold sat in the plush terminal restaurant sipping a cup of Starbucks coffee as she concentrated on the view that the wide panoramic window afforded her of the runway.

To any observer, Dani Arnold would have appeared to be a young, attractive woman in her mid-twenties, well groomed and intelligentlooking, confident and poised, like so many other thousands of Manhattan career girls.

Her facade of tranquility belied the hidden turmoil boiling within her, contradicted the well of tears which threatened to spring to the surface.

She was tired, more so than she could remember having felt for a long time. The strain of the past two hours was taking its toll and the caffeine in the coffee wasnt helping her to keep her emotions under control.

Wasnt it just like Jack to be callous enough to ask her to see him off to the airport, so he could wing his way to the girl back home and his impending marriage? And wasnt it just like her to agree! Dani, old girl, she thought wryly, you werent dealt a full deck. The minute you heard Jacks voice on the phone last night, you should have slammed down the receiver so hard that his brain would still be jingling now from the reverberation.

A jetliner began its slow progression down the runway in preparation for takeoff, but her thoughts were still focused on Jack.

A feeling of defeat rivered through her as she thought about how she had built her hopes around him, trusted him with her most tender emotions and allowed him to see her vulnerability. Jerk that he was, and to use that trite phrase, he had wined and dined her into a deep, prolonged assurance that she would one day be Mrs. Jack Cecil. No, that was all wrongshe was the jerk.

Then, one stormy, rainy night, when they were nestled cozily before her electric fireplace, he looked deeply into her eyes and said he knew that she would understand. He had decided to return to the girl he had left behind in his hometown, and couldnt Dani and he consider themselves good friends?

The girl, Dani had come to find out, was an heiress and Jack had found that life as a poor, struggling lawyer in the big city was not as attractive as being a poor, struggling lawyer in a small town with a rich wife. This revelation had taken place two months ago and she had not heard from Jack until the night before.

When she heard his voice on the phone, her traitorous heart had leaped and threatened to strangle her to the point where she had to choke out her words. But all Jack had wanted was for his good friend to take him to the airport because hed sold his car and it would be good to see Dani again.

Before she realized what she was saying, they had ended their conversation and Dani had agreed to borrow Stashs car and take Jack to the great, silver bird that would wing him all the way to his wedding.

Now with Jack gone from her life, although he assured her his business would bring him to New York and he would look her up (he had punctuated this with a wry wink), Dani felt hollow, emotionally depleted. Yet, priding herself on her logical New England thinking (discarding the fact that she had only spent a brief vacation at Cape Cod), she knew she would weather out this trauma and life would again hold new promise. The only cloud that darkened her sky was that she had no idea just how long this storm would last. She had not gotten over him before last night, so maybe it was going to take forever? Thats because I was still hoping, she derided herself. Now I know that anything Id hope for would be after the fact and, besides, she grimaced, Jack is a dick! She dotted the expletive with a hard, sharp click of her cup against the saucer.

The waiter, hearing the clink of china against china, stepped over to her table and refilled her cup from the Pyrex pot that was always at hand.

Dani, not wanting a third coffee, smiled up at him, thanked him and resigned herself to another cup, not wanting to slight his well-intentioned attendance by refusing it. What was one more cup of coffee in the scheme of things?

The waiter, ever on the alert to the needs of his patrons, took his coffeepot to a table on the far side of the restaurant in order to refill the cup of a distinguished-looking gentleman in his late thirties.

The man was well dressed in meticulously tailored gray sharkskin, which offset the wisps of gray hair at his temples and contrasted handsomely with his coal black eyes. As he poured the coffee, the waiter was startled when he noticed that the mans hands were tightly clenched, contradicting their owners nonchalant pose. So startled was he by the fierce grip that one of the mans sun-browned, square, neatly manicured hands had of the other that he almost poured the cup to overflowing.

The gentleman shook his head in thanks and gazed across the half-empty restaurant to the windows looking out onto the runway, his gaze passing quickly over Danis neat, shining dark brown head.

How can I sit here drinking what these Americans pass off as coffee? I should be out there somewhere searching for her, calling her name. His breath caught in his throat as he mentally called upon the heavens to bring his child to him. Maria, he silently moaned, Maria. What happened to you? Where are you?

His anger was red hot as his mind roll-called the events of the past few hours. Spare me from the inefficiency of airline personnel, he thought, grasping his hands together into a tighter clench; how can a ten-year-old child traveling alone all the way from Argentina go unnoticed?

If only I could see her now, rushing through the heavy glass doors of the airport restaurant shouting out Papa in her sweet melodious voice. Maria, Maria, where are you?

He had gone the rounds of the airline officials and now it was past noon and there was still no word of her, no news from anyone who might have seen her. He was still waiting for personnel to check with staff whose shift had changed at seven in the morning. This was the only explanation they could offer him: Maria had somehow come to the United States on an earlier plane and this is why he couldnt find her. But why would Madre change the plans and send Maria on an entirely different flight from that which had been confirmed? It didnt make sense.

He had thought of calling his mother in Argentina and questioning her, but the seora was advanced in years and suffering with crippling arthritis. To worry her with Marias disappearance would be the height of cruelty. No, he resolved, I will only call Madre as a last resort.

Was it possible that Maria had run away, guessing at his intentions? He would do what he had to do: use his child as bait in this deadly game that his wife had initiated. When his quarry reached out, as she would, he would withdraw her and hold her close. He, Alexander Renaldo Mendeneres, would never be the loser in this hateful cloak-and-dagger game.

Abruptly, the man pushed his chair away from the table, stood and flung a crisp bill onto the pristine, white tablecloth then left the restaurant with long, angry strides.

Next page

1234567...50

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «The Future Scrolls»

Look at similar books to The Future Scrolls. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Fern Michaels

Mr. and Miss Anonymous

Fern Michaels

Game Over

Fern Michaels

Dear Emily

Fern Michaels

Home Free

Fern Michaels

Deja Vu

Fern Michaels

Betrayal

Fern Michaels

Making Spirits Bright

Fern Michaels

Christmas at Timberwoods

Fern Michaels

Comfort and Joy

Fern Michaels

Sugar and Spice

Fern Michaels

Razor Sharp (The Sisterhood)

Fern Michaels

Deja Vu (The Sisterhood)

Discussion, reviews of the book The Future Scrolls and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.