Love the Second Time Around

Chapter 1 He Is Back

I did not know that someone as happy-go-lucky and playful as Julius Keaton would be upset when he discovered, on our wedding night, no less, that I was not a virgin.

To be honest, I was struck by a moment of guilt then. Had I known that this would be a big deal to him, I would have gotten a discreet procedure at the hospital. It might have preserved the harmony of our marriage.

That night, Julius seemed moody as he asked me about “the guy.” He tried to mask his emotions but failed miserably. Who would blame him? After all, I was not who he perceived to be. Looking at the devastation written on his face, I could not bring myself to utter the name buried deep in my heart. Thus, I apologized meekly instead.

Maybe it was this incident that had caused irrevocable cracks in our arranged marriage. Yet, little did I know that a more dangerous crisis would befall our already rocky marriage.

I was a comic writer. In cruder terms, I had been freelancing in the industry for many years. Though I had never gotten a significant breakthrough, I earned enough to pay the bills.

However, a call from my editor, Shannon Harper, changed my life forever.

She told me that my first work, I Only Want to Be With You, had caught the eye of Galaxy Entertainment’s CEO. They were interested in buying the rights to my comic to make a movie.

me to drop everything immediately and dragged myself to the VIP room on the fifth floor

to say, any writer who received praise for their

I not the least bit ecstatic, but I was also perplexed at their interest. Why does it have to be

offer that would not end

allowed myself to ponder the issue a moment longer

was a set of massive floor-to-ceiling windows. Sitting before the windows was a man in a wheelchair. With his back to me, he seemed to be looking at the scenery beyond the

seemed oddly familiar

Have I met

and stopped when I was a respectable distance away. “Hello. Are

my voice.

when I saw who he was. I could feel the blood rushing to my brain through my veins, giving me

my whole world was

you forgotten an old friend? Let me introduce myself again, then. Hi, I’m Dominic Hartnell, and I’m

name that lurked in the depths of my heart, and the very