Love One, Then Another

Love One, Then Another; A Contemporary Romance Novella

Vol. 3 of Love Through the Ages, a Bundle of Five Love Stories

Evan Hatch and Emily Moore lived next door to each other and grew up together in the mid-sized city of Neehawk, Nebraska. They became best friends almost as soon as they learned to talk, and you seldom saw one without seeing the other. They started dating officially when they were freshmen in high school. They were smart, beautiful, personable and deeply in love. Everyone, including Evan and Emily, assumed they would eventually get married and live happily ever after.

All was not well in the Moore household, however, a dark secret that Emily kept hidden from everyone, including Evan. Emily's father was a disturbed, angry man who regularly beat his wife and who sexually abused Emily for years, starting when she was 5 years old.

Shortly after Evan and Emily graduated from high school, Emily's father got up in the middle of the night, took a gun and blew his wife's brains out as she slept. He was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

The day after her father's guilty verdict came down, Emily disappeared, leaving only a cryptic note for Evan, telling him she was fine and not to worry about her.

The years went by, and Evan wound up in Seattle, where he became a free-lance writer and fell in love with Jane Martin, an editor who helped him with his writing. Meanwhile, although he got used to life without Emily, he never quite got over her.

Then, 17 years after Emily's disappearance, Evan's mother died. He flew to Nebraska for the funeral, and on the flight back to Seattle an incredible piece of serendipity gave him a clue to Emily's whereabouts. The search for her began and was focused on the arid reaches of southeast Oregon – "The Big Empty" – and even Jane pitched in to help.

Would they find Emily? Why did she leave Evan with scarcely a word? Would he fall in love with her all over again? Or would he remain true to Jane?

The answers lay hidden in the Oregon desert.