Losing
Cadence
by
Laura Lovett
Genre:
Thriller, Suspense
When
Cadence Weaverly graduates from high school, she thinks it’s for
the best that she and her boyfriend, Richard White, take separate
paths: she to Julliard and he back to Harvard. Ten years later, she
has an ideal job and a wonderful fiancé, Christian. She is building
the life of her dreams—until the day Richard resurfaces out of the
blue, abducts her from her San Francisco apartment, and returns her
to his mansion where he holds her captive.
Cadence can hardly
believe her ears when Richard professes his undying love and reveals
his plans to build a life together. Terrified to fight back for fear
he will have Christian murdered, Cadence must determine how to reason
with a mentally unstable man who is obsessed with making her his
forever. But even if she manages to escape, will she ever really be
free of the man who hunts her heart?
In
this psychological thriller, a young woman must rely on perseverance,
courage, and inner strength to survive after she is kidnapped by her
deranged ex-boyfriend.
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Chapter One
“W’e're home my love.”The husky voice seemed
distant, yet vaguely familiar. I heard only faint sounds amidst
the dark fog that swirled around in my mind. I didn’t know where I was, as my
eyes remained clamped shut. My body felt limp and desperately weak. I tried to pull
my heavy eyelids apart, but to no avail. I willed my mouth to
open,
to utter a sound. Nothing. My tongue was heavy in my mouth.
Everything was black. I’m going to be sick, I thought.
“My
love, the love of my life, my Cadence,” uttered a deep male voice in my ear.
“I’m going to carry you, my love.” I felt warm arms around me, lifting me out
into the rain. I shivered fiercely from the bitter cold. Was it night? There
was no light through my closed eyelids. I tried again to open my mouth, to ask
where I was, but the words would not form. Who was he?
My nausea materialized into violent vomiting.
I could feel the man’s strong arms holding me up, bracing me.
My body heaved and convulsed, and I felt as though I was breaking into pieces.
“It’s okay, darling, you’ll feel better soon,” said the deep voice over and over
as I heaved for what felt like an eternity. en everything went black again.
*****
I
woke up slowly, sensing that I was tucked into a soft bed. This time my
eyes were able to open a fraction. Shapes swam before my eyes, the images vague
and blurry. I could see white all around me: white bed, white walls, white
door. I tried to move, but my body refused to cooperate. I knew, somewhere in
the back of my mind, that I was heavily drugged.
The
white around me gave the sensation of being outside in a snow storm. A memory
flashed back to me from childhood, of making snow angels in the deep, pillowy
layers of freshly fallen snow. My eyes slowly scanned the blurry room and
narrowed in on something that was not white, it was black. A camera mounted in
the corner of the room, high up near the ceiling, its lens focusing down on me,
on my every movement. A watchful eye staring into a room of white, focusing on
a drugged woman who couldn’t move. Where on earth was I? Then the door slowly
opened.
“Hello,
Miss Weaverly,” whispered a woman’s voice with a slight accent that sounded
Spanish. “Welcome home. I saw that you were waking up, so I came to check on
you. How are you feeling?” I couldn’t make out her features, but could see that
she was wearing white and her hair was dark.
“H…h…he…”
I tried to make out a word, hello or help, which turned out to be of little
consequence as I couldn’t speak.
“Don’t
try to speak. Just get some sleep and you’ll feel much better tomorrow.” She
came beside my bed and I felt a glass touch my lips. The stream of smooth, cool
water cascaded down my parched throat. The mere act of drinking water exhausted
me, so I fell back asleep. I dreamed about playing my flute on a hilltop and
standing on the deck of my childhood home, making beautiful
songs through my instrument as the birds sang along with me.
Th
e next dream that floated into my mind was about my family. I dreamed about my
mom, dad, sister and brother, all around the dinner table. Outside it was
snowing heavily, a blizzard of white. I ran out onto the deck and looked up
into the white abyss of the sky. I felt the snow falling on my face, caressing
me gently with thick flakes of cool white cotton. This dream continued until I
crossed the border between sleep and wakefulness, and opened my eyes to see two
green ones staring back at me intensely. My body began to shake with fear.
“Cadence,
my love, we’re finally together. This is the happiest day of my life,” he said
quietly, only inches away from my ear. He was so close that I could smell the
warm scent of mint on his breath. “You look so beautiful, Cadence, so peaceful,
and now you’re finally home.”
The
recognition came slowly, but once it fully hit, I froze in terror. This must be
a dream. I opened my mouth to scream, but only a fearful whisper came out.
“R…R…Rich…ard?”
“Yes,
my love?”
“Wh…Wh…Why?”
I tried to ask my question. Why on earth was I here? Was this a dream? This
couldn’t be real. I had dated Richard in high school for a few months. is
didn’t make any sense. It had been
ten years since I had seen or heard of him!
“Shhh,
my love, we’ll have plenty of time to talk later. I want you to get some more
rest now. You had a long night and were very ill. I’m just going to sit here
and watch over you while you sleep. Oh, how I love you, more than anything
in
the world. I’ve waited so long for this moment!” He heaved a long, fulfilled
sigh as his large, warm hand stroked my hair, my face. He traced the line of my
lips. I wanted to bite, to scream, but my body fell back into t
the comfort of sleep, dreams and denial.
Finding Sophie
Sequel to Losing Cadence
Finding Sophie is the highly
anticipated sequel to Laura Lovett's debut psychological thriller,
Losing Cadence.
For twelve years, Cadence Davidson has
dreaded her daughter's twelfth birthday, for that is the day she will
tell Sophie who her true father really is.
Sophie's world is turned upside down
when she learns that her biological father is really Richard White,
the man who abducted her mother twelve years earlier.She wonders if
she will ever meet the elusive billionaire, only to find herself
suddenly abducted into the life that he has carefully crafted for her
and her mother.
Despite his carefully orchestrated
plan, Richard White is faced with unexpected events that threaten to
tear his newfound family apart. Will Richard be able to find peace
and hold on to the family he has fought for a lifetime to bring
together?
In this psychological thriller, an
obsession that spans decades comes to it's ultimate test. Love, loss
and courage coalesce as Richard faces his demons and makes the final
choice to find peace and love.
Chapter One
Richard sat in
his villa
in the Bahamas, the warm ocean breeze and sounds of the lapping waves coming
through the large, open doors of the massive deck. He was fixated not on the
magnificent view, but on his computer screen that was livestreaming his
daughter’s twelfth birthday party. He felt the adrenaline coursing through his
veins as he knew his time was drawing near. He saw her beautiful smile, her
sweet face.
“Happy
birthday, dear Sophie. Happy birthday to you!” played through the speaker.
Sophie took a deep breath, focusing intently on the twelve candles on what
appeared to be a yellow cake decorated with pink flowers. She blew with great
effort, ten of the twelve candles smoking in defeat, as her friends
joked
about the two she’d missed. He ached to be there with his family, in
Christian’s place, where he belonged.
The
cameras were his companions; they helped him be part of Sophie’s life. He was
there for all major events through that small eye nestled so inconspicuously
that most top agents wouldn’t be able to uncover it. Leo, the ex-CIA agent who
helped him in the dark days after Cadence left him to die in the
fire,
was a genius at this gig. The hideous scars from the third degree burns on his
face and body were a constant reminder of that day; for years, he had wished it
had been his last. But in Richard’s world there was always a plan, then
another, and another one after that. Richard had backup upon backup,
which
saved his life when a guard who was stationed nearby arrived just in time to
save Richard from being burned alive or bleeding out from the deep stab wound
in his chest. That knife had only been an inch from puncturing his pulmonary
artery. The heat of the fire felt as though it was tearing apart his soul, or
what was left of it. The thick, dark smoke engulfed his body, and he felt the
sharp, throbbing pain of the wound in his chest as he tried to breathe.
He
recalled those final moments on that burning deck. “Let me die,” Richard
whispered.
“Not
a chance,” Leo responded, dragging Richard’s body away from the burning log
home, then wrapping his chest in what felt like a tight bandage. He didn’t
remember anything after that as he passed out from the pain before being driven
quickly away in an ATV through the dense Oregon forest.
He
was brought back from those dark memories by the live video of his Cadence
putting her arm around Sophie. Sophie smiled, her expression reminding him so
much of his own, her eyes and hair giving away the secret of who her real
father was. Yet she had her mother’s beautifully shaped lips and nose, set
perfectly on her porcelain skin. How he longed to put his arms around them
both. Yearned for the warmth of their arms around him. Ached every day and
every night for their love.
Just
then Christian came between them and Richard turned away from the video, his
hands making tight fists and his breath quickening. He couldn’t bear to watch
anymore, and stormed out of the room as the recording continued. He would watch
more of his wife and daughter later, as was his daily ritual.
As
he walked outside the villa and onto the soft, white sandy private beach, he
breathed deeply to calm the rage that seeing Christian always caused. Soon, he
promised himself. Soon this torture would come to an end and he could have what
belonged to him.
Laura (Hambley) Lovett was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta,
and received her PhD in Psychology from the University of Calgary in
2006. Her love of writing began at an early age when she would create
and draw characters, telling stories to herself as she drew.
An accomplished author in the academic and business world, Laura
pursued her love of creative writing to pen her first novel, Losing
Cadence, a psychological thriller. Losing Cadence was written over
many years as Laura juggled school, work and family, but she made
time to pursue her passion for writing.
Laura is a psychologist and entrepreneur, currently running
practices in the areas of career and leadership development and
distributed workplaces. She was nominated and selected as a
Distinctive Woman in Canada in 2013. Laura also enjoys teaching at
the University of Calgary and has been an Adjunct Professor of
Psychology since 2010.
Laura lives in Calgary with her husband and three children. She
loves playing squash, travelling, spending time at the family cabin
in Montana, as well as her view of the Rocky Mountains as the snow is
falling on her hot tub.
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5 comments:
Extraordinary covers.
A very original cover.
Sounds Awesome.
Congrats
Thanks for the introduction to this book.
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