As I reread one of my current WIPs, Interior Designs, I cannot help but reflect on the book Embrace the Whirlwind, from which one of the characters has sprung. Martha Scott Cummings was Amber Cushing’s nemesis, and in this excerpt, you can spot the beginning of what was to come.
Martha Scott Cummings busily scurried through her day dealing with one crisis after another until finally she sat at her desk facing her computer. She read her e-mails while sipping a cup of tea. Her housekeeper, Rosa, had brought it up just a few minutes ago; she had smiled gratefully, thankful for the small comforts that made her day possible.
She enjoyed this part of her morning because she felt some control over it. She could reply thoughtfully and in her own time. So when she saw the message from someone she didn’t recognize, she reread the generic return address. But it gave nothing away as to the identity of the sender. She scrolled down through the whole message until at the very end, she gasped. Then she read it again.
Do you know where your husband is? Have you often wondered late at night if he is truly where he says
he’ll be. Ask no more. Check out this address and learn the Whole Truth.She realized that the address was on a cul-de-sac near the northeast side of Clovis just a few miles south of their lovely sprawling home. What did this mean? And who was her e-mail correspondent?
As she tried to tell herself that the message was probably not even for her, she wrote down the address and tucked it away in her appointment book…just in case.
She plodded on through the rest of her e-mails, replying diligently to each one. And when she had finished, she scrolled back up to the insidious one, deleting it. She refused to be terrorized by something so nebulous. Someone somewhere was trying to mess with her mind, but they wouldn’t succeed because she wouldn’t bite!
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