Free The Chance: A Novel by Karen Kingsbury

Caroline herself had been as a teenage girl. But the closeness they shared when she was little was as gone as yesterday.
    Caroline turned her heart and hopes toward Peyton. With everything in her, she knew her actions were wrong, but she couldn’t help herself.
    He was no longer a diversion, a reason for getting up in the morning. He was her future. His calls continued, and she cared less and less whether Alan found out. For that reason she wasn’t terribly worried when her period was three weeks late. If she were pregnant, she and Peyton could simply start their life together sooner. Not until she called Peyton to tell him did her world fall apart. He was silent for half a minute before he said something she’d never forget. “You could never prove it’s mine. No one would believe you.”
    And just like that, the game between her and the famous Peyton Anders was over. She took a pregnancy test and stared at the positive results. In a blur of fear and terror and uncertainty, she couldn’t remember how to breathe because the test stood for two things. The start of a new life.
    And the end of her own.

Chapter Three
    A lan Tucker thought about getting in his car and finding Ellie, bringing her back from the place where she hung out with Nolan Cook. The park near the boy’s house. But if he did that, she would know her life was about to change. In the end, that was why he didn’t go. Ellie deserved one last night before the start of the rest of her life.
    The one in a new location. Without her mother.
    Tonight’s news had changed everything. He would not raise Ellie in a town where people were forever talking about her mother, about her terrible affair and who she’d had it with. Tonight Alan finally had answers to the questions that had plagued him for so long. He still struggled to believe the reality. Peyton Anders.
    Alan sighed, and the sound rattled through his aching chest. Of all people, Caroline had been cheating with a famous country singer. Worse, they’d been going behind his back for two years. He lay on top of the covers and stared through the darkness at the patchy bedroom ceiling. He wasn’t sure which was worse—the fact that Caroline had cheated on him or thetruth that she’d given her heart to the guy two years ago. Two years. He exhaled and rolled onto his side. He wanted only the best for his family. In all the years of spending weekdays at the base, he had never so much as taken a sip of alcohol. When the guys went out drinking, Alan stayed in his room and read his Bible or watched reruns of Gilligan’s Island and I Love Lucy .
    He had asked Caroline more than once who she was spending time with, but he never really expected this. That the only woman he’d ever loved would find someone else. Or that she would lie to him. Betray him so completely. His stomach churned, and he wondered whether he would ever feel good again. True, he and Caroline hadn’t slept together in months, but before their intimacy waned, they’d had their good times.
    Now, now he hated remembering even one of those moments. She would sleep with him at night and then flirt with Peyton the next morning from work. He never should have fallen in love with someone as beautiful as Caroline. Especially with his career as a marine. A few of his friends had warned him sixteen years ago, when he announced he was marrying her. Even his mother had been worried. “She’s very pretty.” She looked doubtful. “Does she understand you’ll be gone a lot? Women like her . . . well, some of them can be self-absorbed.”
    Alan clenched his jaw. He had been angry at his mother for her comment back then. And now . . . He couldn’t finish the thought, couldn’t bring himself to rehash in his mind the truth about his wife. But this much was certain: Caroline would regret what she’d done to him. She would regret it as long as she lived. He already had a plan. Weeks ago his commander had told him about a promotion—one that would