Free Paradox - Progeny Of Innocence (bk2) (Paradox series) by Patti Roberts Page A

Husband and Father.
    Forever Missed.
    R.I.P.
     
    "Hello, Dad," she murmured softly. "I see that Mom has already visited you today," Grace said, lifting the flowers to her nose to inhale their sweet scent. "The flowers are lovely Dad, your favorites."
    A bright ray of sunlight sliced through the dispersing clouds above, illuminating her face. "Skies from heaven, Dad," she whispered, closing her eyes and laying her cheek against the cold marble surface. Sitting there like this reminded Grace of the times she had sat on her father’s lap as a child, her face pressed hard against the warmth of his chest. The memories of that little girl sitting on her father’s lap curled her lips into a smile. Then suddenly the smile slipped away, dragging her back to a darker time, a darker place. Back to that horrible day when she had watched her father’s coffin disappearing slowly into the gaping muddy hole in the earth. The tears came effortlessly then; she did not try to stop them. Grace thought about the old man. She hoped he had finished raking up his leaves, because at any moment, it was about to rain.
    The eagle screeched, and glided down gracefully on outstretched wings to seek shelter from the rain on the branch of a tall tree. The very same tree he had chosen every year when it inevitably had begun to rain.
    The rain came down ever so lightly at first. Grace turned her face slowly skyward and let the raindrops run freely down her face.
    Grace did not notice the dark silhouette of a man, concealed by the dense tree line bordering the cemetery, watching her. She never did. However, every year he was standing there, watching over her.
     
    An hour later, clothing drenched and wet tendrils plastered to her face; Grace climbed back into Wade’s car. Neither of them had spoken on the fifteen-minute drive home. There wasn’t anything that needed saying; he had never known her father.
    Wade was the first to break the silence as he pulled up outside the house. "I have a few errands to run. Do you need anything while I’m out?"
    "No, I’m good." Grace replied hopping down out of the car.
    "Well just call me if you think of anything, okay?"
    "Sure thing, thanks, Wade. But I think I’m just going to go change into some dry clothes and lie down for awhile."
    "Okay, Kiddo… but remember…"
    "Yeah, I know, call if I want anything." She closed the door and waved.
    Wade smiled. "Right," he said, nodding his head. Then he slowly pulled the car out into the tree-lined street and drove away.
    Grace hurried to her bedroom and changed into dry clothes. Then she sat down on her bed, sliding her hand under the mattress to retrieve her journal from its secret hiding place. She opened the book and buried her face in its pages. She closed her eyes and drew in a long, deep breath, savoring the familiar scent of the pages. She held her breath and let the spellbinding smell of the old papyrus pages draw her inward. Then back, back, back. Back to another time that was always just out of her grasp. Visions hovered tantalizingly in her mind for just an instant before vaporizing into nothingness.
    Only a name remained. Juliette. And she asked the question she had asked herself a million times before. "Who is Juliette, and why am I reliving these lives over and over again?"
     
    She doesn’t have the answer to that question yet, but I do. For I am JULIETTE.
     
    She flicked through the dog-eared pages and paused at a picture with a date scrawled across the bottom. July 19. It was a photograph of Grace and her father Brian, taken on her 11th birthday.
    Her father had given her the gold eagle pendant that she held absently between her lips. She ran her fingers gently over the bright light hovering beside her in the photograph. A reflection from the flash, her mother had said. However, Grace had known better. Those glowing lights captured in her childhood photographs were reminders of her friend, Hope. Those, and the white feather she had found on her bedroom