The Ashes of a Broken Life

A story of love and family and friends. A story of deception and revenge. Because the MacDougall and the Larkin families have close family ties it is assumed that Derek MacDougall and Flannery Larkin will marry when they graduate from college. When Flannery becomes a famous fantasy children's writer during college she lets the fame rule her life and Derek feels that he is no longer important to her. When Chloe, Flannery's half- sister finds out that Derek is with his romance and engagement she decides to change the course of his life, Flannery's life and mainly her own life by drugging Derek's tea and then pretending that he that night got her pregnant. Derek believes Chloe really cares for him so breaks off his engagement to Flannery and marries Chloe instead. Six years later Derek divorces Chloe because she is a horrible mother to their two young children and the wife from hell. He also divorces her for having an ongoing affair with his half-brother Sean. Flannery returns to Geneva, Illinois after living in her father's native Scotland for six years to spend time with her Granny Anne who raised her after the death of her father James when she was four. Flannery is also hoping that she and Derek can be friends again and Derek prays for a renewed friendship with Flannery. When Flannery foolishly asks Derek about his failed marriage he tells her that she has a lot of nerve to be judging him. Then he tells her why he married Chloe, not because she lied that her baby was his but because he felt that he came second to her writing career and that she was in Scotland much more than with him in Geneva. Their relationship falters for a time but seeing him and his two children, Jack age five and Lucy age three gives her the desire to win him over so that she can be their mother. Derek decides to give their relationship a chance and they spend quality time together and with his children and their friends and family. Chloe is none too happy about the change of events and wants revenge because she herself loves Derek despite the way she treated him and their children while they were married. Chloe makes plans for revenge and Flannery is her prime target because she has always been jealous of her older half-sister. The reader gets to know the MacDougalls and the Larkins and their friends in a way that makes the reader feel they are real people with the problems that they themselves have gone through. The area described in the novel is real and the author once lived there.