Read Chosen for Free Online

restroom) and removed her socks before lying back down on the cot.
    He stared at her for several minutes, the first time he recalled seeing her face in repose. He remembered thinking when they first met that she looked younger than thirty years old. Now in sleep, she looked no more than in her early twenties. Dark auburn hair framed her oval-shaped face, and long black eyelashes rested fan-like on her cheeks. Her lips were parted as she softly snored.
    Michael eased the door shut. He smiled when he realized that Mariah Carpenter reminded him of his long-dead sister, Dorrie; her spirit, her quick smile, her shyness in the face of others she felt more accomplished than she. Dorrie had died of leukemia when he was twelve.
    He shook himself out of his reverie and found an address book in Mariah’s purse. Calling her manager’s office, he assured the gentleman that Mariah wasn’t ill; she had just been through an ordeal the previous evening. Michael promised she would call when she awoke.
    He sat in his worn leather chair, his fingers steepled, elbows on the armrests, eyes gazing out the window at the blue sky that heralded another lovely day in San José. Even though he had been physically and emotionally depleted the previous evening, he felt invigorated.
    More than that. The bursitis in his left shoulder was gone.
    The pain had been a constant reminder of a bad hit taken during a varsity soccer game between Queen Mary College and their traditional rival, King’s College. Years later, the bursa became inflamed, plaguing him, especially first thing in the morning. This morning however, as he began his socket-limbering exercises, the normal sharp twinges were gone.
    Michael knew he was going to have one hellacious time keeping his mind on his daily activities. His thoughts strayed to the extraordinary healing of his shoulder and to the Hebrew words she had spoken. He was sure she was the reason behind this extraordinary healing.
    When he heard the door from the hideout open around nine o’clock, he looked up to see Mariah emerge, yawning. He straightened, having been hunched over his desk in a vain attempt to rewrite his Sunday sermon. She approached; grinning, she said, “So what’s on the agenda for today?”
    He began to chuckle and the two of them laughed hysterically. The comment hadn’t been that funny; however, it was more a release of tension that made them howl until tears streamed down their faces and their sides hurt.
    Michael caught his breath in a hiccup and said, “Amanda’s been found, my dear. The FBI called me at home, plus it was in the newspaper headlines this morning. Just where you said she’d be! No one was hurt during the rescue, and she was brought back to California last night.
    “Oh, by the way, I called your manager and told him you were rather tired after a trying ordeal last night, and you’d call him when you woke.”
    Trying ordeal . She smiled at the understatement, delighted at the safe return of Amanda Forrester. She called her boss to assure him she was fine but still pretty tired, so would stay home for the rest of the day.
    Instead of leaving, she sat down in the guest chair next to Michael’s desk and, for several minutes, stared at the wall. Then she yawned and said, “I’ve got to go home, shower, get out of these sweaty clothes and get something to eat—I’m starving. I feel lots better than I have in days, but I need more sleep.”
    Yet she made no move to leave, her upper lip caught by the lower one. She was desperate to believe his explanation: that the Visitation was a miracle from God. “I spent years denying the Lord’s existence, believing that religion was an escape for weak-minded people who couldn’t face reality without a crutch. My disbelief was aided by the exposure of religious charlatans. But finding Amanda Forrester ... have all my values, based on logic and common sense, been shattered?” Her expression changed from bewilderment to anger. “Was