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about her father. Had Rainbow known him when they lived here?
    But Elizabeth had learned, the hard way, never to talk about Charles, so instead she asked, “I asked for mashed potatoes. Didn’t I?”
    “They’re coming, too. You need fattening up.”
    Elizabeth knew for a fact she didn’t need fattening up. She was curvy. Very curvy. For a girl growing up in California, land of the svelte, being built like her was a disadvantage, not to mention it was hard to find clothes. If pants fit her hips, they were loose around her waist, and she hadn’t worn a button-up shirt since she was eleven and developed a C-cup. Her aunt said she was built like her mom. Her uncle said she was built like an exotic dancer. But he didn’t realize she’d heard him, so she would acquit him of malice. Her uncle wasn’t mean; he was overworked and didn’t have time for his own kids, much less a niece who never talked often even after she recovered her power of speech.
    Elizabeth realized she had a bit of a disconnect from the rest of the world caused by the knowledge that humanity could turn on her in an instant. She recognized the fact she sabotaged her own relationships, and sometimes she really tried to join in with the general populace and talk about the weather. She just never got it right. Not even with Garik.
    Especially not with Garik.
    Best not to think of Garik.
    She bent her head to her reports again, and didn’t notice when one of the town’s elderly inhabitants held court in the corner, pointed her out to the tourists, and regaled them with the tale of how Elizabeth Banner had seen her father kill her mother with a pair of scissors.

About the Author

    CHRISTINA DODD’s fifty novels have been translated into twenty-five languages, featured by Doubleday Book Club, recorded on Books on Tape for the Blind, have won Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart and RITA Awards, and have been called the year’s best by
Library Journal
. Dodd herself has been a clue in the
Los Angeles Times
crossword puzzle. With more than fifteen million of her books in print, her legions of fans always know that when they pick up a Christina Dodd book, they’ve found, “an absolute thrill ride of a book!”
    Enter Christina’s worlds and join her FREE mailing list for news, exclusive excerpts, and book sales at her website www.christinadodd.com .

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
    THE LISTENER . Copyright 2014 by Christina Dodd. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
    www.stmartins.com
    Cover design by Ervin Serrano
Cover photographs: sky by BMJ/Shutterstock.com; woman and dock by Alexander Chaikin/Shutterstock.com
    eISBN 978-1-46686-269-2
    First Edition: July 2014
    eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected] .