Read Wish 01 - A Secret Wish for Free Online

only problem was… she didn’t want to go back.
    How could that be? How could she suddenly not want what she’d always wanted?
    Reaching into the liquor cabinet, she pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels and a shot glass. She filled it to the brim and then tossed the liquid down her throat. It tingled and burned, making her feel like she was really alive. After the second shot, she felt calmer.
    She glanced out the window, watching the city go by. She loved San Francisco, loved its changing neighborhoods, foggy nights, and windswept views of the bay and the ocean. She’d spent her entire life in this city – a city of many cultures and neighborhoods that changed from one block to the next. For the first twenty years of her life, she’d called a low-income housing project in Potrero Hill home, and for the last twenty years, she’d resided in the expensive Marina District. She’d lived two lives. And now she was wondering where the next twenty years would take her.
    It shocked her that she had no real idea of what was supposed to come next. From the time she was a little girl, she’d always been focused, driven. Every step she’d taken had been deliberate, purposeful, with one goal – to change her life for the better. She’d hated the run-down one-bedroom apartment she’d shared with her mother after her father took off. She’d hated the lumpy single mattress on the floor in the corner of the living room that had been her bed for so many years. She’d hated feeling like she wasn’t good enough. So every night, she’d looked out at the bright downtown city lights and imagined a different world.
    She’d made a plan to get an education, find a job and a better place to live, marry well and have children who would never have to grow up the way she had. And she’d done it all. She’d been ruthless and a little selfish. She was honest enough with herself to admit that, although she doubted she’d admit it to anyone else. She’d carefully cultivated an image, and very few people really knew her – certainly none of the people who had been at her birthday party.
    She hadn’t thought about her childhood in a very long time, and as she settled back in her seat, some good moments flashed through her head. They hadn’t had money, but she had been very close to her mom – the two of them against the world, her mom used to say. But her mother hadn’t really wanted out of that world, or if she had, she hadn’t had the courage or the determination to get out. So Carole had gone without her.
    Sighing, she poured herself another shot of whiskey and drank it down. Even if she found peace in the liquor, it wouldn’t last long. She’d tried that before, more than a few times.
    “Mrs. Prescott?” The chauffeur’s voice came over the speaker. “Shall I take you home now?”
    She suddenly realized that the chauffeur had been doing exactly what she’d requested: driving around.
    “Yes,” she whispered. “I want to go home.” But not to the mansion that overlooked the Golden Gate Bridge. She pushed the intercom again. “Potrero Hill,” she said. “I’ll give you more specific directions when we get there.”
    Leaning back against the seat, she hoped she hadn’t just made the second worst decision of the night.

Chapter Three
     
    Angela walked up the steps to St. Catherine’s Church. The front door was locked. She tried the side doors, but they were also locked. There were lights on in the nearby rectory where the priests resided, but she didn’t want to go that far. The fact that the church was closed seemed prophetic. She was on her own in every possible way. She didn’t know why she’d bothered to stop.
    “Can I help you?”
    She whirled around in surprise at the sound of a male voice – and a familiar one at that. The tall, fair-haired man with the light blue eyes and the smattering of freckles across his nose had once been her very best friend and the object of a teenage crush. Now he’d traded his