FOUR LIVES WERE DRASTICALLY CHANGED FOREVER BY ONE MISTAKE, BUT NO MATTER WHAT UNCERTAINTY LIFE BRINGS, THERE’S ALWAYS HOPE FOR THE FUTURE…
Twelve years ago, Tom Campbell, was devastated when Anna – the love of his life – walked out on him one cold winter evening, leaving him with two young girls, Karen – eleven and Tina – thirteen.
Their lives were instantly thrown into turmoil. Tom became an alcoholic, lost his prestigious job and ended up in rehab. As the girls grew older, the adverse effect on them were more emotional. Tina sank into a deep depression, ending up in addictive relationships, which left her feeling empty and alone. Karen, the strongest of the three – and the most resilient – learned not to trust anyone and always kept people – especially boyfriends – at arms length.
Even though they are all now successful, Tom runs a centre and the girls have their own shoe shop, they still struggle to put the past behind them. Tina is in a stable relationship, or so she thinks. And Karen soon befriends a young handsome psychologist who slowly helps her to break down the barriers she has built up her whole life, that she felt protected her from ever being rejected again.
Then out of the blue, Anna Suddenly returns, bringing with her, all the pain and unanswered questions that have plagued them for the past twelve years. Karen and Tina discover a shocking revelation about their father that sheds some light as to the reason for Anna’s swift departure. They soon start to see him in a different light.
Can this broken family ever be restored? Or will Anna’s return, just spell more trouble and heartache, for the family that has spent the last decade trying to rebuild their lives and learning to live and love again?
Beautiful is Blue is a heartwarming story of hope, forgiveness and the power of unconditional love in the most heartbreaking circumstances.
Excerpt
prologue
1995
Tom, watched, helplessly, as Anna dragged her large suitcase containing what she called her ‘essentials’ out of the front door of their semi-detached Victorian house and into the boot of her silver, 1986, 3-door Ford Capri.
He wanted to beg, to plead for the children’s sake, but he couldn’t. He just froze, stood there like an overweight male mannequin in a shop window – with his mouth open – clutching for dear life at his mug of coffee, revelling in the shock that he had done the unthinkable – failed to keep his wife happy.
It all seemed to happen so fast, and as he watched her car pull out of the drive, he momentarily found his voice, but the only words he could muster were, ‘What am I going to tell the girls?’
In hindsight, he might have been able to predict this string of events, had he been paying close attention. They had been arguing persistently for the past six months. She had threatened to leave many times before, but he never imagined that she would actually go through with it – and certainly had no idea as to how he was going to take care of two young girls by himself.
He wondered why he hadn’t listened to her more – perhaps paid her more compliments. If only they had kept their appointment with a relationship counsellor six months earlier.
Still stunned at the events of that evening, he walked slowly over to the front door and closed it. Amazingly, the girls had slept through the whole fracas. He had no idea how he was going to break the news to them in the morning.
His recollection of how the evening had begun was still vague. He remembered hearing the words, ‘No love…selfish…I’ve had enough…I do have some dignity you know!’
Other than that, much of the night eluded him. He felt as though he’d been punched hard, several times in the solar plexus. Up until that point, his whole world had been perfect, or so he’d thought. But within the space of an hour, fate had brought his whole world to a standstill, leaving him totally bewildered on a cold winter evening. He hadn’t even seen it coming.
He reached up and clutched his chest. His shirt was completely soaked. He hadn’t even realised he’d been crying.
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