Title: The Second Wife
Author: Kishan Paul
Release Date: October 14, 2015
Genre: Suspense/Thriller
Length: 80,000 words
Cover Artist: Syneca Fetherstone
Synopsis:
If you want to live, you must let go of the past...
Twenty-eight-year-old Psychologist, Alisha Dimarchi, is abducted by an obsessed client and imprisoned in his Pakistani compound for over two years. Forced to change her name and live as his second wife, her life is filled with trauma and heartbreak. Thrust into a world of violence and oppression, Alicia must fight not only to keep herself alive but to protect the lives of the people she now considers family. At night, she retreats into her memories of the only man she has ever loved – a man she believes no longer loves her.
Twenty-eight-year-old Psychologist, Alisha Dimarchi, is abducted by an obsessed client and imprisoned in his Pakistani compound for over two years. Forced to change her name and live as his second wife, her life is filled with trauma and heartbreak. Thrust into a world of violence and oppression, Alicia must fight not only to keep herself alive but to protect the lives of the people she now considers family. At night, she retreats into her memories of the only man she has ever loved – a man she believes no longer loves her.
Thirty-two-year-old handsome surgeon, David Dimarchi, has spent the last two years mourning the disappearance of his wife. After a painful and isolated existence, he begins the process of healing. It is then that he is visited by a stranger, who informs him that his wife is very much alive and needs his help. In a desperate attempt to save her, David enlists the help of a Delta Force Operative. Together they find themselves in the center of more than just a rescue mission. Will he be able to reach her in time and if he does, will she still want him?
EXCERPTS: PLEASE CHOOSE ONE TO INCLUDE WITH YOUR POST
Excerpt 1:
The slow drip of a leaky faucet disrupted Ally’s otherwise quiet slumber.
“Ally.” The distant sound of David’s voice soothed her, enveloping her in a warm blanket of safety.
A smile tugged at her lips. Soon he’d crawl into bed and wrap his limbs around hers, cocooning her with his love.
Instead of the heat she anticipated, something coarse scraped against her cheek. When she tried to swat it away, her arms refused to comply.
“Baby, wake up.” Her husband’s echoed tone became louder, rougher. “You need to wake up.”
The urgency in it made her eyelids flutter, pulling her further away from the dark claws of sleep.
Like a silent movie, foggy images of a dimly lit parking lot invaded her thoughts. A woman, tall and lean, walked the deserted space alone. With each clip of her heels against the paved road, the haze cleared a little more. Ally’s heart raced when the woman’s features came into view. Long, curly, black hair, dark brown eyes, tanned complexion.
It was her.
Two sets of hands emerged from the shadows, dragging her into the woods. The taller of the two men covered the woman’s mouth, muting her screams as she wrestled to break free, until the other one slammed a brick into the base of her skull, plunging her into darkness.
This must be a dream.
Rays of light pierced the darkness as Ally’s heavy eyelids fought to open. When she shifted, instead of soft sateen, her cheek scraped against a cold, hard surface.
“Alisha? Can you hear me?” This voice wasn’t David’s. It sounded thick, heavy with accent and oddly familiar. So familiar, she shivered.
Excerpt 2:
Dave released a breath as he mindlessly flipped through a sports magazine. It was almost eight in the morning. His tired ass should be home in bed right now, not sitting in the waiting room of a counseling center. But, since he kept walking into the kitchen and finding his wife, here he was. It wouldn’t be so bad, except for the fact that she wasn’t really there, and hadn’t been for over two years. His grip on the glossy paper tightened.
The vision was always the same. Seated at the breakfast table, Ally reads through one of her psych magazines. Her head propped on one elbow, a curtain of black hair caresses the soft skin of her arm. When she notices him, her chin tilts up and their eyes lock. Soon those kissably perfect corners form at the edges of her lips when she smiles, taking his breath away each time.
And then things get all sorts of fucked up. Her mouth moves, but no sounds come out. Typically, that was when reality hit.
She was gone and he was losing his mind.
Each time, it was a punch to his gut, knocking every ounce of air out of him.
God, I miss her.
Her voice.
Her touch.
Everything.
No matter how hard he tried to block the memories, she haunted him. And this was why his messed-up ass was at the counseling center.
Dave leaned against the sofa and sucked in a breath. His mind raced at all the possible topics that might come up during the session. None of which were ones he wanted to discuss.
Like the dreams he kept having about her. Some of them so intense he’d jump out of bed covered in sweat, terrified Ally needed him. Then there were the others. The erotic ones where he woke up hard and hungry for her.
What would the good doctor do with that screwed up piece of information? Shouldn’t those dreams—those aches—be gone by now? The sad reality was he didn’t know if he really wanted them to be.
Excerpt 3
He eyed the therapist. There was something calming about Tom. Kinda reminded him of his dad. Funny. After working hard to forget Ally and their life together, in a few short minutes, this stranger had forced those doors open. If she was here, she would be clapping her hands like a stupid seal right now. “I’m willing to give it a try.”
“Do you feel comfortable sharing what happened?”
No.
He took another swig of water. “She disappeared two years ago. No one’s heard or seen her since.”
“How have you survived her disappearance?”
Dave fiddled with the lid of the bottle and focused on the paisley area rug. “It’s been hard. Really hard.” His voice sounded hoarse even to his own ears.
It had been a while since he’d talked about the disappearance and opening Pandora’s box hurt like hell, yet for some reason, he found himself prying the lid, wanting to let the demons out.
“She was beautiful, and, God, I loved her. She used to tell me to take her off the pedestal. That I’d wake up one day and be disappointed. After eight years of marriage, I still had it bad for her. How many husbands can say that?”
Tom nodded, encouragingly.
“I was so proud she was mine. She was amazing in every way…as a wife, a friend—smart, funny, the whole package, and there was nowhere on earth I’d rather be than with her.”
He blinked back the emotion and fast forwarded to the morning two years ago. “She disappeared on March twenty-third. I got home to an empty apartment about four thirty that morning from being on call. At first I thought she’d left me again, but that didn’t make any sense. So I made some phone calls, then drove to her office. Her Lexus, purse, and keys—even her shoes—were in the parking lot. But no Ally.”
As many times as the story had been shared, he should be able to recite it automatically, but today was different. His voice cracked and the waterworks he thought were over tried to push to the surface. Dave slammed his lids shut and pushed the words through. “I called the police. The rest is history.”
“How have you held up through this?”
Dave rubbed the wetness away and continued. “No words. I keep thinking if I’d been home that night this wouldn’t have happened.”
“Do you believe you could have prevented it?”
“No, probably not. But I let her down. Didn’t protect her.”
He accepted the Kleenex Tom handed and wiped his face dry. His head lowered and voice soft, he recounted his hell. “They investigated her clients; everyone had an alibi. People came in and out of the house for weeks. The media plastered information everywhere. Calls poured in about bodies, and each time, I wished I was dead. I couldn’t sleep. Eat. Breathe. My life was gone. Two years later, here we are, no news, no leads, nothing. She vanished from the world.”
Emotion sat heavy on his chest, choking him and making it impossible to speak. After an eternity of silence, Tom’s firm hand gripped his.
“I can’t imagine how hard that must have been for you.”
Still is.
Excerpt 4
Ally’s lungs were cement blocks heavy in her chest. Unable to breathe, she lay curled in a ball on the floor, gasping for air, drenched in sweat.
Waiting.
The panic attacks had started after Nasif’s first night away, and progressively worsened each day. She wanted to pretend it was because he wasn’t there to distract her. But she knew better.
Sayeed would be here soon.
The gnawing voice in the back of her head wouldn’t stop reminding her of the hell his arrival would bring. As the day grew close, the voice became louder, urging her to do something. But there was only so much she could do locked away in a concrete box.
Unable to shut out the images or find a way to escape, hopelessness would again to choke her, triggering another panic attack. Funny thing was, those episodes she spent struggling for air gave her a little hope. Maybe this one will kill me. Something she knew better than to believe, after all, she’d spent her career teaching clients panic attacks were typically non-life threatening.
While this morning’s episode subsided, she stayed on the floor, slick with perspiration, staring at the ceiling.
He said Sayeed would be here in fourteen days.
Ally crawled beside the bed and dug under the mattress until her fingers wrapped around a thin, wooden pencil. After dragging the frame away from the wall, she slid between the headboard and concrete and sat on the floor. She added another tally mark to the twelve already there. Praying she’d counted wrong, she tapped the back of the eraser against each line and counted again. The end result was the same, Nasif had left thirteen times already. Her pencil slipped out of her shaky fingers and fell to the floor.
One more day.
Images of Sayeed violating her flooded Ally’s thoughts. Her chest tightened and body chilled. Time was running out. Her breathing became labored and a cool sweat beaded across her lip.
“No.” She covered her ears and shook it all away. Whatever happens, I will survive. Rape will not kill me.
The days of crying…fantasizing needed to end. Now. Those dreams of being rescued, of home and her family waiting for her return, none of them would help her escape this hell. She would have to do this on her own.
Ally closed her eyes, remembering what David used to tell her. “There’s nothing you can’t do.” Maybe if she said it enough times, she might trust it?
After repositioning the bed, she hid the pencil under the mattress and snatched the brown bag of clothes Nasif left for her from the corner. She sifted through it, grabbing the brown cotton long sleeve dress he called an abaya and a matching scarf before heading for the shower. This was her last chance at convincing the old man.
Where to buy:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1WJsSd8
Reviews for The Second Wife:
Kishan Paul’s writing shines in this beautifully written psychological thriller filled with heart-gripping emotion as the heroine unearths an inner strength she didn’t know she possessed. – Cait Jarrod, Bestselling Author
"The Second Wife is a poignant story of love, domestic violence, and mental strength. It grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go until you've finished the last page. No wait, it doesn't let go at all… I had the pleasure of betareading it, and the wide range of emotions it stirred in me are still right under the surface." – Lea Bronsen award winning author of The Perfect Shoot
“This is a gripping story, brilliantly woven from start to finish. I’ll never forget Ally. She’s as real to me as anyone else because her story isn’t some forgettable fictional work. No way you are walking away from this one the same way. I actually took a break between this novel and my next one. I wasn’t ready to begin another journey just yet. Amazing work, Kishan Paul.” – Kristen Shanchez, reader
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About the Author
From daring escapes by tough women to chivalrous men swooping in to save the day, the creativity switch to Kishan Paul’s brain is always in the “on” position. If daydreaming stories were a college course, Kish would have graduated with honors.
Mother of two beautiful children, she has been married to her best friend for over seventeen years. With the help of supportive family and friends, she balances her family, a thriving counseling practice, and writing without sinking into insanity.
Her novel, Blind Love, is currently available through most major ebook sites and through Samhain Publications.
She can be found at:
Website: http://kishanpaulauthor.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/@kishan_paul
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/kishanpaul
Sign up for her newsletter at: http://mad.ly/signups/119110/join
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