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WILLOWBROOK SAGA: THROUGH THE GENERATIONS (WILLOWBROOK SAGA COLLECTION, BOOK ONE)
ABOUT THE BOOK
Available in e-book only; released by the author
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The roots are laid for generations of a twisted tale influenced by Country and Rural Noir, shrouded in mystery, intrigue, and manipulation in this first collection of books from THE WILLOWBROOK SAGA…
THE WILLOWBROOK SAGA follows generations of intrigue, mystery, and exploitation. Willowbrook, Washington, was a small community influenced by the arrival of outsiders looking to live a different lifestyle. Over the decades, they took their ways further and further underground while constructing an economy that allowed them to hide in plain sight. Follow the women influenced by the cultural of this fictional small town from pioneer days in the rural Inland Northwest, down to World War II through the 1960s and 1970s and starting to come to a head in the 1990s, as the women raised to live this way fight for change any way they can, especially once a genealogy essay assigned by their English teacher Esther Rawlins starts to crack open hidden mysteries. This book brings together the previously published BY THE WILLOW BROOK, BEYOND THE WILLOW BROOK, EVERYTHING CHANGES, and DOWN TO THE ROOTS (2012-2015) into a single collection, plus several Willowbrook short stories only previously available in anthologies – “Blurring Lines,” “Built to Be,” “Call to Family, “Enough is Enough,” “New Beginnings,” and “The Lazy D”.
EXCERPT (from EVERYTHING CHANGES, BOOK 1 OF THE WILLOWBROOK SAGA)
Angie felt grateful Wynne let her look around relatively unsupervised. Quickly looking in the kitchen, Angie saw Belinda out on the Daniels’ rear porch through a window. Patrick Daniels stood talking to her.
Angie, concerned about her sister, opened the kitchen window a crack. It made things colder but at least she could hear what was going on now.
Angie watched her sister on the back porch from the now partially open kitchen window. “I hope this isn’t my fault,” Angie overheard Patrick tell Belinda as he placed a hand on her belly.
Belinda laughed.
“You definitely didn’t have anything to do with it, Patrick,” She responded to Cherie’s father in a tone that seemed too friendly for a relative stranger.
“I mean from what happened before. Did that change your view on the world, Belinda?”
Belinda reached for Patrick’s hand and put it down.
“Events like that would change any young girl’s perspective of things,” she told him.
Angie wondered what Belinda meant. It sounded like a reference to her pregnancy during Belinda’s freshman year of college that she’d explained to Angie about before. If so, Angie didn’t understand what Patrick would know about it. The two only just met.
“I just had to get away from the food and everything and slow down. To be around your family and all the goodness they offer, it’s a real struggle for me,” Belinda told Patrick. “But I appreciate it so much. I’m fine now.”
“Glad to hear you’re okay, but maybe you should at least come back in. It’s cold out here,” Patrick suggested.
Angie felt both relieved and nervous when she saw her sister and Patrick Daniels come back in the house together through the rear kitchen door.
That night, Angie and Belinda came home to the house totally dark.
“You think she’s really gone?” Angie said. “Frankly I’ll be glad if that psychopath lawyer never comes back.”
“Lyeesha tends to keep her word, but then again there’s a lot I didn’t know about her.”
Angie started to be concerned. This relative stranger Belinda let so close into their lives had keys to everything. Angie wondered if Lyeesha might have taken anything of value upon leaving. Belinda insisted that Lyeesha give back the keys before getting in her car Christmas Eve and driving away, making arrangements to come back for the rest of her things, but they didn’t know for sure Lyeesha gave the only set of keys. She might have had a backup hidden somewhere, used it, and robbed them blind. Regardless, Angie knew they’d have no choice but for the locks to be changed in order to sleep comfortably at night. Right now though, she didn’t dare unload her concerns on Belinda, who struggled enough.
They went up to the front door and Belinda unlocked it. Angie breathed a quiet sigh of relief they didn’t find it forced open or even just unlocked upon arrival. Then again, Lyeesha could find other ways in and just leave an illusion of security.
The door swung open and the sisters entered slowly into the large dark entranceway. Angie reached over and flipped the light switch, revealing the home looking exactly as they left it. All seemed well. Belinda breathed a very audible sigh of relief.
Together they walked into in the living room, and both let out an audible gasp at the same time.
The Christmas tree, the decorations over the mantle, all of the memories of the holiday – all gone.
In one corner of the room they could see all the opened gifts of the night before piled up carelessly. For a moment, Angie panicked, at first she couldn’t see the book that she’d labored so long and hard for Belinda on. Finally she just barely made it out wedged between some of the boxes.
Stepping forward Angie saw a pile of items on the coffee table. The heirloom Harrison family ornaments, again haphazardly thrown on to it without consideration. It didn’t appear that any broke, but in the messy pile it initially would be hard to tell.
“Does anything else appear to be missing?” Belinda asked, worried, as Angie saw her looking about. “I don’t want to touch anything and screw up fingerprints if we need to call the police.”
“Not that I can see,” Angie said as she noted that one of the corners of the coffee table wasn’t buried in items, but rather contained an envelope with a key on it.
“Belinda, there’s an envelope and key here on the coffee table. Do you want me to open the envelope? Or do you want me to call the police?”
Belinda waddled over and looked down at the key on the coffee table.
“She did have a backup made without telling me,” Belinda sighed. “That’s what I suspected.”
“So you want to call the cops?” Angie asked.
“No, she came back and returned the key. She bought that tree, over half the decorations were hers. It looks like she took only her own presents. And she left the key and probably locked the door behind her. Best to not draw attention to us right now.”
Belinda tried to bend over to reach the note, but Angie saw her struggle and strain.
“However if you could hand me that note Lyeesha left I’d appreciate it.”
Angie carefully took the envelope from under the key and handed it to Belinda, who did not as neatly tear open the envelope and unfolded the letter.
“Dear Belinda,” Angie heard her older sister read aloud, very aware she was not referred to in the salutation. “As you can see, I took back all that was mine. I know you told me to wait and you would call me on my cell phone, but I told you, I need to be the one that dominates and I wasn’t going to wait for anyone to tell me anything. I am the master of my life. Though you will note I was kind enough to leave the emergency key I took the liberty to make for myself, I assure you it is the only copy, and I have returned to you all that is yours.”
“Not surprising, I guess,” Angie told her sister. “Did she say anything more?”
“A little,” Belinda acknowledged, and then went back to reading the rest of the letter. “However, I would like to let you know that I will be back for something that was not yours in the first place to have but is now part of the property you own. As you know I work with family law. A client of mine provided me with information detailing the location of an item in the home that rightfully belonged to their family. I am not at liberty to tell you about my client, or the nature of the item, but I will tell you it is hidden in that house and we will be back for it. I will however tell you this: if anyone comes in the future seeking the Wallingford treasure, tell them it is no longer in the home otherwise you will just be inviting trouble. We shall meet again later when I am in a legal position to retrieve this item from you. Sincerely, Lyeesha”
“Wallingford treasure?” Belinda said, tossing the note aside. “What in the world is she talking about? And no I never want to see her again!”
LIMITED TIME OFFER
For people to see if they would be interested in purchasing the compiled book, the first book in the collection (BY THE WILLOW BROOK) was recently re-released as a 99 cent e-book. However, from October 12th to 31st, users of Smashwords can get this title for FREE by using coupon code UU27V.
