Love and Secrets by Mary Brennan

Chapter 1
    Being told by
Adrian’s mother that Sarah was not good enough for her son hit her hard, but
when Adrian called off the engagement it left a hole in Sarah's heart that she
felt would never mend. Tears were ever present in Sarah's eyes as she tried to
work out what had gone so terribly wrong.
    Sarah, 23 years
old, standing 5’ 7” had green/grey eyes and shoulder length thick wavy caramel
hair. She was able to put it up if needed so her usual style was a quick blow
dry, little product and left out. She rarely used makeup; however, she had
recently grown accustomed to applying mascara on her eyelashes each day. This
made her eyes become her stand out feature intensifying the depth of their color
to either green or grey depending on what she wore.
    Clothing was
where Sarah always made a statement, having picked up her mother’s love of
layering textured clothes. She was not afraid to put unusual things together,
which could look kind of silly on most people but in Sarah’s mind it suited her
bubbly personality perfectly. Her favorite outfit at the minute was a pink
paisley pair of skinny jeans with a dark pink silk checked scarf wrapped around
her slender hips. Another checked scarf, this one green, was used to cover her
breasts, was tied in a bow at the front. Over this scarf she would wear a red
bolero cardigan. Her shoes were patterned runners and instead of a handbag she
used a denim back pack leaving her hands free.
    Sarah could
never have claimed to be the life of the party but she was always happy to join
in the fun and games with her peers. She loved to have a drink, usually
preferring ciders, but knew when she had had enough. She was a happy drunk with
a laugh that became louder and longer with each drink. She could tell stories
that made no sense to anybody but her. They where nevertheless entertaining.
Sarah behaved the same regardless of whether she was having a girl’s night out,
at a family gathering or with Adrian and his mates. She had a sixth sense as to
avoiding bad situations and could coerce her friends to leave just before a fun
night turned to disaster.
    Work for Sarah
was a means of getting money to enjoy herself. After finishing school she had
spent a year at Business College, giving her the skills to obtain a job as an
assistant manager within a conservation business run by the government. The
good income was beyond her expectations. Still living at home (nobody had even
suggested board) Sarah spent all her money on whatever took her fancy. New
clothes, entertaining, eating out, weekends away, beautiful gifts for her
family, friends or herself were all a normal way of life for Sarah. She had
bought a small car and loved the freedom to go wherever she wanted. Living in a
large town, some weekends the car would sit as Sarah was used to walking to all
the places she needed or wanted to go. On other weekends, however, the car
could take her to the city that was full of new shops, bars and adventures.
Sometimes just a drive to another town after work for dinner and watching the
day finish breathed contentment into Sarah's familiar world.
    Sarah’s friends
were a mixture of relations, childhood buddies and work associates. She did not
have a best female friend and was more comfortable with a larger circle of
acquaintances that she rotated with ease. To her, ‘going out’ was never about
checking who else was going as she has established such a wide circle, helped
by the fact that she was a third generation of Smiths living in Rosedale, and
the chances were good that she would run into someone she knew and any place
she ended up. Sarah was just as happy to go to a family party, a movie or the
pub. Sarah was comfortable around men as they had always been in her life. Her
older brother, John, had always had his mates over, cousins had teased and been
teased by her and she had just as many male friends in school as female. Adrian
was the exception. He was her best friend, growing to be her