Loves Redemption by Kimberly Terry (best books to read for teens .TXT) 📕

greeted her when she’d stepped no further than a few steps into her main living area.

With a sudden sharp intake of breath, Maya surveyed the brightly lit interior, her eyes

opened wide, her mouth open as she looked around.

Plants were overturned, books thrown from the mahogany floor-to-ceiling bookshelf, and

cushions and pillows lay in a heap in the middle of the floor.

Maya walked silently throughout the house, righting overturned plants and picking the

occasional knick-knack up from the floor, and lightly caressing it before she placed it back in its original place. She touched her possessions with shaky fingers, traumatized by what she saw.

She touched her roughly handled possessions here and there, not saying a word to

anyone, and Dalia turned worried eyes in the direction of the officers.

“I know this is very difficult to see Dr. Richardson. When you’ve had a moment to take it

all in, we’d like to get a statement from you ma’am.” Kelley, the male officer informed her, his voice sounding louder than it actually was in the still of the room.

The officers trailed behind Maya and Dalia as they walked throughout the house, and

stepped into her bedroom where they came to a sudden halt inside the door way.

“Oh no. No God, please don’t tell me they took it. Not my necklace.” Maya was

frantically searching her overturned jewelry box. There were a few necklaces and her one pair of real pearl necklace and matching earrings she’d inherited from her late grandmother, but no sign of her necklace from Ally.

Maya crumpled into a heap on the floor and, beat the carpet with clenched fists. She had

taken off the necklace and charm attached, with the intention of repairing the loose clasp, but her schedule had been so hectic, she hadn’t been able to get to the jeweler.

The small inexpensive necklace, which was short on monetary value, but long on

sentimental value, was gone, and Maya felt as though her heart was ripping in two.

CHAPTER 40

Mark walked into Maya’s bedroom and saw her on the floor crying so hard he felt as

though his heart was breaking in two.

He strode swiftly to her side and motioned Dalia aside as he lifted Maya from the floor.

He walked over to the bed to sit down with her, caressing her small head and cradling her close.

He recognized both young officers, and as he looked over Maya’s head at them, he

silently asked for privacy.

“Detective, why don’t we give you time to speak with Dr. Richardson, and when she’s

ready we can take her statement,” the female officer said as she and her partner left the room.

After the two officers left, Dalia placed her hand on top of Maya’s shoulder. “I am so

sorry some awful bastard took your necklace from Ally, truly, Sesute,” Dalia said with rare heat in her voice and words. Dalia didn’t know what to say to her saddened friend, and trusting Mark could console her, she left them alone in the bedroom.

“Baby I didn’t know you’d called until I was pulling into your driveway. Get it all out,

Maya, it’ll all be okay sweetheart.” Her wrenching cries made his heart ache along with hers, as she buried her face deep into his chest.

He’d worked late and was on his way to Maya’s when his cell phone beeped signaling he

had a message.

Smiling when he recognized the number displayed as Maya’s, he had called his voice

mail and the smile swiftly fell from his face.

As her halting message ended, Mark had been pulling up into her driveway and parked

along side the two cruisers. He showed his badge to the officer outside, before racing into the house.

Although he’d only taken a cursory look around, as he bounded through the house

looking for Maya, he was still taken aback by the chaos surrounding him. When he’d heard the cries coming from her bedroom, he had quickly made his way there, only to find Maya on the

floor in a crumpled heap crying helplessly with Dalia rubbing her back.

Now, as he continued to hold and attempt to sooth her, he looked around the bedroom

through the eyes of a cop. The obviously expensive painting that adorned one wall had been left untouched, along with her small mounted shadow box housing her collection of crystal cats, and doves.

The closet door was open, and a cursory glance told him Maya’s clothes had remained

untouched, while his few hanging items had been ripped from the hangers and left on the floor.

The same thing went for the bureau drawers, his clothes had been cast ruthlessly aside,

while Maya’s had remained untouched.

She looked at him with red-rimmed, furious eyes. “You know when I was a kid, I didn’t

have anything, not one damn thing, that I could call my own.” Tears streamed down her blotchy cheeks. The anger and emotion in her voice was tangible and fierce, unlike anything he’d seen from her.

She stopped speaking to close her eyes, small nostrils flaring out slightly as she tried to gain her composure. “When I first received my inheritance from my grandmother I had real ambivalent feelings about this house and what it stood for. But after listening to the tapes she left me, and doing a lot of praying about it, I forgave and decided to enjoy and be thankful for what the Creator had provided for me through a woman I never knew.”

She paused as Mark handed her a tissue from the bedside table and wiped her tear-

washed face. “I love my home now, Mark. I’ve got wonderful people with whom I share it with and I love it. It’s mine. I’m comfortable and at peace when I come into my home. I’ve surrounded my environment with things that reflect who I am, and with what calms my spirit at the end of the day. When I come into my house I always feel … oh, I don’t know, at peace,

renewed … at