"You sure you ought to be going out in this, Miss Haley?" the uniformed man who had driven the car around for her asked, his pale blue eyes clouded as he stood uneasily at her side. "They say there's a storm coming in, and by the feel of it I'd say there's already ice in amongst the flakes. Could be some tricky spots on the road."

"You know I'm a careful driver, Sid," she tried to speak reassuringly, but her mind was elsewhere. Less than an hour ago she and her father had engaged in a heated argument. An argument in which Allen Flanagan had firmly laid down the law to his daughter before storming up to his room.

Haley's smoldering gray eyes rested for a moment on the grand house that had never been home to her. What would her father do when he awoke and discovered that she had fled? Probably disown her for her willful disobedience. As if a young woman of twenty-three couldn't make her own choices in life! Yet she knew it wasn't her welfare that her father had been mostly concerned with, but how her actions would effect his business.

After their fierce quarrel he would know where she had gone, and equally, of course, he would try and stop her. Allen Flanagan never allowed anything or anyone to interfere with his plans.

She opened the door on the driver's side and slid behind the wheel. As soon as she reached the airport she would be all right. Everything would be fine once the plane landed and he arrived.

"You sure you don't want me to drive you, Miss Haley?" The man placed his hand on top of the open door and looked over it at the girl. He liked his employer's daughter, and something told him that, in spite of her calm exterior, she was emotionally upset and shouldn't be behind the wheel, especially if driving became difficult. "Mr. Flanagan isn't going to like you going out in this storm."

"I have to go, Sid," she explained. "Tell Father that I took the car without your knowledge," she advised, pulling on the door so that the man let lose his hold and took a step back from the car.

The engine came to life at her first touch. It would. Her father always insisted on owning the best. Allen Flanagan had presented her with the keys to the sports car on her twenty-first birthday with the understanding that she could only drive it when she came to visit him in his Chicago home. At the time she had considered it a bribe to get her to visit more often. He must have been incredibly frustrated when she hadn't swallowed the bait.

"You take it easy, Miss Haley!" the man called out as she put the car into gear. "I got a bad feeling about the roads."

It didn't take long for Haley to see why her father's chauffeur had been concerned. The snow was falling in thick sheets, making it difficult to see where she was going. In spite of her desire to reach the airport, she drove slowly and cautiously.

It was only as she turned her car onto the freeway that she relaxed slightly. Her past had been put behind her. Soon she would be safe in warm, loving arms, protected from her father and his obsession to control her life.

A car sped past, cut sharply into her lane and within seconds lost control, zig zagging wildly from one extreme of the road to the other. Haley caught her breath at the suddenness of the situation, took her foot off of the gas and tried to steer clear of the careening vehicle. There was the thud of metal crashing into metal, a sharp pain, and then blackness.

A sound hammered into her head, bringing Haley back to consciousness. The room she awoke in was too bright, hurting her eyes. She closed them again, listening; wondering why she couldn't think straight.

The noise seemed to be coming from across the room. Gradually it took the form of male voices raised in heated debate. She forced her eyes open and realized that she was laying in a hospital bed. A nurse sat next to her, an open magazine in her lap. The woman's attention wasn't on her patient or the magazine, but on the doorway from which the voices were coming.

With disapproving clicking of her tongue the uniformed woman rose to her feet and moved in the direction of the door. Soon the voices stopped and Haley closed her eyes, grateful for the silence. She felt unnaturally lightheaded. Her mind refused to focus. It was just as well, for she had a vague awareness that, were her senses sharper, the pain that now lurked just under the surface would be too great.

How many times she drifted in and out of consciousness she didn't know. When she first noticed her father standing at the side of her bed she couldn't recall. After all, she had never had much to say to her father. She was surprised he had even bothered to come. She turned her head away from him and drifted into an uneasy, drug induced, sleep.

To her amazement her father was still there when she awoke next.

"What are you doing here, father? I thought you were in France." At her muttered statement a white robed man seemed to move in from nowhere.

"I'm glad to see you're feeling more alert, Miss Flanagan," he said, with unnatural cheerfulness. "You had us more than a little concerned."

"Have I had an accident? I won't miss finals, will I?" she asked, recalling that she was just about to complete her junior year at college.

The glance that passed between the men wasn't lost on the girl. "What is it, father?" she asked, fearing she was in a worse state than they were letting on.

"Don't get yourself worked up, Kitten," her father soothed. "There's nothing wrong that a little time and money can't fix."

"Tell me, Miss Flanagan, what is the last thing you remember?" the doctor demanded, lifting her hand to feel her pulse.

"I'm not sure," her head had begin to hurt again. It worried her that she couldn't recall things more clearly. She felt sure there was something she must remember. Something very important to her.

"You graduated from college more than a year ago, Kitten," her father explained. "You've been living with me ever since."

"But, that's impossible," she cried. "I'd remember!"

"Not necessarily, Miss Flanagan," the doctor said calmly as he lay her hand down by her side. "You've taken a nasty blow to the head. It's not at all unusual to suffer some memory lose in such cases."

Haley lifted her hand to feel the bandage wrapped about her skull and discovered that the left side of her face was also covered with gauze and tape. With growing dismay she noticed that her left arm and leg were wrapped in casts, and that a tube ran from her arm to a machine.

"Don't worry about it, Kitten," her father soothed. "It's just a little setback, that's all. Nothing we can't deal with. I know I haven't always been the most understanding father, but this time it's going to be different. This time I'm going to see you're taken care of. This time I'm going to be there for you. And nothing, and no one, is going to come between us!"

An e-magazine for the family with children's literature, romance, fantasy, mystery and science fiction stories in serial by authors past and present. New postings monthly by Antelope Publishing.

Copyrighted © 2003 by Antelope Publishing All rights reserved.

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