Dragan's Redemption Book One of the Manor at Echo Lake Trilogy

DRAGAN’S REDEMPTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

DRAGAN’S REDEMPTION

Book One of the Manor
at
Echo
Lake
Trilogy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dedication

 

Sara Bruce and Gillian Fay the
cleanup crew
in my imagination factory, I would be lost without you. 

 

 

For the
One
that has given me this gift.  Thank you for never leaving me
.  I am yours forever
.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This book is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.  Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

 

 

Cover art Jimmy Thomas

www.romancenovelcovers.com

 

[email protected] by Kelly Ilebode

www.kellyilebode.com

“Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)”

Chris Tomlin

 

Amazing grace

How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I’m found

Was blind, but now I see

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear

And Grace my fears relived

How precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believed.

My chains are gone

I’ve been set free

My God, My Savior has ransomed me

And like a flood His mercy rains

Unending love, Amazing grace

The Lord has promised good to me

His word my hope secures

He will, my shield and portion be

As long as life endures.

My Chains are gone

I’ve been set free

My God, my Savior has ransomed me

And like a flood His mercy rains

Unending love, Amazing Grace

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow

The sun forbear to shine

But God, Who called me here below

Will be forever mine.

Will be forever mine.

You are forever mine.

PROLOGUE

 

“Good morning
,
Doctor.  Miss Coulter is waiting for you in
your
office.
” 
Hesitating
, sadness crossed her face.  “
Just so you are aware, s
he has been here for thirty minutes already.”
  Taking the file from his secretary, Harvey Kinsley inhaled deeply.  It was never easy as a doctor to deliver bad news to a patient and in this case, it was even worse because he had grown attached to th
e
young lady
waiting on the other side of the door
.  Opening the folder, he
looked down frowning

Amira ha
s
been his patient since the age of ten and he, in essence, watched
as she grew
into a beautiful woman with one of the strongest faiths he ha
s
ever witnessed.  Seeing her, sometimes weekly,
for the past
16 years,
he noted that she
had
never
seemed depressed or in denial of her condition.  His patient
faced her
illness
head on following his direction
and courses of
treatments
with a positive attitude

Harvey
could not understand
what happened
.  It was not that this was a simple blood disorder, but it never should have reached
a point of causing
a
death
that had nothing to do with the
actual
disorder
, especially in one so young
who was being monitored the way she ha
s
been
.
 
When he learned of the change in her condition
, h
e had spent the past week calling
every
specialist
all over
the United States
and Europe
that he knew of or been referred to
.
  Not one had ever seen the mutation that he presented to them.  They
also
had no explanation of
how or
why it had manifested
,
but they all agreed on one thing
, Amira Coulter
would
die from this disease.

Pushing open
his office
door, he watched as she stood turning quickly
to face him
.  Motioning for her to return to her seat, he
felt
his heart constrict.  He was getting too old for this.  “Please
,
Amira, make yourself comfortable.”  Amira returned to her seat
searching
his face for any sign of good news.  The chair creaked
as
he sat down
while his
eyes scann
ed
all of the notes in her folder, praying that the words would change like magic in front of him. 

“I am afraid I do
not
have good news.  It seems
that
there is an anomaly that has presented itself in your blood
,
Amira
,
a
mutation
of your cells,
for lack of
a
better word
.  I have called everyone I know and even those that I do not know.  We have never seen this occur before
, so there is no treatment available
.”  Looking across his desk, he braced himself for the tears that
he was sure
would come.  Her emerald eyes stared back with compassion
, her
dark
hair framing her face.  She looked so angelic

It was this
thought that
i
ronically
caused
h
is eyes
to fill
with tears
.

“Thank you
,
Dr. Kinsley
,
for everything you have done to help me.  I could not have asked
for a
better physician to be by
my side
.  It must be very hard for you to give me this news.

“I don’t think you should give up
,
my dear.  We can still do the chemo and blood transfusions.”

Cocking her head to one side, her eyes bored into him.  “
Would you be offering me these treatments
because you
know
they have a chance of working
, or because you do not like my prognosis?”

Resigned
,
Harvey
dropped his head in defeat.
  Amira read
the
answer on h
is
face.


I am 26
,
Doctor
.
I have spent more than half my life trying to get well.”  Raising her hand as he started to speak
,
she continued.  “I am not giving up.  You keep doing the best you can to find a treatment for me
,
because
I will not look at this
news
as a death sentence. 
What
I will
do is
look at
this
moment
as
being
the first day of the rest of my life
– however long that should be
.  What I
cannot
do
is spend those days sitting in a hospital getting sicker
through chemotherapy or ingesting drugs that we do not even know will cure me
without having breathed everything life has to offer.  We all die, as you know
Doctor
, what I do not want to happen is that I
find I have
work
ed
so hard at keeping this body alive, that
when I do die, I realize that
I never truly live
d
.

Standing
,
he walked around the desk as she stood
allowing him to
hug
her
- realizing that
s
he did this more for him than for her. 
It was only
when she stepped out into the bright warm sunshine,
did she feel the first tears fall down her face.

CHAPTER
1

(12 months later)

The nurse eased the door open into the small room while poking her head around to view the interior.  Even though it was midnight, the shades
were
drawn
to shut out the streetlights
,
and the room was in complete darkness except for the sliver of light coming from the hallway.  She looked to the
far
corner where she
k
new the cot was
.
W
ith
relief,
she saw the
outline of the figure
she needed
.  Her eyes
,
adjusting quickly to the darkness
,
noticed
that he had flung a hand over his eyes
,
while
his chest moved up and down rhythmically. 
A
twinge of compassion
rushed through her.  S
he hesitated waking him
knowing that he had just pulled a double shift.  This
was
the first sleep he had since
the
beginning
of
the first.  Looking behind her down the long hallway
at Brigham and Women’s hospital
, she saw
Mr.
Wallace pacing up and down while Mrs. Wallace
gestured
for him to sit.

“What is it
,
nurse?”

“Dr. R
eynolds
, it’s
Jennifer
…uhmmmm, it’s the Wallace’s.  They are insisting that they speak with you
,
actually, Mr. Wallace more than the Mrs.  Should I tell them that you are resting?”

Removing his hand from his eyes, he rolled off the bed
, placing his feet
firmly
onto
the floor.  Resting his head in his
hands,
he struggled to shake the
cobwebs
from his mind.  Damn he was tired and very hungry.  He hated
the hunger the most

The burning in his gut
always
changed his mood and not for the better.  Taking a deep breath, he silently prayed for patience as he snapped on the lamp next to the cot before standing.

“No thank you
,
Jennifer

it’s
ok
ay
, I will see them now.”

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