Identity: Undercover. Lois Richer

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      Max stared at her, his face sad. “I followed you to Australia, Callie. But you’d already left Sydney by the time I got there, and I couldn’t track you after that.”

      “You followed me?” Shock held her immobile for several seconds. “Why?” she finally demanded.

      “Because there are things I need to know, stuff we have to talk about.” His lips tightened to a thin, angry line at the shake of her head. “What?”

      “I don’t want to talk about the past. Not ever again.” She turned away but his words stopped her.

      “Well, I do. I need to know the truth, Callie. And you’re going to tell it to me. When I’m satisfied I know everything, then and only then will I send you off with those divorce papers you’re so anxious to file.”

      Despite the blazing September sun and the protection of the cabin, Callie felt an icy breeze across her nerves.

      Max could never know the truth. Never.

      MILLS & BOON

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      LOIS RICHER

      Sneaking a flashlight under the blankets, hiding in a thicket of Caragana bushes where no one could see, pushing books into socks to take to camp—those are just some of the things Lois Richer freely admits to in her pursuit of the written word. “I’m a bookaholic. I can’t do without stories,” she confesses. “It’s always been that way.”

      Lois Richer

      Identity:

       Undercover

      You have seen me tossing and turning through the night. You have collected all my tears and preserved them in a bottle! You have recorded every one in your book…This one thing I know: God is for me!

      —Psalms 56:8, 9b

      This book is gratefully dedicated to those who

       keep our countries safe, who stand at the entrance

       of freedom and say, “I will lay down my life to

       preserve you.” May we never fail them.

      Dear Reader,

      Hello there! Welcome back to Finders, Inc.

      Secrets are funny things, aren’t they? Some are good—like Christmas secrets. And some can really drag you down, prevent you from living a full, rich life that shows the world your true colors. Callie’s secret forced her to live in fear and shame for many years, until she realized that God had already forgiven her. But that forgiveness wasn’t effective until she finally forgave herself.

      I hope you’ll trust the God who loves you with your secret. I pray you’ll dig until you find His perfect peace, His joy unspeakable, His hope for you. Most of all, I pray you’ll experience His love—beyond measure, beyond understanding, beyond description.

      Blessings to you, friend.

      CONTENTS

      PROLOGUE

      CHAPTER ONE

      CHAPTER TWO

      CHAPTER THREE

      CHAPTER FOUR

      CHAPTER FIVE

      CHAPTER SIX

      CHAPTER SEVEN

      CHAPTER EIGHT

      CHAPTER NINE

      CHAPTER TEN

      CHAPTER ELEVEN

      CHAPTER TWELVE

      CHAPTER THIRTEEN

      CHAPTER FOURTEEN

      QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

      PROLOGUE

      This above all—to thine own self be true.

      —William Shakespeare

      Ten years ago

      The courtroom brimmed with reporters, all present to record every sordid detail they could glean about the ambassador’s daughter and her sad little tale.

      Callie Merton took a deep breath, forced herself to walk calmly to the front of the room. Marie Antoinette going to the guillotine, that’s who she’d pretend to be.

      She took the oath, sat down, faced straight ahead. Using every morsel of control she could scrounge, she answered the questions clearly and concisely, remembering the prosecutor’s advice to keep it short and simple.

      “The man who gave you the drugs—do you see him in the courtroom today?”

      “Yes.”

      “Would you point to that person?”

      She lifted her hand, aimed one finger. “That’s him.”

      A rumble of whispers rippled through the audience.

      “Let the record show that the witness has identified the defendant.”

      There were more questions. Lots of them. Horrible, probing questions that left no tawdry point hidden. Clinging to her icy mantle of aloofness, Callie refused to be swayed.

      At last she was released. Holding her head high, she stepped down, toward the man she’d accused. Every nerve in her body pulled taut in tense anticipation as she neared the place where he sat, the place she had to pass to get out of this room, away from the prying eyes.

      She’d almost passed him when his voice, whisper-soft but brimming with menace, reached her.

      “You’ll pay for this. No matter how long it takes, you’ll pay.”

      Callie kept walking, down the long aisle, past the photographers with their whirring cameras, out of the building. Fifteen granite steps got her to the street level. From there it was a short dash to her car. Only when she was inside with the doors locked did she fill her lungs with a deep breath.

      Then Callie drove as far and as fast as she dared. When she finally stopped running, she was on a ferry that would take her to the city of Victoria, British Columbia.

      By then she’d left Marie Antoinette far behind, had turned into someone else, a gutsy young woman who didn’t live in fear but took on the next phase of her life with dignity and pride. One who accepted challenges as a way to prove she’d changed.

      But that woman was a charade.

      And every so often a voice from the past would whisper through her head reminding her that the real Callie Merton had gone undercover.

      ONE

      Present Day

      “We have a mission for you, Callie.”

      The owner of Finders Inc. had a reputation for directness. Callie