James Siegel - Detour

She wasn’t out of the woods. It was entirely possible she might never be. She attended group therapy on a triweekly basis, remained medicated, and occasionally lapsed into periods of heartbreaking desperation.

Most of the time she smiled, even glowed. Paul was convinced that her family nourished her, every bit as much as it nourished him.

He’d gone from no family to a full one in the seeming blink of an eye. He’d abandoned the safety of numbers for the uncertain possibilities of life. Odds are, he thought, it would be a good one.

“Come on, sweeties, let’s grab some lunch,” Paul told his daughters.

Joelle and Claudia.

Oh yes. On the day they officially gave Ruth their last name, she’d asked them if she might change her first one as well.

“To what?” Paul asked her.

What was my mother’s name?

Joanna told her.

“Claudia,” she said. “Claudia Breidbart. It’ll do.”

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.

Copyright © 2005 by James Siegel

All rights reserved.

Warner Books

Time Warner Book Group

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First eBook Edition: March 2005

ISBN: 0-7595-1335-X