Danielle Steel - The House on Hope Street

Cherish small miracles.

Believe in big miracles.

Above all — hope.

Praise for

DANIELLE STEEL““A LITERARY PHENOMENON …and not to be pigeonholed as one who produces a predictable kind of book.”— The Detroit News ““THE PLOTS OF DANIELLE STEEL'S NOVELS TWIST AND WEAVE as incredible stories unfold to the glee and delight of her enormous reading public.”—United Press International““Ms. Steel's fans won't be disappointed!”— The New York Times Book Review ““One counts on Danielle Steel for A STORY THAT ENTERTAINS AND INFORMS.”— The Chattanooga Times ““Steel writes convincingly about universal human emotions.”— Publishers Weekly ““STEEL IS AT THE TOP OF HER BESTSELLING FORM.”— Houston Chronicle ““FEW MODERN WRITERS CONVEY THE PATHOS OF FAMILY AND MARITAL LIFE WITH SUCH HEARTFELT EMPATHY.”— The Philadelphia Inquirer ““It's nothing short of amazing that even after [dozens of] novels, Danielle Steel can still come up with a good new yarn.”— The Star-Ledger (Newark)

Praise for Danielle Steel's

THE HOUSE ON HOPE STREET““[This] simple story of a courageous woman weathering the worst of life's storms is HARD TO PUT DOWN…. Steel knows how to wring the emotion out of the briefest scene.”— People (Beach Book of the Week)““POIGNANT.”— Chicago Tribune ““GREAT ESCAPIST READING …Loaded with all the elements [Steel's] millions of fans expect.”— Library Journal ““A PAGE-TURNER … A TWO-HANKY TEARJERKER.”— The Boston Globe “[The House on Hope Street] chronicles well a family's devastating loss and joyful recovery.”— Sunday Oklahoman ““Ms. Steel can be counted on to please her faithful readers.”— Richmond Times-Dispatch A MAIN SELECTION OF

THE LITERARY GUILD

AND

THE DOUBLEDAY BOOK CLUB

Also by Danielle Steel

THE HOUSE THE GIFT TOXIC BACHELORS ACCIDENT MIRACLE VANISHED IMPOSSIBLE MIXED BLESSINGS ECHOES JEWELS SECOND CHANCE NO GREATER LOVE RANSOM HEARTBEAT SAFE HARBOUR MESSAGE FROM NAM JOHNNY ANGEL DADDY DATING GAME STAR ANSWERED PRAYERS ZOYA SUNSET IN ST. TROPEZ KALEIDOSCOPE THE COTTAGE FINE THINGS THE KISS WANDERLUST LEAP OF FAITH SECRETS LONE EAGLE FAMILY ALBUM JOURNEY FULL CIRCLE THE WEDDING CHANGES IRRESISTIBLE FORCES THURSTON HOUSE GRANNY DAN CROSSINGS BITTERSWEET ONCE IN A LIFETIME MIRROR IMAGE A PERFECT STRANGER HIS BRIGHT LIGHT: REMEMBRANCE THE STORY OF NICK TRAINA PALOMINO THE KLONE AND I LOVE: POEMS THE LONG ROAD HOME THE RING THE GHOST LOVING SPECIAL DELIVERY TO LOVE AGAIN THE RANCH SUMMER'S END SILENT HONOR SEASON OF PASSION MALICE THE PROMISE FIVE DAYS IN PARIS NOW AND FOREVER LIGHTNING PASSION'S PROMISE WINGS GOING HOME

To the beloved friends who

got me through so much,

Victoria, Jo, Kathy, Nancy,

and Charlotte.To my wonderful children,

Beatrix, Trevor, Todd, Nick,

Samantha, Victoria, Vanessa,

Maxx, and Zara,

who always give me hope

and fill my life with joy.With all my love and thanks,d.s.

a cognizant original v5 release october 06 2010

Chapter 1

It was ten o'clock in the morning on Christmas Eve, when Jack and Liz Sutherland met with Amanda Parker. It was a sunny morning in Marin County, just north of San Francisco. And Amanda looked both terrified and nervous. She was petite, blond, and delicate, and her hands shook almost imperceptibly as she quietly shredded a Kleenex. Jack and Liz had been handling her divorce for the past year, they worked as a team, and had opened their joint family law office eighteen years before, just after they were married.

They liked working together, and had long since developed a comfortable routine. They enjoyed their practice, and were good at it. They complemented each other, although their styles were extremely different. Inadvertently, and more subconsciously than not, Jack and Liz had adopted a kind of good cop/bad cop routine, which worked well for them and for their clients. It was always Jack who took the more aggressive, confrontational role, the lion in the courtroom, fighting for better conditions and bigger settlements, relentlessly backing his opponents into a corner, from which there was no relief for them until they gave him what he wanted for his client. It was Liz who was more thoughtful, gentler, ingenious about the subtleties, holding the clients’ hands when needed, and fighting for the rights of their children. And at times the difference in their styles led to fights between them, as it had in Amanda's case. Despite some of the malicious games Amanda's husband had played on her, the threats, the constant verbal and occasional physical abuse, Liz thought what Jack had proposed was too tough on him.

“Are you crazy?” Jack had asked her bluntly before Amanda arrived. “Look at the crap this guy has pulled on her. He has three girlfriends he's supporting now, has cheated on her for ten years, has hidden all his assets from her, doesn't give a damn about his kids, and wants to walk out of the marriage without it costing him a penny. What do you suggest we do? Set up a trust for him, and thank him for his time and trouble?” Jack had his fighting Irish up, and although with her bright red hair and flashing green eyes, Liz seemed to have fiery looks, she was in fact far more moderate than he was. Jack's eyes were dark and ominous as he glared at her, and his hair had been snow white since he was thirty. People who knew them well teased them sometimes and said that they looked like Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. But despite their occasionally heated arguments, everyone inside the courtroom and out knew they were crazy about each other. Theirs was a loving, solid marriage, and they had a family that everyone envied, five children whom they adored, four of whom had bright red hair like their mother, and the youngest boy had dark hair, as Jack's once had been.

“I'm not telling you Phillip Parker doesn't deserve to get hammered,” Liz explained patiently. “I'm trying to tell you he'll take it out on her if we're too heavy-handed with him.”

“And I'm telling you he needs that, or he's going to push her around forever. You've got to hit this guy where he'll feel it, starting with his wallet. You can't let him get away with this kind of bullshit, Liz, and you know it.”

“You're pulling the rug out from under him, and paralyzing his business.” What she was saying was sensible, but Jack's hard-line tactics had worked before for many, many of their clients, and he had achieved settlements for them that few other attorneys could have. His reputation was for not only being tough, but brilliant when it came to getting big money for their clients, and he particularly wanted to achieve that for Amanda. Despite several million dollars Phillip Parker had stashed away, and a booming computer business, he had kept Amanda and their three children living at starvation level. And ever since the separation, she had barely been able to get enough out of him to keep them fed and in shoes. It was even more ridiculous once they figured out what he was spending on his girlfriends, and he had just bought himself a brand-new Porsche. Amanda hadn't even been able to buy a skateboard for her son for Christmas.

“Trust me on this one, Liz. The guy's a bully, and he's going to start squealing like a little pig when we put the squeeze on him in court. I know what I'm doing.”

‘Jack, he's going to hurt her, if you squeeze him too tight.” This particular case frightened Liz, and had ever since Amanda had told them of the psychological torture she'd lived with for ten years, and two memorable beatings. She had left him after each one, but he had wooed her back with promises, emotional blackmail, threats, and gifts. And the one thing Liz knew for sure was that Amanda was deathly afraid of him, and Liz thought with good reason.