Danielle Steel: Malice

When the past is your enemy,

all you have is the present… MALICE

PRAISE FOR

DANIELLE STEEL“STEEL IS ONE OF THE BEST!”— Los Angeles Times “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 “Steel writes convincingly about universal

human emotions.”— Publishers Weekly “One of the world's most popular authors.”— The Baton Rouge Sun “FEW MODERN WRITERS CONVEY THE PATHOS

OF FAMILY AND MARITAL LIFE WITH SUCH

HEARTFELT EMPATHY.”— The Philadelphia Inquirer

PRAISE FOR

DANIELLE STEEL'S

MALICE“STEEL ONCE AGAIN HITS HER STRIDE …

DANIELLE STEEL FANS WILL LOVE

THIS LATEST ENTRY.”— Rocky Mountain News “It's nothing short of amazing that, even after

three dozen novels, Danielle Steel can still come up

with a good new yarn.”— The Newark Star-Ledger “THIS IS MORE THAN SUPERB FICTION …

revealing both the stark reality of domestic abuse and the healing power of love.”— Camden County Tribune (Ga.)“A GOOD READ … [Steel] can still touch

the emotions and involve the reader like

few others can.”— Warner Robins Herald (Ga.)“With rare insight and power, Danielle Steel writes

[an] extraordinary woman's story.”— Clarksburg Exponent-Telegram (W. Va.)“Steel, with deep insight, has written

a compelling novel.”— Tryon Bulletin (N.C.)A MAIN SELECTION OF

THE LITERARY GUILD

AND

THE DOUBLEDAY BOOK CLUB

Also by Danielle Steel

To my extraordinary, loving,

and very remarkable children,

Beatrix, Trevor, Todd,

Nick, Samantha, Victoria,

Vanessa, Maxx, and Zara.

You make my life worth living,

you are all that has made

my life worthwhile.

You are my life and my heart.

With all my thanks and love,

and apologies for the pain

I may have brought you

with this wicked thing

called “Tame.”

I love you so very, very much,

d.s.

Chapter 1

The sounds of the organ music drifted up to the Wedgwood blue sky. Birds sang in the trees, and in the distance, a child called out to a friend on a lazy summer morning. The voices inside the church rose in powerful unison, as they sang the familiar hymns that Grace had sung with her family since childhood. But this morning, she couldn't sing anything. She could barely move, as she stood, staring straight ahead at her mother's casket.

Everyone knew Ellen Adams had been a good mother, a good wife, a respected citizen until she died. She had taught school before Grace was born, and she would have liked to have had more children, but it just hadn't happened. Her health had always been frail, and at thirty-eight she had gotten cancer. The cancer started in her uterus, and after a hysterectomy, she'd had both chemotherapy and radiation. But the cancer spread to her lungs anyway, and her lymph nodes, and eventually her bones. It had been a four-and-a-half-year battle. And now, at forty-two, she was gone.

She had died at home, and Grace had taken care of her single-handedly until the last two months when her father had finally had to hire two nurses to help her. But Grace still sat next to her bedside for hours when she came home from school. And at night, it was Grace who went to her when she called out in pain, helped her turn, carried her to the bathroom, or gave her medication. The nurses only worked in the daytime. Her father didn't want them there at night, and everyone realized he had a hard time accepting just how sick his wife was. And now he stood in the pew next to Grace and cried like a baby.

John Adams was a handsome man. He was forty-six, and one of the best attorneys in Watseka, and surely the most loved. He had studied at the University of Illinois after serving in the Second World War, and then came home to Watseka, a hundred miles south of Chicago. It was a small, immaculately kept town, filled with profoundly decent people. And he handled all their legal needs, and listened to all their problems. He went through their divorces with them, or battles over property, bringing peace to warring members of families. He was always fair, and everyone liked him for it. He handled personal injury, and claims against the State, he wrote wills, and helped with adoptions. Other than the town's most popular medical practitioner, who was a friend of his too, John Adams was one of the most loved and respected men in Watseka.

John Adams had been the town's football star as a young man, and he had gone on to play in college. Even as a boy, people had been crazy about him. His parents had died in a car accident when he was sixteen, and his grandparents had all died years before that, and families literally argued over who was going to invite him to live with them until he finished high school. He was always such a nice guy and so helpful. In the end, he had stayed with two different families, and both of them loved him dearly.

He knew practically everyone in town by name, and there were more than a few divorcees and young widows who had had an eye on him ever since Ellen had been so sick in the last few years. But he never gave them the time of day, except to be friendly, or ask about their kids. He had never had a roving eye, which was another nice thing people always said about him. “And Lord knows he has a right to,” one of the older men who knew him well always said, “with Ellen so sick and all, you'd think he would start to look around … but not John … he's a right decent husband.” He was decent and kind, and fair, and successful. The cases he handled were small, but he had an amazing number of clients. And even his law partner, Frank Wills, teased him occasionally, wanting to know why everyone asked for John, before they'd ask for Frank. He was everyone's favorite.

“What do you do, offer them free groceries for a year behind my back?” Frank always teased. He wasn't the lawyer John was, but he was a good researcher, and good with contracts, with minute attention to detail. It was Frank who went over all the contracts with a fine-tooth comb. But it was always John who got all the glory, whom they asked for when they called, whom clients had heard about from miles away in other towns. Frank was an unimpressive little man, without John's charm or good looks, but they worked well together and had known each other since college. Frank stood several rows back in the church now, feeling sorry for John, and his daughter.

John would be all right, Frank knew, he'd land on his feet, just like he always did, and although he insisted now that he wasn't interested, Frank was betting that his partner would be remarried in a year. But it was Grace who looked absolutely distraught, and shattered, as she stared straight ahead at the banks of flowers at the altar. She was a pretty girl, or she would have been, if she'd allowed herself to be. At seventeen, she was lean and tall, with graceful shoulders and long thin arms, beautiful long legs, and a tiny waist and full bust. But she always hid her figure in baggy clothes, and long loose sweaters she bought at the Salvation Army. John Adams was by no means a rich man, but he could have bought her better than that, if she'd wanted. But unlike other girls her age, Grace had no interest in clothes, or boys, and if anything, she seemed to diminish her looks, rather than enhance them. She wore no makeup at all, and she wore her long coppery auburn hair straight down her back, with long bangs that hid her big cornflower-blue eyes. She never seemed to look straight at anyone, or be inclined to engage them in conversation. Most people were surprised by how pretty she was, if they really looked at her, but if you didn't look twice, you never noticed her at all. Even today, she was wearing an old dreary black dress of her mother's. It hung like a sack on her, and she looked thirty years old, with her hair tied back in a tight bun, and her face deathly pale as she stood beside her father.