Love in Healing

Chapter 2

"I want you to come back home with me," Caroline said conversationally as she put away the phone. She was working on a civil suit for a group of clients and even when she left the office she still got calls. It had been a little more than a week since her sister had been brought to the hospital and the doctors told her that it was time for her to leave, there was nothing they could do for her physically. "You should consider letting her get therapy." Doctor Evan had told her gravely. "She is not taking it too well."
"I am going back to my apartment," Chandra told her stubbornly. Caroline had often told her that she gave stubborn a new name. "I have a lot of thinking to do and my agent is positive that there will be something out there for me."

"have you read the papers?" Caroline asked her in exasperation. "They are referring to you as the former international model. You need to come back home and get some rest and decide where you go from here. You have a degree in business studies and you have accumulated quite a bit of wealth so money will be no problem."
"You except me to just go about and accept some office job after what I have been?" Chandra asked her incredulously. She had wandered outside for a moment and had to run back in for the reports waiting to hear from her. She was not ready for the world to see her like this! "You belong to this sleepy town Caroline. I don't."
"This sleepy town as you called it is where we grew up and go to church with our parents. The people here are kind and non judgmental Chandra and they look out for each and everyone here. We are all family here and nothing is wrong with you staying here for a couple of months to recuperate and spend some time with me. You have been traipsing around the world since you were sixteen. You had to retire some time."

"I have a number of years left in me Caroline!" she cried, the tears shimmering in her beautiful whiskey colored eyes. "I am only twenty-seven and I am the best there is. i would have gone on several more years."

"I know honey," her sister said soothingly as she leaned forward and touched the slender hands that were plucking at the hospital sheets. "But there comes a time when you have to step back and find out who you really are."

Chandra stared at her sensible sister for a moment and felt resentment. "You have always been envious of me haven't you?"

Caroline sat back in her chair a hurt expression on her attractive face. She looked more like their father with her dark brown complexion, thick black hair which she had processed and wore in a bun at the back of her head most times. Her clothes were sensible unlike her sister's very expensive and designer ones. She was tall and angular, her large dark eyes her most beautiful asset. She was practical and had known since she was little that Chandra was the one people looked at whenever she showed up and had learnt to deal with it over the years. She had been secretly happy when the girl had left town to go elsewhere because at least people would finally see her but she had never envied her. She got to her feet and looked at her watch. "I have to go. I have a brief to work on. I will be back tomorrow. Just think about what I said."

"Caroline-" Chandra called out but with a wave of her hand her sister left. 

Chandra slumped into her pillows and closed her eyes wearily. That had been an unfair statement and she knew it. Caroline had always been supportive of her and had never showed her anything other than love. But she was feeling as if she was poised on top of a cliff with nowhere to go but down!

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Pastor Gary Miller battled with the decision to go and see her. His seven p.m.visit to the hospital was as regular as clockwork. He went there to offer prayer and support especially to the patients who knew they were dying. He had spent last night in prayer asking for forgiveness for his impure thoughts. He chalked it down to the fact that she was an extremely beautiful woman and probably had men falling in love with her all the time. He was no exception!