He Healed My Heart (SAMPLE)

Chapter 1 ~ The Move

Being a single mother was never what I saw in my future. I was meant to go to college, travel the world and then find someone to settle down with. Marry, have a family, not spend seven years raising a child on my own but never the less, this is what I have had to do. Sure, I could have aborted when I found out, but as I looked down at my beautiful boy, Leivon, his sleeping form curled into a bundle, I don't regret my decision to keep him one bit, though, I do wish I had of chosen a better man to give my heart and virginity too.

Levi didn't deserve this, and he sure as heck didn't deserve having his life uprooted just so I could find work. If only things had turned out differently. The bakery I worked at had suffered due to the two larger supermarket competitors opening up, and customers could get all of their needs from one store. It put a lot of small businesses out, and in financial strife, which, unfortunately, meant no work for me and hundreds of others, it also meant my son suffered, something I had tried his entire life for him not to.

I walked down the hall after leaving the door slightly ajar and plonked down on the sofa with a heavy sigh. "He sleeping?" My Uncle Clade questioned next to me, on his favourite grey suede recliner.

"Like a log."

"You excited about starting at Johnson's outdoor place?"

I was staring at the television screen, but everything in the room was hazy and unfocused. "I guess," I answered monotonously.

"When do you officially start?"

"In the morning, after I drop Levi at school. Thanks for teeing that up, by the way, we were getting pretty desperate."

"C'mon Harper, you didn't think I would turn down an opportunity to spend some time with my favourite niece, did you?" Clade turned his head towards me with a dashing smile.

"Uncle, I'm your only niece." My head remained in the direction of the television, but I still wasn't watching it.

"Yes, and aren't I lucky." His words made me smile, he had been so supportive and comforting my entire life. I was happy to be here with my uncle, he had always been my world. "God knows, I would have no hair left if I had any more of ya to deal with."

I finally met his mischievous face with an incredulous look. "I hope you're not implying your hair loss is my fault?"

"Ah kid, I'm just messing with ya, you know its genetics, your father would have ended up the same had he lived."

My face faltered, thank god for Uncle Clade. Dad passed away from a heart attack in my early teens, and I still mourned his loss, even after all these years. "Anyway, I'm off to bed, see you in the morning."

"Night kid."

I made my way back down the hall of the old brick home; to my room adjacent to my son's, and slipped in, closing the door quietly behind me. My room was rather large with a lavish bay window, a king bed with a bright white and green bedspread and bedside tables each side with two wooden tallboys side by side next to the room's door with an en-suite attached. I grabbed my pyjamas and entered the bathroom. Removing my clothes, I turned the shower taps, hearing the old pipes groan as the water filtered through them, and I scrutinised myself in the mirror.

I was no longer that skinny rake of a kid I had once been. These days my figure was more rounded, but not enough to be considered overweight. I was blessed with wide hips, and a full chest, my naturally darker skin tone was an attribute passed down from my mother's side, she was of Hawaiian descent and dark-skinned, when she mixed with my father and his European background, I received my unique colouring. The same skin tone, my son, inherited from me, thank fuck, his father was so pale he turned sickly grey when it was cold.