From the TBR Pile: Blog Tour: Excerpt #13 of Lucky Ones by Tiffany Reisz

We are so excited to be a part of a 2-part tour for the release of The Lucky Ones!

Follow along the excerpt tour beginning in mid January, with long excerpts in consecutive order at each tour stop, followed by a review tour beginning on 02/12, release week!

Author; Tiffany Reisz

Publisher: MIRA

Date of publication: February 13, 2018

They were seven children either orphaned or abandoned by their parents and chosen by legendary philanthropist and brain surgeon Dr. Vincent Capello to live in The Dragon, his almost magical beach house on the Oregon Coast. Allison was the youngest of the lucky ones living an idyllic life with her newfound family…until the night she almost died, and was then whisked away from the house and her adopted family forever.

Now, thirteen years later, Allison receives a letter from Roland, Dr. Capello’s oldest son, warning her that their father is ill and in his final days. Allison determines she must go home again and confront the ghosts of her past. She’s determined to find out what really happened that fateful night — was it an accident or, as she’s always suspected, did one of her beloved family members try to kill her?

But digging into the past can reveal horrific truths, and when Allison pieces tog

ether the story of her life, she’ll learns the terrible secret at the heart of the family she once loved but never really knew.

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Enjoy Excerpt #13:

And when Allison flipped to the final page of the book she wept openly. Written on the inside back cover in cornflower blue crayon were two words—Allison Capello.

“All right, this is how we do it,” Roland had said, taking her onto his lap and wrapping his big hand around her tiny hand. “C is an O and it’s trying to touch its toes but it can’t quite reach. And a is a little o with a line on the right side to keep it from rolling away. Make another little o for the p and put a long line on the other side. That’s its tail. P’s have straight tails. E’s have eyes. See? It’s looking at us and smiling. And l is a straight line. Do it again. Two l’s. And then one more o and there you go.”

Roland had taught her how to write her name. Not Allison Lamarque, the name she had been given, but Allison Capello, the name she’d coveted.

Allison put the book back onto the table next to Roland’s letter. She’d faced the existence of the letter and survived.

Now she had to deal with the content.

Dr. Capello was dying.

How was that possible? She’d joked that Dr. Capello was old but only to insult McQueen. He was never old to her. When they played frisbee on the beach, he played the hardest. When they cooked hot dogs on the campfire, he ate the most. He was always good for a piggyback ride up and down the halls. He didn’t read bedtime stories to them. They read bedtime stories to him. “One more page,” he would say, pretending to pout, and they’d roll their eyes and tell him it was time for him to go to sleep.

He worked, yes, but still made as much time for them as he could. He chose his cases carefully, picking the poorest and the sickest kids to bless with his talent. He didn’t have to work at all, as Dr. Capello had inherited a fortune from his parents, a fortune he spent helping kids, especially his own. Being taken away from that family had hurt worse than losing her mother because at seven, Allison hadn’t understood quite how long a time “never again” really was. By twelve, she was starting to have an idea. By twenty-five, she knew. And what she knew was “never again” was too damn long.

And now Roland wanted her to come back.

Allison knew she shouldn’t go. There were great reasons not to go back. Someone had tried to get rid of her and they’d succeeded. Maybe it was a prank, maybe it was something more sinister, but she couldn’t deny someone wanted her gone.

Then again…

She had fifty thousand dollars in cash on her kitchen table.

She had nothing to do and nowhere else to go.

She had freedom to go anywhere she wanted, which she hadn’t had since the first night she’d spent with McQueen.

McQueen would tell her not to go. He’d tell her it wasn’t safe, and he’d tell her she owed them nothing. He’d tell her not to open up an old wound. He’d tell her to take the money and run. And all that was good advice.

But.

McQueen had dumped her an hour ago, so why the hell should she give his opinion any weight? She shouldn’t. She wouldn’t. She’d do what she wanted to do and no one could stop her. There. Finally, Allison found one good reason to be happy that she was a free woman now.

After all…it would only take a few minutes, right? A few minutes, an hour tops. She could fly out to Portland, rent a car and make a vacation of it. She could drive the 101 all the way down the California coast if she wanted. She’d pop in to see Dr. Capello. It wouldn’t be fun, but it wouldn’t be awful, either. A one-hour visit to her childhood home followed by a nice long overdue vacation to celebrate her newfound freedom… Why not?

She knew seeing Dr. Capello again, and seeing him dying, would break her heart.

But as her heart was already broken, Allison had no excuse not to go.

So she went.

About Tiffany Reisz