For those who read in English this is Krystal Gal first book.
"The Unknown Husband" came to amazon.com on September 2014. This story has romance, suspense and a lot of adventure. It is a family oriented book enjoyable and entertaining with a lot of twists that keeps you interested until the last line.
Karen is a young wife, mother of twins that has dedicated her life to her husband and kids. Suddenly Karen is informed about her husband double life and her world fall apart but she has two sons to take care and this gives her the strength to get the best of that terrible situation.
Her life changes completely when cleaning the house she discover evidence that shows that the family she has been part of for ten years has a lot of well guarded secrets.
As much as she discover the more in danger she gets into so she decided to take her sons to a safer place and to start investigating.
Karen will met Harold, a man who will become into her rescuer and the only person capable of helping her to unwrap the mystery around her husband and his family. She will be travelling to Colombia to find out a family secret . In the mean time she will learn that not everything is as it looks like and that true love was closer than she could think.
" The unknown husband" is available in e-book edition and you will be able to buy it on line at amazon.com
I enjoy reading stories that have unexpected twists in them, and this story had them. Krystal Gal has a talent for building the story line, such as, I could not put the book down until my eyes were to tired to continue. I really enjoy the book and have recommended it to my friends.
The unknown husband
Chapter 1
Karen was depressed. At 28, her life was miserable. She had fallen
for Mitch Kirkman at 16, when she was still in high school. He was two years
older. They got married right after her graduation from high school and just
eight months later their twins were born.
Karen began struggling with the babies, the house, and a 20 year old
husband, while living in the basement of his parents’ house.
Mitch used to have his quarters
there, complete with a bedroom, bathroom, a game room with a pool table and
other entertainment devices, and the furniture for a young bachelor. Mitch was
not thrilled with the transformation of his former space, but he had to take
responsibility, so he accepted the changes.
With Mitch’s parent’s assistance,
Karen and Mitch had no major expenses and they took care of practically
everything. Mr. and Mrs. Kirkman insisted that Mitch go to college and
graduate. He took longer than expected to graduate from the College of
Dentistry. Ralph Kirkman was a dentist, as was his father before him. Mitch was
expected to follow in their footsteps. The only problem was that Mitch was not
really interested in being a dentist.
While the twins Thomas and Stephen
grew up, Karen grew older, heavier, and increasingly more frustrated and tired.
In the beginning, Karen and Mitch
enjoyed lots of wild sex, but as her pregnancy progressed, the more they
started fighting. Depression enveloped Karen like a dark wave, and she spent
her days locked in tears and sleep.
Mitch was feeling trapped and took
advantage of her long naps to skip out of the house and hang out with his
friends. He often came home late. Sometimes he came home drunk. He had a few
weeks of sensibility when the twins were born, after a man to man conversation
his dad had with him explaining about his responsibility and what was expected
from him as an adult. But Mitch was shell-shocked; he was not ready to take
responsibility for one child, much less two.
For Karen, motherhood was as natural
as breathing. She bonded with her boys quickly and developed a complete sense
of protection for the two identical little boys. At first, she tied a
different-colored ribbon to each of their wrists so she could tell them apart,
but it did not take long for her to be able to distinguish between them all on
her own. She knew her boys and she cared for them with the fierce protection of
a lioness. But in the process of raising them, she had lost herself.
For the past ten years, Karen had
done exactly what was expected of her. She had become the perfect mother for
her boys, and the perfect housewife in charge of a big house from top to
basement.
Mitch became a business man and he
was busy most of the time. He was too often assigned to travel around the
country for long periods of time.
Karen and Mitch shared little
intimacy. When he did come home at night, it was very late. He never turned the
lights on. He would hold her sometimes, but he would never talk to her.
Sometimes he made love to her sweetly, but in the morning he was gone. It was
like being married to a ghost.
Occasionally, they would speak a few stray words to each other in
passing, and almost always, it was about the twins, but most of the time they
would only share a brief exchange over the phone.
Ruth Kirkman was Karen’s mother in
law. She had heart problems, so she was able to do very little to help around
the house. Karen was doing all the house cleaning without complaint. She had
thought that living for free in a house like that was a privilege. The house
was big and spacious, complete with a sprawling backyard. Having space to live
with her family was worth her sacrifice. Yet, taking care of this house and the
boys left her little time for anything else, especially herself. There was no
time for school or a career of her own. But she told herself it was worth it.
Karen was a good mix of wonder woman
and Martha Stewart, with a touch of good fairy thrown in for good measure. She
cared for every aspect of her children's lives, transporting them to practice,
music lessons, doctor, dentist… She was a loving and caring mother.
It was a typical Saturday morning.
She was standing by the door with the car keys in one hand, a heavy purse
hanging from her left shoulder, a big case of sandwiches strategically balanced
in her left hand and two baseball bats under her arm. Meanwhile, the boys were
running around her trying to catch each other, tugging on their sweaters and
pulling each in front of the other while struggling to leave the house first.
She always took them to baseball practice. They had to hurry up.
As she opened the front door she was
surprised to see a police officer standing there, about to ring the bell.
A
twinge of fear shot up her spine. She knew that her world was about to change
forever.
Chapter 2
After the police officer entered the
house, Karen listened astonished, watching them with huge open eyes as two
other officers started looking all over the house, while she listened to the
most bizarre story. Karen, while still balancing everything in her arms and
standing by the door, was looking at the piece of paper in her hand.
“This can’t be possible, there must
be some kind of mistake,” she stammered, shaking her head. "No, this can’t
be my husband--well, the name is the same, but he never traveled to
Colombia."
She paused, looking around confused.
"He's at a Dentistry Convention in Atlanta, something about a Healthy
Smile." Suddenly she remembered. “Wait!” she said, suddenly, as she let
the sandwich case and bats fall to the floor, while she rummaged through her
purse. “It must be here somewhere."
The twins were watching everything
unfold in amazement.
"This is terrific!" Thomas
exclaimed, coming closer to the police officer for better look at the gun. In
that same moment, he decided he wanted to be a cop when he grew up.
Stephen was not as impressed with
the gun, but more so with the handcuffs the officer had hanging from his waist.
Karen was still looking for the
business card when another man entered the house. He had a disheveled look
about him. Dressed not in a uniform, but in a wrinkled suit of an indefinite
color and a somewhat dirty shirt that looked as if he had slept in it. The man
was skinny and he appeared to be very tired.
“Here, sir, here it is,” said Karen,
relieved to find the evidence that would surely prove her husband's innocence.
The man who had just arrived
introduced himself as Inspector Ramirez and took the card from Karen’s
trembling hands.
“You see," Karen continued, “he
is staying at the Marigold Hotel and Suites; the convention is next door.”
“Sorry, Mrs. Kirkman, but your
husband is not in Atlanta. He's in Cali, Colombia, in prison for drug
trafficking, possession of prohibited drugs and traveling with a false
document," the inspector said matter-of-factly. "He was caught
leaving the country carrying a suitcase full of dentures, along with several
pounds of cocaine. It seems that he had made several such trips in the past six
months. Has your husband had many "business" trips lately?” the
inspector asked sarcastically, while handing the business card to another man
beside him.
Karen was petrified. This can’t be
possible, she thought. But on the other hand the inspector was right about one
thing, Mitch had been traveling even more than usual during the past year.
Karen refused to answer his
question, but countered with one of her own. “You know that drug dealers have a
lot of money. Look around! Do you see how we live? This is his parent’s house,
for God's sake! I drive an old, rusty car that's practically held together with
duct tape, leaks oil and barely runs. And look!" she added, pointing to
the cheap watch on her wrist. "Look at my jewelry! Do you honestly think
that a drug dealer’s wife would be wearing a $7 watch from Wal-Mart, and no
engagement ring?!” She demanded. “No you
are wrong; you have the wrong person!” she insisted.
The day was getting worse by the
moment. The detective asked her to go
with him to the police station to look at some pictures. After leaving the
twins with the neighbor next door, she followed the inspector.
Karen spent the rest of the morning
in complete shock.
You are stronger than this Karen,
she told herself, you are not going to cry, absolutely not, this is not your
fault, you did nothing wrong. There must be a reasonable explanation...
Okay, I can do this. She took a deep
breath.
Suddenly, the door opened and in
walked Ruth and Ralph Kirkman. They glared at Karen. “This is all your fault!” her mother-in-law wailed. “We knew
you would be the worst mistake our poor boy would ever make! You are an
ambitious, selfish, spoiled girl, always thinking of yourself! I bet you've
been demanding more than what he could give you!”
Karen's mother-in-law was nearly
hysterical. Karen had never seen Ruth like this before. Never was there even a
hair out of place on her head, but now her hair was a mass of messy curls,
resembling a rat's nest. Her makeup, usually immaculate and perfect, was now
smeared and running in black streaks down her face from her tears. Her eyes
were red and swollen.
Karen looked at her mother-in-law in
disbelief, as if she was an alien being. She bore no resemblance to the always
calm, cool and collected woman she had lived with for the past 10 years.
Ruth usually spent hours taking care
of herself. She supposedly could not do anything to help around the house
because of her health problems. She devoted all her time to her own personal
care. Mitch often scolded Karen for not being more like his mother, and he
frequently mentioned the lack of time Karen devoted to her self-care. He indeed
had warned her that unless she paid more attention to her appearance she would
risk losing him.
"You are evil and
wretched!" Ruth raged at her, shaking violently, pointing at her, and
spitting as she spoke.
Ralph grabbed Ruth by the shoulders,
for fear she would hurt herself.
Karen could not believe what she was
hearing, “What?! How in the world is this my fault?!"
Karen exclaimed.
"Your precious son betrayed me! How
can you possibly hate me so much?! You never once told me you were against our
marriage!"
Karen had never seen so much hatred
in Ruth’s cold eyes, but the words coming from Mitch’s father’s mouth were even
more cold and cruel.
“We knew your ambitious soul would
destroy our son, but when he told us your pathetic story, we understood his
kind soul, and we agreed to give you and your sons a place to live and allow
him to make an honest woman of you.”
No,
this cannot be happening, Karen thought. This is a nightmare. She wanted to scream, but nothing came out.
She could only stare at her father-in-law in astonishment. She could summon no
words from her mouth. It was as if she was frozen in place, a dark, scary, cold
place from which there was no escape.
Five hours earlier, she had been
what she had thought was a happily married woman and mother of two boys, living
a semi-normal, happy life, completely dedicated to her husband and sons, with
normal in-laws that if they didn’t love her, at least they did not hate her,
but now everything had changed. Well, almost everything. She still was a mother
of two boys. But now her husband was not a dental representative for an
important company, but a drug dealer trafficking who-knows what.
Karen’s mental chaos was interrupted
with Inspector Ramirez's arrival. He carried an overstuffed folder under his
arm.
“Please will you have a seat,"
he gestured to the three of them. Ruth, still visibly shaken, looked unsure.
"Please, Mrs. Kirkman, do have a seat," pointing to the chairs that
were placed around the table. Karen
noticed that her in-laws sat as far away from her as they possibly could.
“I know this has all been quite a
shock for all of you," Ramirez said with a weak smile. "But I would
ask that you please continue to bear with me, as we must clarify this situation
quickly in order to provide our Embassy in Colombia with as much information as
possible."
Opening the folder, the inspector
removed several photos and laid them down on dark metallic table. They seemed
to be taken in sequence and Mitch was in each of them. Probably 20 pictures in
all: Mitch wearing tennis pants, a white t-shirt, and an expensive Rolex on his
tanned wrist. Mitch wearing an expensive suit and getting into a black Corvette
with a slender blonde. Mitch in a large boat at a port in some exotic place,
and so on...
Three pair of eyes were glued to
these pictures--these pictures of someone they loved and thought they knew very
well, but apparently not at all: A Mitch
that Karen had certainly never known before.
Inspector Ramirez had another
envelope in his hands now, but he hesitated as he reached inside it. After a
moment, he took a deep breath, and then he spoke.
“Well Mrs. Kirkman," he began
slowly, looking intently at Karen. "It seems that your husband has been
leading a double life. Understandably, this is very difficult for you, well,
for all of you,” he said, acknowledging the shock on all their faces. "Forgive
me," he continued, "but I must show you a few more pictures."
Slowly he laid out several more
photos in front of them and began reading from a paper.
The inspector was explaining as
gently as possible to Karen that Mitch was also married to a Colombian girl
named Claudia, the youngest daughter of a rich plantation owner, and they had
three year old twin daughters.
"This makes no sense! I can't
believe this!” Karen stammered, shaking her head, as she tried to rise from the
chair to get out of the room.
Karen was suddenly feeling
light-headed, the full weight of his words weighing down her. She felt her feet
buckling under her, and everything went black.
