Redeeming-Love-By-Francine-Rivers

F R A N C I N E R I V E R S
“Because you have to know.” He could still see her arrogant face.
“Michael, she’s not who you think she is.”
“She’s exactly who I think she is, and she’s my wife.” He bent to his work
again.
She really must have gone to work on him the past day. Furious, Paul
slammed the next log into place. He looked back across the yard at her. She
stood in the doorway of Michael’s cabin. In Tessie’s clothes. He wanted to go
over there and rip them off her. He wanted to beat her and chase her right
out of this valley. Michael, of all people, tricked. Michael with his high ideals
and strength of character. Michael with his purity. It was inconceivable. It
was obscene.
“I’m not going to leave it alone. I can’t.” Michael wasn’t even looking at
him. Paul caught his arm. “Listen to me. Before she was your wife, she was a
prostitute. Her name’s Angel, not Amanda. She worked in a brothel in Paira-Dice.
She was the highest-priced soiled dove in the whole town.”
“Take your hand off my arm, Paul.”
Paul did. “Aren’t you going to say anything?” He had never seen Michael
so angry.
“I know all about it.”
Paul stared at him. “You know?”
“Yes.” Michael bent for another log. “Take the other end, would you?”
Paul did so without even thinking. “Did you know before or after she got
the ring on her finger?” he asked cynically.
“Before.”
Paul banged the log into place. “And you still married her?”
Michael straightened. “I still married her, and I’d marry her again if I had
it to do over.” A simple statement, calmly and quietly delivered, but his eyes
were burning with wrath.
Paul felt like he had been punched, hard. “You’re besotted with her.
Michael, she has you fooled.” He had to try to reason with him. “It happens.
You haven’t seen a woman in months and then you do, and she’s got pretty
blue eyes and a beautiful body, and you lose your head over her. So enjoy
her for a while, but don’t try and convince yourself she’ll make a decent
wife. Once a prostitute, always a prostitute.”
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