Redeeming-Love-By-Francine-Rivers

R E D E E M I N G L O V E
been almost three years. She had probably boarded a boat to New York or
China by now. He didn’t know whether to feel thankful for his failure or
keep on searching until he found some information. Miriam had been so
sure, so adamant.
“She’s still in California. I know it.”
Someone must have heard of her. How could a girl like Angel just disappear?
The whole situation bothered him greatly. What if he did find her? What
was he going to say? We want you to come back to the valley? She’d know he
was lying. He didn’t want her to come back. He never wanted to lay eyes on
her again. He couldn’t imagine Michael’s wanting her back either after all
this time. Three years. God knew what she had been doing all that time and
with whom.
But Michael did want her to come back. That was the problem. Michael
still loved Angel. He would always love her. It wasn’t stubbornness or pride
that had kept him from going after her this time. He said she had to decide.
She had to come back on her own. Well, she wouldn’t. A year should have
told Michael that much. Surely, two should have done the trick. When
another year passed, even Miriam had given up hope that Angel would
come back on her own. She said someone would have to find her.
“I want you to go, Paul,” Miriam had said. “It has to be you.”
Listening, he hated Angel more than ever.
At last he reached San Francisco. Fog covered the city, and Paul searched
halfheartedly. Finding Angel would create more problems than not finding
her. Was he supposed to drag her back to the valley the way Michael had
the first time she left? What was the use? She would only leave again. And
again and again. Couldn’t Miriam understand? Once a prostitute, always a
prostitute. Apparently, some truths came too hard for a girl as sweet and
naive as his wife. Or for a man as pure as Michael. Paul loved them both so
much, and he couldn’t see how finding Angel would help either of them.
Why had Miriam been so insistent that he be the one to find her and
bring her back? She wouldn’t explain. She said he would find out for himself.
At first, he’d refused, and she’d raged at him. He was stunned that his
usually reasonable wife could be so fierce. Her words had been like a sword
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