A Family Likeness

A Family Likeness
Margot Dalton

Margot Dalton's creativity dazzles…–Bethany Campbell, bestselling author of See How They RunShe "sold" her baby…Fifteen years ago desperate circumstances had forced Gina Mitchell to do the unthinkable. Give up her baby daughter hours after the birth.Now Alex Colton–a man she's never met–has checked in to Gina's bed-and-breakfast with his rebellious teenage daughter. One look at the girl and Gina knows she can no longer escape her past.Alex is a good father, but he's never told his daughter the circumstances of her birth, and he has no idea that his child–Gina's child–is living a nightmare. A nightmare only her birth mother can end."Margot Dalton's creativity dazzles. She's a writer who always delivers probing characterization, ingenious plotting, riveting pace and impeccable craft. She can completely engage both the reader's mind and emotion. She's superb."–Bethany Campbell, bestselling author of See How They Run

Table of Contents

Cover Page (#u1b64f16f-7669-55af-9e32-60e991a86521)

Excerpt (#u71ba6974-2936-591c-944a-cbdfc423569d)

About The Author (#ub365999b-0c62-5a4b-ab9a-8979c070bac4)

Title Page (#u2db3d484-edf9-5c49-9aa4-edd73ab58508)

CHAPTER ONE (#uda248c9a-6aaf-5860-949f-c7c79720cf11)

CHAPTER TWO (#u077fa7f2-4076-5a9c-8c55-db09b400e305)

CHAPTER THREE (#ua5ecac6f-62f1-5f31-85da-965c68f0b0c1)

CHAPTER FOUR (#u2aff7180-9038-537a-b519-1f171b4bb714)

CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

“Alex, I have something to tell

you about your daughter.

“I should have told you before, but I was…” Gina’s voice broke. She rummaged in the pocket of her jeans, took out her billfold and extracted a photograph from one of the side pockets. Wordlessly, she handed it to Alex.

He studied the smiling girl in the picture, his eyes widening. “It’s Steffi,” he said at last, then hesitated. “Isn’t it? She looks older.”

“It’s not Steffi. It’s my sister, Claudia, when she was Steffi’s age. You can see a difference in her mouth. Steffi has your mouth.”

“I don’t understand. How can they look so alike?”

“Because they’re related. Claudia is Steffi’s aunt”

“Her aunt? What are you saying, Gina?”

“I’m Steffi’s biological mother.…”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A Family Likeness, Margot Dalton’s sixteenth Superromance novel, is set in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada, where the author has lived for the past seven years and been inspired by the spectacular beauty and natural wildness of her surroundings.

This bestselling author has also written seven books in Harlequin’s popular CRYSTAL CREEK series, two mainstream titles for MIRA Books, and has contributed to two anthologies.

A Family Likeness

Margot Dalton

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_83f52616-34bf-5b2b-9599-2cc84329bb3c)

“NOW, LET’S SEE…it’s seven inches down to this little bunch of flowers, and four and a half inches up from the bottom…”

Gina made a pencil mark at one end of the strip of wallpaper stretched out on the floor, then crawled briskly over the hardwood, pencil clamped between her teeth, to make a corresponding mark farther down on the roll.

“Did I say four and a half inches?” she muttered, pausing to frown at the paper. “Or did I say four?”

“Who are you talking to?”

Gina glanced up at the doorway, then gestured toward the wall behind her. “Hi, Mary. Isn’t this pretty?”

Her housekeeper strolled into the room, wiping her hands on her apron, and looked at the strips of new wallpaper that partly framed an upholstered window seat.

“You were right,” she said in surprise. “I thought it was too yellow, but it looks really nice on the wall.”

“I knew it would. This paper is exactly what I wanted.”

“Listen to her,” Mary said indulgently. “The girl who always knows what she wants. You’re too young to be talking to yourself.”

Gina crawled back around to measure the strip again. “Four and a half inches,” she said. “I thought so.”

Mary dabbed with her dishcloth at a tiny soiled patch near the edge of the window seat. “I’ve got to find the time to clean all these before the summer rush,” she murmured.