{"id":374,"date":"2019-01-28T13:26:39","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T18:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/read.whitefire-publishing.com\/?p=374"},"modified":"2020-06-01T09:06:37","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T13:06:37","slug":"the-good-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/the-good-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"The Good Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n

The Good Girl<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

by Christy Barritt<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tara\n Lancaster can sing \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d in three harmonies, two languages, \nand interpret it for the hearing impaired. She can list the Bible canon \nbackward, forward, and alphabetized. And the only time she ever missed \nchurch was at seventeen because she had pneumonia\u2014and her mom made her \nstay home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\n when her life shatters around her and her reputation is left in ruins, \nTara decides escape is the only option. She flees halfway across the \ncountry to dog-sit, but the quiet anonymity she needs isn\u2019t waiting in \nher sister\u2019s house. Instead she finds a knife with a threatening \nmessage, a fame-hungry friend, a too-hunky neighbor, and evidence of\u2026a \nghost? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following all the rules has gotten her nowhere. And nothing she learned in Sunday School can tell her where to go from there.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t

Chapter 1<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t

Forrest\nGump was known for saying that life was like a box of chocolates. You never\nknew what you were going to get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grandmother\nGriffin had a different saying. She said that life was like a Bible story. You\ndidn\u2019t always get a happy ending\u2014at least not here on this earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nyears, I didn\u2019t believe Grandma Griffin. After all, she honestly thought that\n\u201ccleanliness is next to godliness\u201d was in the Bible. I mean, I was a Christian,\nso life was supposed to be blessed. And blessed meant that life was full of\nunconditional love and feel-good moments and abundance. Right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, I\nhave my own sayings. One is that life is like a beautiful apple. Sometimes you\ndon\u2019t know it\u2019s rotten until you bite into it. Other days, I thought life was\nlike the solid wood coffee table that my uncle fell on\u2014revealing it was\nactually made of particleboard, thus my saying, \u201cYou never know what you\u2019re\nmade of until you\u2019re broken.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m Tara\nLancaster, and I come from a family<\/a> of missionaries, preachers, and Bible\ncollege professors. One could never be too righteous in this clan. I was right\non track in my family tree, following a path that would have made Mother Teresa\nand Billy Graham proud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\nwas, until two years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s\ntaken me a long time to figure things out. First, I had to battle a ghost,\nquestion my faith, consult a psychic, and fall in love with someone who wasn\u2019t\nmy husband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a\nlong story. It\u2019s a story about a good girl gone…well, I can\u2019t tell you. I\nwill say this: Life is like a movie. Just when things seem perfect, the movie ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nthat\u2019s where my story starts.<\/p>\n\n\n