Love Is More Than Skin Deep (A Hidden Hearts Novel Book 4) by Mary Crawford Page A

head as he stirs his coffee.
    “I understand that the Bible says not to be boastful about money, but being able to pay for milk, eggs and a few Cheerios is not the same as lusting after money. For some reason my parents didn't understand that. In every new town we went to in search of some miracle cure for my brother, they were subjected to a new round of fleecing. It was absolutely insane."
    "Why didn't anyone else from your town say anything?" Mark inquires, his body language alert with curiosity. "Wasn't it pretty obvious your brother wasn't doing very well?"
    I feel the blood drain out of my face as dozens of moments flood my memory like a deranged kaleidoscope. I can't help but let out a dry laugh as I respond, "Obvious? Oh yeah. Sad? It didn't get much sadder. Sometimes horrific. I remember him looking so frail that it looked as if you could see through his skin. At one point, I used to pray to myself that some well-meaning adult would stop and ask questions. I would get my hopes up if someone would stop and ask for the time. Sadly, there weren't any heroes in our story. It was as if no one could actually see us. We needed a village of heroes, but what we got was a world of disinterested bystanders.
    "Damn Shelby, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring all that up," Mark admits as he tucks his jacket around my shoulders when he sees me shiver.
    "Mark, it's not just you. It's this whole situation. It's going from one specialist to another and having them promise things that are turning out not to be true. It just makes me feel like I did when we were young going from one church to the next. It just feels the same and I'm beginning to wonder if anybody knows what they're talking about. What if this melanoma isn't even curable? What if I’ve just let it go on too long?"
    "Shelby, there are so many factors with cancer that it's hard for anybody to give you an answer with any degree of certainty. It depends on your environment, your genetics and plain old luck. Do you even know anything about your family's history with cancer?"
    I throw up my hands in frustration and am again reminded what's already happened to me as one of my deeper incisions on my back pulls uncomfortably and sends a long twinge of pain through my side and under my arm.  
    "I don't really know anything about my family. The things I used to know about them were seen through the eyes of a twelve-year-old. It probably wasn't correct information even then," I reply sadly shaking my head. "For all I know, my whole family could be dead. I could be the last person to get cancer instead of the first person."
    "That's a lot of guessing to do based on a single phone call. Maybe the news isn't quite as bad as you're anticipating. All we can do is deal with what comes," Mark tries to reassure me.
    "Logically, I know you're probably right, but I'm beyond logic. Right now, I'm scared spitless. I'm sorry to break it to you, but you're just going to have to deal with me being a basket case. You know what really sucks about this? Ketki comes home from camp today and I was looking forward to spending time with her. Now I'm going to be in a weird headspace and she is totally going to pick up on that."
    Mark sighs deeply as he says, "We've got bigger problems than that. I just got word from Susan that she’s heard from her sources in the courtroom that the judge is about to order a change of venue in my trial. At this point, we're not sure where, but it could very likely be in Ocala, which would be about an hour away.”
    "Wow, that's gonna throw a wrinkle in things," I remark softly.
    Mark looks at me with a raised eyebrow as he responds, "You think? The daughter of mine is not big on change to her routine. I'm not really sure how to handle this. Since it's summer break, I could take her with me. She'd have to stay at the hotel while I was in trial. If the judge has taken the extraordinary step to move the trial after we've already started selecting the jury, it's likely he's