Books by Fern Michaels:
Sweet Vengeance
Holly and Ivy
Fancy Dancer
No Safe Secret
Wishes for Christmas
About Face
Perfect Match
A Family Affair
Forget Me Not
The Blossom Sisters
Balancing Act
Tuesday’s Child
Betrayal
Southern Comfort
To Taste the Wine
Sins of the Flesh
Sins of Omission
Return to Sender
Mr. and Miss Anonymous
Up Close and Personal
Fool Me Once
Picture Perfect
The Future Scrolls
Kentucky Sunrise
Kentucky Heat
Kentucky Rich
Plain Jane
Charming Lily
What You Wish For
The Guest List
Listen to Your Heart
Celebration
Yesterday
Finders Keepers
Annie’s Rainbow
Sara’s Song
Vegas Sunrise
Vegas Heat
Vegas Rich
Whitefire
Wish List
Dear Emily
Christmas at Timberwoods
The Sisterhood Novels:
Need to Know
Crash and Burn
Point Blank
In Plain Sight
Eyes Only
Kiss and Tell
Blindsided
Gotcha!
Home Free
Déjà Vu
Cross Roads
Game Over
Deadly Deals
Vanishing Act
Razor Sharp
Under the Radar
Final Justice
Collateral Damage
Fast Track
Hokus Pokus
Hide and Seek
Free Fall
Lethal Justice
Sweet Revenge
The Jury
Vendetta
Payback
Weekend Warriors
The Men of the
Sisterhood Novels:
High Stakes
Fast and Loose
Double Down
The Godmothers Series:
Getaway (E-Novella Exclusive)
Spirited Away (E-Novella
Exclusive)
Hideaway (E-Novella Exclusive)
Classified
Breaking News
Deadline
Late Edition
Exclusive
The Scoop
E-Book Exclusives:
Desperate Measures
Seasons of Her Life
To Have and To Hold
Serendipity
Captive Innocence
Captive Embraces
Captive Passions
Captive Secrets
Captive Splendors
Cinders to Satin
For All Their Lives
Texas Heat
Texas Rich
Texas Fury
Texas Sunrise
Anthologies:
Mistletoe Magic
Winter Wishes
The Most Wonderful Time
When the Snow Falls
Secret Santa
A Winter Wonderland
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
Making Spirits Bright
Holiday Magic
Snow Angels
Silver Bells
Comfort and Joy
Sugar and Spice
Let it Snow
A Gift of Joy
Five Golden Rings
Deck the Halls
Jingle All the Way
FERN MICHAELS
SWEET VENGEANCE
KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com
All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.
Table of Contents
Also by
Title Page
Copyright Page
Epigraph
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Epilogue
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2018 by Fern Michaels.
Fern Michaels is a registered trademark of KAP 5, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017955103
ISBN: 978-1-4967-0319-4
ISBN-10: 1-4967-0319-7
First Kensington Hardcover Edition: April 2018
eISBN-13: 978-1-4967-0321-7
eISBN-10: 1-4967-0321-9
First Kensington Electronic Edition: April 2018
No More Tears Now; I will think about revenge
—Mary, Queen of Scots
Prologue
Tessa Jamison counted the time so that she might arrive at a restful place when Death’s hand reached out for her own. Each second, minute, and hour, excluding those during which she slept, admittedly few, brought her closer to her inevitable meeting with Death. Surely, she would find peace, or possibly sheer nothingness, in death. If not peace, or a white noise of sorts, if the tenets of her Christian faith were as pure and true as she’d been brought up to believe, she would be reunited with the family she had slaughtered so callously.
Since her conviction ten years ago, the quote from the San Maribel News Press had haunted every single minute of her essentially lifeless existence in Florida’s Correctional Center for Women.
Slaughtered so callously. A mantra of sorts. Slaughtered so callously. The words drummed in her head like a rapid heartbeat. Images of Joel’s mangled body, the carnage, the horror of seeing her family.
Dead.
Joel’s body was unidentifiable by visual means, the coroner had stated.
Gone in the blink of an eye.
It wasn’t until three years after her imprisonment for the murders that the memory of the aftermath of their savage deaths emerged from her safe place—the dark confines hidden deep inside the protective corner of her subconscious. For years, Tessa’s mind refused to retrieve the image of their slain bodies. Lily pads. She recalled thinking of lily pads floating in the aqua-blue pool on the fateful day when she’d discovered their bodies. Like a fine French claret, sinewy ribbons spread throughout the aquamarine water, the tomb that held the last whisper of their lives. Their last thoughts. Their last heartbeats. Their last cries. Their understanding that this was indeed the end, that the finality of life was now death.
Tessa hated this part the most. She could not bear to think of their last moments as the dark shroud of Death engulfed them. Had they struggled? Had they cried? Or had they simply taken their final breaths, accepting what was to come as their fate?
These thoughts tormented her. Day and night, images of their bodies taunted her. Broken marionettes. Their limbs and arms askew, bloated, as decomposition began to set in. Later, she would recall the coroner testifying at her trial. Joel had died defending his daughters. His fingers and arms were covered in defensive wounds, and again, the fact that Joel was visually unidentifiable.
“It’s as if the victim didn’t even have a face,” the coroner had testified.
The testimony still had the power to cause her heart to race.
Tessa struggled to keep the bitter prison coffee down as the images assaulted her. Catching her reflection in the small, steel-like mirror hanging above the built-in desk, Tessa no longer recognized the woman she’d become. Her blond hair
