{"product_id":"answered-prayers-isbn-9780440236726","title":"Answered Prayers","description":"Danielle Steel’s 56th bestselling novel is about family and friendship, about one  woman’s struggle to break free from the past—and the man who helps her triumph. And  most of all, it is about daring to believe in...Answered Prayers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e On the outside,  Faith Madison is the very picture of a sophisticated New Yorker. Slim, blond, stylish,  Faith has a life many would envy. Overcoming a childhood marked by tragedy, married  to a successful investment banker and having raised two grown daughters, Faith has  enjoyed her role as mother and wife, and the good life that emanates from their bustling  Manhattan town house. But every step of the way, Faith has carried within her a secret  she could divulge to no one. And with it, she has kept an even more painful secret  from herself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e For Faith, it is the sudden death of her stepfather—a man who, like  her husband, Alex, always remained just beyond her reach—that will touch off a journey  of change and revelation. At the funeral, painful memories flood back—and an old  friend reenters Faith’s life. Faith is greeting mourners, when she hears a voice  behind her and a single word that brings a quick smile to her face: “Fred.” Only  one person aside from her older brother, Jack, called her that. Brad Patterson was  Jack’s best friend, a long, lanky boy who teased, tormented, and protected Faith  when they fancied themselves “The Three Musketeers” as kids. When Jack died years  later, Faith and Brad came together again in their common, inconsolable grief, then  lost touch once more amid the demands of families and busy lives a continent apart.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Now a lawyer in California, Brad has reentered Faith’s life just as she is making  a decision that plunges her marriage into crisis. Determined to fulfill a long-held  desire for a career of her own, Faith applies to law school against her husband’s  wishes, igniting a barrage of anger and recrimination. Faith’s only solace is the  correspondence she has begun with Brad, a man trapped in an empty marriage of his  own, a friend she once lost and has found again. Soon e-mails are flying between  them, bridging three thousand miles, sharing much-needed friendship, support, laughter.  And as these two childhood friends rediscover each other, something extraordinary  is beginning to happen. In the safety of their friendship, Brad will find the courage  to make a decision he should have made years before. And Faith, too, is changing,  beginning to believe in herself—and in her right to grab hold of her dreams. Gathering  a strength she never knew she had, Faith is finally ready to face the most painful  step of all: of sharing the secret that has long been haunting her, and truly opening  up her heart for the first time in her life. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e With unerring insight into the hearts  of husbands and wives, lovers and families, Danielle Steel tells a wise and moving  story of the secrets that wound and the choices that heal—and of the second chances  that come only once in a lifetime.\u003cb\u003ePraise for Danielle Steel\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Steel is one of the best!”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Few modern writers convey the pathos of family and material life with such heartfelt empathy.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Philadelphia Inquirer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Steel pulls out all the emotional stops. . . . She delivers!”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What counts for the reader is the ring of authenticity.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eDanielle Steel\u003c\/b\u003e has been hailed as one of the world’s most popular authors, with over 650 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include \u003ci\u003eCountry, Prodigal Son, Pegasus,\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eA Perfect Life, Power Play, Winners, First Sight, Until the End of Time, The Sins of the Mother, \u003c\/i\u003eand other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of \u003ci\u003eHis Bright Light,\u003c\/i\u003e the story of her son Nick Traina’s life and death; \u003ci\u003eA Gift of Hope, \u003c\/i\u003ea memoir of her work with the homeless; \u003ci\u003ePure Joy, \u003c\/i\u003eabout the dogs she and her family have loved; and the children’s book \u003ci\u003ePretty Minnie in Paris.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eChapter One\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eFaith madison looked small and serious and stylish, as she set the  table, tossed a salad, and glanced into the oven at the dinner she'd prepared. She  was wearing a well-cut black suit, and at forty-seven, she was still as slim as she  had been when she married Alex Madison twenty-six years ago. She looked like a Degas  ballerina, with her green eyes, and her long straight blond hair, which she had knotted  into a sleek bun. She sighed, and sat down quietly in one of the kitchen chairs.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The small elegant brownstone townhouse on East Seventy-fourth Street in New York  was deadly quiet, and she could hear the clock ticking, as she waited for Alex to  come home. She closed her eyes for a minute, thinking of where she had been that  afternoon. And as she opened them again, she could hear the front door open and close.  There was no other sound, no footstep on the hall carpet, no shout of \"hello\" as  he walked in. He always came in that way. He locked the door behind him, set down  his briefcase, hung his coat up in the closet, and glanced at his mail. In time,  he would come looking for her. He would check her small study, and then glance into  the kitchen to see if she was there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Alex Madison was fifty-two years old. They  had met when she was in college, at Barnard, and he was in business school at Columbia.  Things had been different then. He had been enchanted by Faith's open easy ways,  her warmth, her energy, her joy. He had always been quiet and reserved, and cautious  with his words. They married as soon as she graduated, and he got his MBA. He had  been an investment banker ever since. She had worked as a junior editor at Vogue  for a year after graduating, and loved it, and then stopped when she went to law  school for a year. She dropped out when her first child was born. Eloise had just  turned twenty-four and had moved to London in early September. She was working at  Christie's, and learning a lot about antiques. Faith's other daughter, Zoe, at eighteen,  was a freshman at Brown. After twenty-four years of full-time mothering, Faith had  been out of a job for the past two months. The girls were gone--and she and Alex  were suddenly alone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Hi, how was it?\" Alex asked as he walked into the kitchen  looking tired. He barely glanced at her and sat down. He'd been working hard on two  IPOs. It didn't even occur to him to touch her or to hug her. Most of the time, he  spoke to her from across the room. He didn't do it out of malice, but it had been  years since he'd come home from the office and given her a hug. She had no idea when  he'd stopped. She'd been so busy with their daughters that she didn't notice, until  one day she realized that he didn't touch her when he came home anymore. She was  always doing homework with the girls, or bathing one of them, when he came home at  night. But it had been a long, long time since he'd been affectionate with her. Longer  than either of them knew or cared to remember. There was a chasm between them now  that they had both long since accepted, and she felt as though she were looking at  him from a great distance as she poured him a glass of wine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"It was all right.  Sad,\" she said, as he glanced at the paper, and she took the chicken out of the oven.  He preferred fish, but she hadn't had time to buy any on the way home. \"He looked  so small.\" She was speaking of her stepfather, Charles Armstrong. He had died two  days before, at the age of eighty-four. The rosary had been that day, and the casket  had been open so Charles could be \"viewed\" by family and friends.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"He was old, Faith.  He'd been sick for a long time.\" As though that not only explained it, but dismissed  it. Alex did that. He dismissed things. Just as for years now, he had dismissed her.  She felt lately as though she had served her purpose, done her job, and been dispensed  with, not only by her children, but by her husband as well. The girls had their own  lives now that they'd left home. And Alex lived in a world that didn't include her,  except on rare occasions, when he expected her to entertain clients, or go to a dinner  party with him. The rest of the time, he expected her to amuse herself. She saw women  friends sometimes in the daytime, but most of her old friends still had children  at home and were pressed for time. In the past several months, since Zoe left for  college, Faith had been spending most of her time alone, trying to figure out what  to do with the rest of her life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e And Alex had a full life of his own. It seemed  eons since she and Alex had sat for hours at dinner and chatted about the things  that were important to them. It had been years since they had gone for long walks  on the weekend, or gone to movies and held hands. She could barely remember what  that had been like with Alex. He seldom touched her, and rarely spoke. And yet, she  knew he loved her, or at least she thought so, but he seemed to have almost no need  to communicate with her. It was all shorthand and staccato words, silence suited  him better, as it did now, as she set his dinner down in front of him, and brushed  away a stray lock of blond hair. He seemed not to notice her at all, and was engrossed  in something he was reading in the paper. It took him a long time to answer when  she spoke again.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Are you coming tomorrow?\" she asked gently. Her stepfather's funeral  was the next day. He shook his head as he glanced up at her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"I can't. I'm going  to Chicago. Meetings with Unipam.\" He had been having trouble with an important account.  Business took precedence over all else, and had for a long time. He had become a  very successful man. It had bought them the townhouse, and their daughters' educations,  an unexpected amount of ease and luxury that Faith hadn't expected to enjoy. But  there were other things that would have meant more to her. Comfort, laughter, warmth.  She felt as though she never laughed anymore, and hadn't in a long time, except when  she was with the girls. It wasn't that Alex treated her badly. It was more that he  didn't treat her at all. He had other things on his mind, and he didn't hesitate  to make that clear to her. Even his lengthy silences told her that he would rather  think than talk to her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"It would be nice if you were there,\" Faith said cautiously,  as she sat down across the table from him. He was a handsome man, and had always  been. At fifty-two, he had grown distinguished as well, with a full head of gray  hair. He had piercing blue eyes, and an athletic build. One of his partners had died  suddenly of a heart attack two years before, and Alex had been careful about diet  and exercise since then. Which was why he preferred fish to anything else, and was  pushing the chicken she had cooked around his plate. She hadn't had time to be creative.  She had been at the funeral parlor with her stepsister, Allison, all afternoon, while  people came by to pay their respects. The two women hadn't seen each other since  Faith's mother's funeral the year before, and not for ten years before that. Allison  hadn't come to her brother Jack's funeral two years before Faith's mother's. There  had been too many funerals in recent years. Her mother, Jack, now Charles. Too many  people had disappeared. And although she and her stepfather had never been close,  she had respected him nonetheless, and it saddened her to think of his being gone.  It felt as though all the familiar landmarks were fading from her life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"I have  to be at the meeting in Chicago tomorrow,\" Alex said, looking intently into his plate.  He was only picking at the chicken, but he hadn't bothered to complain.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Other people  go to funerals,\" Faith said quietly. There was nothing strident about Faith. She  didn't argue with him, didn't fight. She rarely disagreed with him. There was no  point anyway. Alex had a way of removing himself. He did what he wanted, usually  without asking or consulting her, and had for years. He operated like a separate  entity from her most of the time, and what motivated him was business and the demands  it put on him, not what Faith wanted him to do. She knew how he worked and what he  thought. It was hard to get behind the walls he put up around himself. She was never  entirely sure if it was a defense, or simply what made him comfortable. It had been  different when they were young, but it had been this way for years. Being married  to him was a lonely place, but she was used to it. She only felt it more now because  the girls were gone. They had provided all the warmth she needed for years. It was  their absence she felt now, more than his. And she seemed to have drifted away from  many of her friends. Time and life and marriage and kids had somehow gotten in the  way.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Zoe had left for Brown two months before. She seemed happy there, and had yet  to come home for a weekend, although Providence was close enough. But she was busy  with her friends, her life, her activities at school. Just as Eloise was happy in  London, with her job. Faith had been feeling for a while that they all had fuller  lives than she, and she had been wrestling with trying to decide what to do with  her own. She had thought of getting a job, but had no idea what kind of work she  could do. It had been twenty-five years since she'd worked at Vogue, before Eloise  was born. She had also thought about going back to law school, and had mentioned  it to Alex a couple of times. He thought the idea was ridiculous, at her age, and  dismissed it out of hand.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"At your age, Faith? You don't start law school again  at forty-seven. You'd be nearly fifty before you graduated and passed the bar.\" He  said it with a look of utter contempt, and although she still thought of it from  time to time she didn't mention it to him. Alex thought she should continue doing  charity work, as she had for years, and going to lunch with her friends. All of which  had begun to seem meaningless to Faith, particularly now with the girls away. She  wanted something with more substance to fill her life, but she had yet to find a  plan that seemed sensible to her, and one she could convince her husband would be  worthwhile.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"No one is going to miss me at Charles's funeral,\" Alex said conclusively,  as Faith cleared his plate, and offered him some ice cream, which he declined. He  was careful about his weight, and was very trim and in good shape. He played squash  several times a week, and tennis on weekends, when the weather in New York allowed.  They had rented a weekend house in Connecticut when the girls were small, but they  hadn't done that in years. Alex liked to be able to go in to the office, if he needed  to, on the weekends.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e She wanted to tell him that she would miss him at her stepfather's  funeral the next day. But she knew there was no point. Once he made up his mind,  one way or another, he could not be swayed. It never occurred to him that she might  need him there. And it wasn't the nature of their relationship for her to portray  herself that way. She was capable, and well able to take care of herself. She had  never leaned heavily on him, even when their children were small. She made good decisions,  and was sure of herself. She had been the perfect wife for him. She never \"whined,\"  as he put it. And she didn't now. But she was disappointed that he didn't want to  be there for her. Disappointment had become a way of life for Faith now. Alex was  almost never there when she needed him. He was responsible, respectable, intelligent,  provided well for them. And the emotional side of him had vanished into thin air  years before. They had wound up with the same relationship his parents had. When  she had met them, she had been shocked by how cold they were, and unable to express  affection for each other. His father had been particularly remote, just exactly the  way Alex had become in time, although Faith had never pointed out to him how similar  to his father he was. Alex wasn't demonstrative, and in fact it made him uncomfortable  when others were, particularly Zoe and Faith. Their constant displays of affection  always made him uneasy, and even more distant and critical of them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Of the two girls,  Zoe was the most like her, warm, affectionate, good-natured, with a sense of mischief  about her, reminiscent of Faith when she was young. She was a terrific student, and  a bright girl. But it was Eloise who was closer to her father, they had a kind of  silent bond that was more comfortable for him. She was quieter than her sister, and  always had been, and like Alex, she was often far more critical of Faith, and outspoken  about it. Perhaps because he was. Zoe was always quick to come to her mother's defense,  and to stand by her. She had wanted to come to Charles's funeral, although she wasn't  close to him. He had never had any real interest in the girls. But as it turned out,  she had midterm exams, and couldn't get away. And there was no reason for Eloise  to come all the way from London for her step-grandfather's funeral, after he had  never given her the time of day. Faith didn't expect it of them, but it would have  been nice if Alex could have made the effort to be there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Faith didn't mention it  to him again. As she did with a lot of other things, she let it go. She knew she  wouldn't win the argument. As far as he was concerned, she was perfectly capable  of going alone. And he knew, just as his daughters did, that Faith and her stepfather  had never been close. His loss was more symbolic to her. And what Faith didn't verbalize  to him was that it was more painful because it reminded her acutely of the others  who had gone before. Her mother, her brother, Jack, whose death had devastated Faith  when his plane went down on the way to Martha's Vineyard three years before. He was  forty-six years old at the time, had been an excellent pilot, and the engine had  caught fire. The plane had exploded in midair, and it was a shock she had only just  recently begun to recover from. She and Jack had always been soulmates and best friends.  He had been her sole emotional support, and a source of comfort for her throughout  her childhood and adult life. He was always forgiving, never critical, and fiercely  loyal. They were two years apart, and growing up, their mother had always said they  had been like twins. Particularly when their father died suddenly of a heart attack  when Faith was ten and Jack twelve.","brand":"Dell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302466343141,"sku":"NP9780440236726","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780440236726.jpg?v=1767721651","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/answered-prayers-isbn-9780440236726","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}