The Unexpected Daughter

Three people's lives intersect in a tumultuous yet redeeming way that none of them could have ever predicted. Jenny is a young professional from the South with an upbringing she wants to forget. She meets Roshan, an Indian immigrant who has moved to the United States with his mother, Esha, to escape family ghosts. With strong cultural tradition, Esha has devoted her entire life to her only child, both for his own good and for her personal protection from a painful past. Roshan understands his role as his mother's refuge, and from an early age, he commits himself to caring for her. But when Jenny and Roshan embark on a forbidden, intercultural relationship, all three get tangled into an inseparable web-betrayal, violence, and shame-leaving them forced to make choices about love and family they never wanted to make while finding peace where they never expected to look.

"Natalie, marry me." Being proposed to by Pierce, son of the most distinguished family in town, should have been a dream come true for Natalie. She's been deeply in love with him since she was a teenager. She had given up on him before because she's the daughter of a servant, but her feelings only intensified as she got older. One month before his proposal, Pierce came to her house after breaking off his engagement with the daughter of a wealthy family, and they slept together. She intended it to happen only once, just to comfort him. But she finds herself pregnant, and now the man she loves most has come to her with a proposal born out of obligation. Is this the end of her dream?

As parents, nearly all mothers and fathers form a bond with their offspring at the moment of birth. As we parents know, children do not come with instructions, however. The business of raising them to become productive members of society is a roller-coaster of ups and downs. This series of trials and errors helps to define and solidify the parental bond. When that bond is severed by loss, the ensuing chaos sends a grieving parent into a tailspin. When that loss is unexpected and there is no time to prepare, the grief can be particularly debilitating. Parents are not supposed to outlive their children. Just as children do not come with instructions for their raising, there are no instructions for how to deal with the grief which consumes us when we lose one. How can one survive the crippling effects of this tragedy? The enormity of that tragedy is compounded when more than one child is unexpectedly lost. As you read my story of the loss of two of my three children, I hope this survivor's perspective will help to shed light on a very complex and personally-unique emotion and serve as an inspiration for others experiencing the same grief. With belief in God, the love of family, support of friends, compassion from strangers, and the passage of time, it truly is possible to overcome the debilitating effects of grief.

FROM HERE TO PATERNITY He was only after one thing—her baby! Natalie had been in love with Pierce Donellan since she was eleven, and when he came knocking on her door again she just couldn't turn him away. But she hadn't considered the possible consequences. When he learned she was pregnant, Pierce insisted on a wedding. But Natalie's unexpected child was the only part of Pierce's heart she was ever likely to possess. Although Pierce did seem determined to make their marriage a real one…. FROM HERE TO PATERNITY—men who find their way to fatherhood by fair means, by foul, or even by default!

Fatherhood is filled with all kinds of unexpected surprises in this acclaimed Adams Dynasty story from New York Times bestselling author Sherryl Woods. Widower Harlan Adams had plenty of experience with children—male children, anyway. So when a rebellious teenage girl stole his truck and went for a joyride, Harlan was baffled. Then he confronted her intriguing, sassy mother and was totally thrown for a loop. While he might not know anything about girls, he thought he knew everything about women. Trouble was, Harlan had no experience with a woman who told him no…

A Chinese-Filipino physician had a busy practice in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He took the staff for a weekend vacation and got to learn more about his new medical assistant. He was not expecting it but something from his past came back to him.