Truth in Lies

The story before the story...What happened before A Family Affair began? Best-selling author Mary Campisi answers this question in her new Park Bench series. These short stories make the perfect park-bench listen and are named after her signature park-bench covers.

When Christine Blacksworth's larger-than-life father is killed on an icy road in Magdalena, New York, 100 miles from the 'getaway' cabin he visited every month, she discovers a secret that threatens everything she's always held to be true. Her father has another family which includes a mistress and a daughter. Determined to uncover the truth behind her father's secret life, Christine heads to Magdalena, prepared to hate the people who have caused her to question everything she thought she knew about her father.

Harry Blacksworth is rich, handsome, the ultimate playboy with a killer smile and a clever wit. He's fought it, denied it, ignored it, but the damn truth won't go away: He's fallen in love. And just when he's accepted that fact, Greta Servensen, the only woman he's ever trusted, breaks his heart. Christine Blacksworth and Nate Desantro beat the odds when they fell in love and married. But staying married is threatened when the foundation behind every good relationship - trust - is challenged.

Eight years ago, tragedy struck the town's perfect couple, Daniel "Cash" Casherdon and Tess Carrick, days before their wedding. That tragedy shredded their dreams of a life together and sent them fleeing Magdalena. Now, destiny has brought them back, and the town is determined to see this couple mend their differences.

When city boy Ben Reed arrives in Magdalena, he's not planning a long-term stay in a town filled with too many busybodies and too little excitement. He just needs things to settle down in Philly for a few months before he returns to his old life and his plan to win back his ex-wife. But once he gets to know the people in this town, he starts to care about them - one in particular: Gina Servetti. The longer he's around her, the more he realizes she's so much more than a woman with a scowl and a sharp tongue.

It's time to head back to Magdalena in this holiday novella. The town is preparing to celebrate the holidays when a snowstorm hits and threatens to ruin the festivities. But that's not the only threat blowing into town. Pop's son is here from California to enjoy Christmas with his father, but when he leaves, he's taking Pop with him, or is he? Will the town give up the Godfather of Magdalena, or will they show Pop's son that when we open our hearts, anything is possible, even second chances?

On the day Michael stands at the altar before family, friends, and most of the town of Restalline, Pennsylvania, he's prepared to pledge his life, love, and fidelity to the woman who owns his heart. There's only one thing missing - the bride. Elise loves Michael truly and completely, but there's a tiny piece of her that believes he'll fall back into his "bad boy" ways. When a threat from his past visits her, Elise lets doubt rule and skips her own wedding.

Heartache. Betrayal. Forgiveness. Redemption...It's time to head back to Magdalena, New York, and spend a little time with the people we love to love and even a few we love to hate.