скачать книгу бесплатно
The Legacy of Lucy Harte: A poignant, life-affirming novel that will make you laugh and cry
Emma Heatherington
This beautiful, heartbreaking novel is a must read for fans of bestselling authors Jojo Moyes, Kelly Rimmer and SD Robertson.‘Sometimes time is all we have with the people we love. I ask you to slow down in life. To take your time, but don’t waste it….’Maggie O'Hara knows better than most that life can change in a heartbeat. Eighteen years ago she was given the most precious gift- a second-hand heart, and a second chance at life.Always thankful, Maggie has never forgotten Lucy Harte – the little girl who saved her life. But as Maggie's own life begins to fall apart, and her heart is broken in love, she loses sight of everything she has to live for…Until an unexpected letter changes Maggie’s life.It seems Lucy's final gift to Maggie is much more than the heart that beats inside her. It's a legacy that Maggie must learn to live by, a promise to live, laugh, fall in love and heal her broken heart for good.Because as the keeper of a borrowed heart, Maggie's time is more precious than most. She must make every cherished second count…Praise for The Legacy of Lucy Harte:‘An inspiring read…beautifully written, Emma Heatherington keeps you guessing on each turn of the page’ Irish News‘A wonderfully compelling read, beautifully written and a most heart-warming story’ Upstairs Downstairs
The Legacy of Lucy Harte
EMMA HEATHERINGTON
A division of HarperCollinsPublishers
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
HarperImpulse an imprint of
HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by HarperImpulse 2017
Copyright © Emma Heatherington 2017
Cover images © Shutterstock.com (http://Shutterstock.com)
Cover design by Holly Macdonald
Cover layout design by HarperCollins
Emma Heatherington asserts the moral right to
be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International
and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
By payment of the required fees, you have been granted
the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access
and read the text of this e-book on screen.
No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted,
downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or
stored in or introduced into any information storage and
retrieval system, in any form or by any means,
whether electronic or mechanical, now known or
hereinafter invented, without the express
written permission of HarperCollins.
Ebook Edition © January 2017 ISBN: 9780007568826
Version 2017-11-21
For Ciaran and Ashley
#donatelife
Table of Contents
Cover (#u97fc963c-d152-542b-9519-c6ed0235b60e)
Title Page (#uaa26c0d9-a79a-57d1-826a-4778f793aa07)
Copyright (#u22fbf086-054b-5634-bbe6-e1e5d867f606)
Dedication (#uba76283c-8618-5e02-ab28-bf5332da31d1)
Prologue (#uf9a38456-6a56-577e-a0be-1db3eb961c6d)
Chapter 1 (#uce645cd6-8a64-5c21-8c40-78336a9c2ee3)
Chapter 2 (#u14799520-28f6-5e9e-90ba-cb713519fd9f)
Chapter 3 (#u391b8825-d418-5e9a-8573-250431ecea6f)
Chapter 4 (#u98fff993-a199-5e02-891f-aaa01bc92cd4)
Chapter 5 (#u70674099-a461-5b62-a4eb-21427aca63e2)
Chapter 6 (#u39c5738b-05db-5285-9b63-c32343a4f2c1)
Chapter 7 (#u1de99958-fb1a-5de1-adf1-aa16c870bddc)
Chapter 8 (#uff6d03fb-01a4-591a-ba13-79e18cecd82f)
Chapter 9 (#uecab677d-22e5-57c4-b40f-ee5daee198bd)
Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 26 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 27 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 28 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 29 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 30 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 31 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 32 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 33 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 34 (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)
About Emma Heatherington (#litres_trial_promo)
Also by Emma Heatherington (#litres_trial_promo)
About HarperImpulse (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue (#u2c67cf78-da39-538a-9251-ec5a8cab7c9f)
I thought I saw you once on a train to Dublin.
You were about six years old. You were slurping on an ice-cream, your face covered in chocolate sprinkles and you were laughing so hard at the little boy beside you that I thought you were going to choke.
I thought I saw you a few years later, but this time you were a curly-haired toddler in a park throwing a high-pitched tantrum when you couldn’t reach the swing. A handsome man scooped you up in big strong arms and took you to a pram, where you kicked and screamed, your little arms stretched out, your hands opening and closing and reaching back towards the play area.
I thought I saw you as a lanky teenager one sunny afternoon when I was in London as you shopped for clothes with your mother, arguing with her over a pair of ripped jeans versus a pretty floral dress.
I think I see you all the time, even though I have no idea what you look like, who you are or what your story might have been.
You are inside me. You are part of me. You are within my every move.
I feel like I know you, Lucy Harte, I really do.
But you will never, ever know me.
Chapter 1 (#u2c67cf78-da39-538a-9251-ec5a8cab7c9f)
Monday 10
April
I am dying.
I am drowning, or else I am having a heart attack, but either way, whatever it is, I can’t breathe and I’m definitely dying this time. How ironic it would be for me to die today, of all days…
Oh God, please help me.
I sit up on my brand-new bed and automatically fall back again, my squinted eyes unable to open just yet and my shaking body needing much more time to recuperate from my latest ‘party for one’.
This is no ordinary hangover. Hell, no. My head is like a bowling ball, I can’t open my dried-out mouth, the phone is ringing off the hook and I wish whoever it is would just stop already because I don’t want to talk to anyone.
