The Adventure Girls at Happiness House by Clair Blank
The Adventure Girls at Happiness House by Clair Blank
With a final chug and screech of brakes the train slid to a halt before the two story frame building that did duty for a railway station in the little college town of Briarhurst.
A group of girls proceeded with much hilarity and little speed to transport themselves and their luggage from the railway coach to the station platform. From there they viewed the rusty bus that was to transport them up the hill to the college grounds.
"It will never hold all of us and our luggage," Carol Carter declared with firm conviction. "Perhaps we had better walk."
Janet Gordon looked at the dusty road winding up the hill behind the station and then at the bus. "You can walk," she said. "I'll take a chance on this antiquated vehicle."
"Are you the six young ladies goin' to Briarhurst?"
The girls turned to see a wizened old man approaching from the station. "If ye are, climb aboard. I'm the bus driver."
"I'll wager the bus is even older than he is," Madge Reynolds murmured to Valerie Wallace.
"Will the contraption hold together?" Carol wanted to know.
"It's been a-runnin' for nigh onto twenty years and ain't fell apart yet," the driver said, climbing into his seat and waiting for the girls to get aboard.
"That isn't saying it never will," Phyllis Elton commented.
After much dickering the girls got into the bus, their luggage for the most part piled on the roof, and the ancient vehicle with its ancient driver started with a roar.
"It reminds me of a peanut roaster," Carol murmured. "The way the radiator is steaming and the noise it makes."
"Everything but the peanuts," agreed Janet. "Which reminds me, I hope dinner is early."
"Dinner is at seven," the driver informed them conversationally.
The bus started the long tedious climb up the hillside and the driver settled back comfortably in his seat. He was in no hurry.
"I thought Briarhurst was a prosperous college," Phyllis Elton said to Gale Howard, "wouldn't you think they would have a more modern bus? This thing might scare new students."
The driver frowned on her with all the disgust possible to his wrinkled features.
"Lizzie, here, has belonged to the college since she was new. She's good enough for you yet. Even the new Dean can't junk old Lizzie." He patted the steering wheel with all the affection and prized possessiveness of a loving father.
"New Dean?" Gale questioned. "Isn't Professor Harris the Dean any more?"
"Nope," the driver said. "Professor Harris resigned an' this new one come up here about three weeks ago. She's been tryin' to make changes we old ones don't like."
The girls exchanged glances. They had heard so much about Professor Harris and her rule at Briarhurst. The Dean had been much beloved by the girls. The prospect of a new régime at the college did not particularly appeal to them.
"What's she like-the new Dean?" Janet asked interestedly.
"Young and purty," the sour old man said grudgingly. "But she got no business tryin' to change things that been goin' on all right for thirty years. She won't stay long," he added darkly.
"Why won't she stay?" Phyllis wanted to know.
"The old ones don't like her," he said firmly.
"By 'the old ones' I take it you mean the teachers and other members of the faculty," Gale said.
"That's right," he agreed.
"What has she done to make them dislike her?" Janet inquired.
The man shook his head. "We don't aim to make this a modern institooshun. She has newfangled notions about a new bus and sports for the young ladies. We old ones ain't goin' to stand for it," he repeated firmly. Evidently he considered himself an important part of the college personnel.
"The idea about a new bus is enough to prejudice him," Carol laughed to Janet. "Whoops!" She made a wild lunge for her handbag as the bus navigated a deep rut with a series of protesting groans from the framework. "However, it is enough to put me on her side. If she wants a new bus I am for the new Dean!"
The bus halted first in front of the registrar's office and the girls were assigned to their prospective quarters. Because of crowded conditions only Phyllis and Gale were fortunate enough to win a room in the sorority house of Omega Chi, and this was only through the efforts of their former High School teacher. The other four girls were assigned to the dormitory house on the east lawn of the campus. At first the separation rather put a damper on their spirits.
"You might get into the sorority house next year," consoled Phyllis.
"As it is," Janet commented, "we will leave you two to face the dragons of the sorority by yourselves."
The next stop of the bus was to let Gale and Phyllis off in front of the Omega Chi Sorority house. They surveyed their future home interestedly while standing in the midst of their baggage which the driver had dumped unceremoniously at their feet. The bus rattled away and the girls exchanged glances.
"We might as well go in," Phyllis said finally.
Several girls were on the veranda and these viewed with interest the new arrivals.
"We might as well," Gale agreed with a sigh. With a traveling bag in either hand she followed Phyllis up the steps and into the building that was to be their home for the next four years.
Three years of marriage couldn't melt Theo's frozen heart. When an art gallery collapsed on Lena, he was off romancing another woman-lavishing her with a private jet. Three steel pins held Lena's shoulder together, but her heart remained broken. She filed for divorce and told everyone that he was impotent. Rising from the rubble, Lena blazed onto the design world's A‑list. She expected him to sail off with his true love-until Theo reappeared at her runway, pressing her against the wall. "Impotent, huh? Care to give it a try?"
My marriage ended at a charity gala I organized. One moment, I was the pregnant, happy wife of tech mogul Gabe Sullivan; the next, a reporter' s phone screen announced to the world that he and his childhood sweetheart, Harper, were expecting a child. Across the room, I saw them together, his hand resting on her stomach. This wasn't just an affair; it was a public declaration that erased me and our unborn baby. To protect his company's billion-dollar IPO, Gabe, his mother, and even my own adoptive parents conspired against me. They moved Harper into our home, into my bed, treating her like royalty while I became a prisoner. They painted me as unstable, a threat to the family's image. They accused me of cheating and claimed my child wasn't his. The final command was unthinkable: terminate my pregnancy. They locked me in a room and scheduled the procedure, promising to drag me there if I refused. But they made a mistake. They gave me back my phone to keep me quiet. Feigning surrender, I made one last, desperate call to a number I had kept hidden for years-a number belonging to my biological father, Antony Dean, the head of a family so powerful, they could make my husband's world burn.
Janet was adopted when she was a kid -- a dream come true for orphans. However, her life was anything but happy. Her adoptive mother taunted and bullied her all her life. Janet got the love and affection of a parent from the old maid who raised her. Unfortunately, the old woman fell ill, and Janet had to marry a worthless man in place of her parents' biological daughter to meet the maid's medical expenses. Could this be a Cinderella's tale? But the man was far from a prince, except for his handsome appearance. Ethan was the illegitimate son of a wealthy family who lived a reckless life and barely made ends meet. He got married to fulfill his mother's last wish. However, on his wedding night, he had an inkling that his wife was different from what he had heard about her. Fate had united the two people with deep secrets. Was Ethan truly the man we thought he was? Surprisingly, he bore an uncanny resemblance to the impenetrable wealthiest man in the city. Would he find out that Janet married him in place of her sister? Would their marriage be a romantic tale or an utter disaster? Read on to unravel Janet and Ethan's journey.
"You want a divorce?" His voice was ice, sending a chill down her spine. "You'll never get it." For three years, Bellatrix devoted herself to Cillian Laurent-Miami's ruthless tycoon and her indifferent husband-hoping to earn his love. But when she's diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, she realizes the bitter truth: she was never his choice. Just a placeholder for the woman who abandoned him. and has now returned. Determined to reclaim her life, Bellatrix demands a divorce. But the man who once ignored her now refuses to let her go. As buried secrets unravel, she discovers their twisted marriage was never what it seemed. Can she break free from a love that was never hers? Or will his obsession destroy them both?
"Lucien, let's get a divorce," I said in a peremptory tone that was long overdue, the most decisive farewell to this absurd marriage. We had been married for exactly three years-three years that, for me, were filled with nothing but endless loneliness and torment. For three years, the husband who should have stood by my side through every storm, Lucien Sullivan, had completely disappeared from my life as if he had never existed. He vanished without a trace, leaving me alone to endure this empty, desolate marriage. Today, I finally received his message: "I'm back. Come pick me up at the airport." When I read his words, my heart leapt with joy, and I raced to the airport, thinking that he finally understood my love and was coming back to me. But his cruelty was far worse than I could have ever imagined-he was accompanied by a pregnant woman, and that woman was Carla, my closest and most trusted friend. In that moment, all of my previous excitement, all my hope, and all of our shared laughter and tears turned into the sharpest of daggers, stabbing into my heart and leaving me gasping for air. Now, all I want is to escape from this place that has left me so broken-to lick my wounds in solitude. Even if these wounds will remain with me for the rest of my life, I refuse to have anything to do with him ever again. He should know that it was his own hand that trampled our love underfoot, that his coldness and betrayal created this irreparable situation. But when he heard those words, he desperately clung to this broken, crumbling marriage, unwilling to let it end-almost as though doing so could rewind time and return everything to how it used to be. "Aurora, come back. I regret everything!" Regret? Those simple words stirred no emotion in me-only endless sadness and fury. My heart let out a frantic, desperate scream: It's too late for any of this!
In her past life, Vivian Grant was seen as a powerless beauty trapped by the cold and ruthless Alexander Brooks. Even he believed she never loved him. But when enemies closed in, it was Vivian who sacrificed everything, including her own family, to avenge him. Now reborn, Vivian refuses to hide her strength. She's revealing her true identity, claiming her power, and rewriting her fate. No more submission, no more misunderstandings-this time, she'll take control of her life and her love. As regretful brothers beg for forgiveness and powerful enemies fall at her feet, Vivian has one goal: to rise without mercy and make the man she once loved fall for her all over again-on her terms.
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