Mistletoe Memories - Abridged

MISTLETOE MEMORIES: Annie Carlinghall was from a wealthy family. John Klaus’ family was anything but wealthy. When Annie and John met at a college party, one that Annie had sneaked into with her cousin, Caylin, she had not intended to fall in love with a boy four years older. But she did. Her parents did not like John’s background and they never stuck around long enough to learn that John was honest, generous, loving and brilliant. He was studying to be a lawyer. A good one. He wanted to be the man other people trusted. Once he met Annie, he spent too many hours with Annie and not enough on his studies, so his grades dropped and he lost his scholarship. Not having the courage to confront his ex-Marine father, John enlisted in the Marines as a backup; thinking that once he was out of the service, he would go back to school. He and Annie eloped the night before he was deployed. When she returned home, her furious parent told her they were disinheriting her if she did not get the marriage annulled. Annie left that night and went to live with her father-in-law.John was brilliant and as a Marine, people took notice. He was tapped to conduct a secret mission to rescue hostages out of a war zone. But the mission went awry and John was nearly fatally injured. He was rescued by a young boy, Ali, who hid him and brought him back to health. John nearly lost his leg. He did lose his memory. And some brain function. In time, it came back enough from him to get back to the states, where he went to law school and joined a law firm. He spent several years, but succeeded in adopting Ali and bringing him to the US. A year later, the dreams of a beautiful woman that had haunted him since the accident, finally broke through the haze of memory loss. He remembered Annie, his father. Her parents .Everything. He remembered especially how her parents were dead-set against him. Was Annie still there? It had been almost 10 years. Did she have a new life? Did she remember anything about him at all? For him, his memory of her was as if it was yesterday. All he had was hope as he and Ali drove to Philadelphia on Christmas Even praying for a miracle.