Maria Daambra (ePub)

Maria first met the rich and debonair Michael Daambra while she was skating with her friends on the frozen Peters River. The fact that she was from a poor hard working family and that he was the sole heir to the rich Daambra familys fortune and lucrative business empire as well, did not dissuade them from going through a lengthy romantic relationship which eventually led to matrimony. Their seven month old marriage was ideal until Michaels father died and the young man had to take over the reins of the familys extensive holdings, whereby he soon took on a new lifestyle of womanizing and alcoholism. Fearing that Maria would create a scandal which could cause him to lose the election for the Governorship of the State, he placed her under the watchful supervision of Marie LaGrande, known simply as LaGrande, thus making his wife a prisoner within the Chateau. LaGrande had a split personalitygentle as a lamb one moment, and as mean as can be the next; her bitterness towards people was a hangover from the harsh beatings that she had received at the diabolical DeVue Academy, a private school for wealthy insubordinate young ladies. Maria was eventually freed from her imprisonment one day, when, in a fit of rage, Michael killed a man and was forced to go on the lam or face homicidal charges. She then moved from the Chateau to a small farm, where at first she ran a small fruit and vegetable stand but which quickly expanded into a thriving lucrative Garden Center. A decade later, she accidentally ran into her fugitive husband roving freely about in a shopping mall, and fearing for her life, she notified the police as to where they could locate the elusive murderer after she had shadowed him to his rental apartment. The institutionalized Michael was never able to recover from the shock of having been apprehended after so many years of freedom, and died in a mental institution shortly thereafter, while awaiting trial. Maria met an old acquaintance, Charles O'Shaughnessy, and married him after a long courtship. They raised four children, and went on to live a long and happy life.