Elena Undone

Book excerpt: Elena. A wife who will not question her loyalty to a husband she does not love nor her duty to a church whose tenets she does not fully accept. Peyton. A lesbian trapped in an arid relationship and a life that has brought her success but scant emotional sustenance. Their eyes first meet across the distance of a public park. One glance is all it takes for ignition. A slow-building sexual fire soon becomes a conflagration that engulfs both their lives. But no matter how compelling the attraction, no matter how intensely love may reach into the depths of either of their souls, reality is inflexible. Elena's husband is pastor of a church; her son is the center of her life; and she is haunted by a burden of grief and guilt that fixes her firmly in the conventional life she leads.