Heart Throbs #18

When Veda promised to wait for Cal Payton's return from Korea, she meant every word—but when she travels to Seattle to meet him at the dock, she witnesses a moment that shatters her dreams and sends her reeling back home. Now, with Cal's discharge imminent and a reunion she dreads looming, Veda must decide whether a misunderstanding at the dock is worth throwing away a lifetime of memories, or if there's more to the story than what her heartbroken eyes saw that day. "My Hero's Homecoming" explores what happens when pride and pain collide with the hope of a second chance.

When a carefully staged photograph compromises Laurie Adams's reputation, she and her devoted husband Kent must weather a public scandal that threatens to tear their newlywed marriage apart. As the ordeal drags on and Kent's behavior grows mysteriously distant, Laurie finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew about their love—until a chance for renewal forces them both to confront what truly matters.

When Donna accepts a marriage proposal from Ken Robinson, the general manager's son, she's certain her happiness is complete—until a spiteful coworker named Fran Nichols, who harbors her own feelings for Ken, manufactures a theft accusation that turns him against her. Faced with Ken's refusal to trust her word over the damning evidence, Donna watches her dream romance crumble as misplaced faith destroys everything they've built together.

As the daughter of bandleader Nicky Sager, Toni has learned a bitter lesson: the men who pursue her are really after an introduction to her famous father. When the charming Van Mayfield arrives at the resort where her dad is performing, she dares to hope he might be different—until she discovers his true ambition during a rehearsal. Now Toni must face the painful reality that she's been deceived once again, and confront what it means to trust someone who may only see her as a means to an end.