Once in a Lifetime Author:Danielle Steel The best-selling author of Remembrance and The Ring has written a moving story about a woman who believes that true love happens only once in a lifetime-and then discovers, the passionate way, that she's fortunate enough to be wrong. — Daphne Fields, at 33, had achieved staggering game and fortune as a best-selling author, but her millions of fan... more »s never knew that tragedy compelled her to live a solitary life of hard work and devotion to her son. No one knew her loneliness at Christmas time, when she suffered unbearable memories of a tragic holiday fire that had taken the lives of her young husband, Jeff, and their baby daughter. Her only ray of hope had been a baby on the way-an everlasting token of her "once in a lifetime" love for Jeff-Andrew, born deaf, to whom she devoted her entire heart and soul.
A turning point came when she took Andrew to New Hampshere to stay at a special school, feeling her loneliest. There she met John Fowler, a kind logger whose loving support gave her the courage to write her first novel-and to love again. In time, he too was taken from her. It was Matthew Dane, the warm, sensitive, boyishly handsome director of Andrew's school, whosefriendship helped her through a time when she was convinced she could never love again.
In Hollywood, writing the screenplay for one of her novels, she began a disillusioning affair with the stunningly handsome star of the movie. But it wasn't until she was fighting for her life in a New York City hospital that a true love would come to claim her, a love that had been waiting for her all along.« less
After her happy marriage tragically ends, Daphne, a successful novelist, finds herself torn between two men, Matt Dane and Justin Wakefield, and between her writing career, her love, and motherhood
Daphne Fields life hides a myriad of secrets. The husband and daughter she lost in a fire. The son who barely survived it and would be deaf forever. The victories, the defeats, the challenges of facing life as a woman alone and helping her son meet the challenges of his handicap. A strong woman she would not accept defeat, or help from anyone.