Taking Chances - Volume Five: Ellen and David's Bet. Ellen is back home in Chicago with her husband, David, and their three daughters. The baggage she has brought back from Baton Rouge (Volume One: Ellen's Bet) is weighted down with guilt and remorse: the product of her impulsive, foolish bet and its aftermath. How does she tell David - does she tell David? - about the horrendous night when she had to pay off her rash, thoughtless wager? In this novella of about 33,000 words Ellen begins to tip-toe through that field of landmines seeking atonement and absolution. Every method of penance she tries comes up far short of what she knows is necessary for true forgiveness and freedom from the encumbrance of her transgressions. And even if she tells David of her guilty experience, how does she explain to him that - as horrendous as her experience was and as tortured she is by her wrongdoing - the experience lit in her a fascination with the concept of placing herself at risk to win? As it turns out, David has secrets of his own to reveal.