Читать книгу Sweeter Than Honey - Mary B. Morrison - Страница 12

She’s successful now. Money. Diamonds. Cars. Furs. To whom much was given, much was required. Let her tell it, and if anyone could’ve looked over her shoulder, I’m sure they would’ve agreed, not much was given unto her except grief and pain. She wasn’t different from most folks. Everybody had a story to tell. Practically rearing herself, how did she ever survive? Her entire childhood, no matter how hard she tried to please her mother, she was never good enough to measure up to her baby sister.

What good was having a parent who constantly put her down? A mother who shattered her self-esteem, never believed in her dreams, always leaving her to pick herself up every time she fell. Why was each of her lessons learned the hard way? Unfamiliar family made her feel like a stranger in her own home. Nah, growing up she never had a home. It was more like a halfway house. No amount of bricks and mortar could encapsulate a loving environment.

Maybe her father could’ve showered her with the love that her mother didn’t or simply wouldn’t, but she doubted her father knew she was alive. They could’ve exchanged breaths or broken bread at the same restaurant table at separate times. Her on Wednesday. Him on Thursday. Her life was full of unknowns. And even as a woman, she had no idea where to find her daddy. Perhaps one day she’d really try.

Flagstaff, Arizona, a town with a population of less than sixty thousand, somebody had to know…what she didn’t. His whereabouts. Without question the man who provided the seed to fertilize her mother’s egg had to be better than the henpecked man her mother had anxiously agreed to marry. Her stepfather-to-be was a virtual vagabond who’d violated her not-so-sweet sixteen innocence and changed her life forever. Inevitable change left unforgettable scars on her soul. Many cold days and sleepless nights she wished she was either dead or never born.

Oh well, by every means necessary, she did survive. The worst, she prayed, was all behind her now, specifically the two men who wanted her dead: her ex-man and her ex-boss. Because she’d never had a positive male role model, all of her exes added to the long list of reasons why she didn’t trust men. All the men in her life were satisfied as long as she gave them what they wanted. Did whatever they desired.

The johns who abused her were long gone too. Today, she was surrounded with good women she regretfully at times treated worse than…hm, let’s not dwell on the negativity that learned behavior begets. For once, everything in her life was perfect, including her new man.

For once in her life she was happy more than she was sad.