find...
To anyone on the outside looking in through the door of Cyndarella
Worthy’s life, it looks like she’s got it all. At thirty-two,
she’s beautiful
and successful, with a handsome brother lover, Thad Mitchell. But
deep
in her heart, she holds a candle for Bashar Bazzi, the Chaldean
immigrant she loved ten years ago. Bashar left for Iraq and she
never
saw him again, and she assumes he made a marriage within his own
community without a backward glance.
Cyn’s girlfriends, Tavie, Denise and Vette, know that their sister
still
carries the scars of Bashar, but they pray she’ll find love and
peace with
Thad. Anyway, they’ve got issues too: Tavie’s dating smart school
principal, Mack Dooley, but she can’t escape the rumors that he’s
playing around; Denise’s marriage to Sean is under pressure
because
she hasn’t conceived a second child; Vette’s dating an older guy,
Louis
Burns, but wonders if she’ll ever get a ring on her finger.
When Thad proposes to Cyn and she accepts, it looks like this
sister’s
finally on her way to true happiness. But no sooner are the
celebrations
done, when there’s trouble—Bashar Bazzi is home, and he’s ready to
settle his unfinished business with Cyn...
Synopsis:
The prequel novel to Betrayal’s Dust
Setting: Michigan; San Diego, CA; Mexico
MAIN CHARACTERS
Cyndarella (Cyn) Worthy, 32, owner of advertising
agency, Peachtree Productions and dating auditor, Thad Mitchell, who’s
divorced, with one young daughter. Daughter of Willa and Vernon Worthy and
brother to Pete Worthy. Had a relationship with Chaldean immigrant Bashar
Bazzi from her teens to her early twenties, but then Bashar went to Iraq and
she never heard from him again. As Bashar’s family disliked her for being
Black, Cyn assumed Bashar had dumped her and made an arranged marriage within his
own community.
Tavie (Octavia) Slade, teacher, single.
Currently dating school principal, Mack (Mackenzie) Dooley. Tavie has had
a checkered love-life, including a broken engagement to New Orleans Saints
star, Tyrone Sutton, who cheated with a call girl. Mack’s mother, Mrs. Dooley,
disapproves of Tavie, as she thinks Tavie is not classy enough for her son and
continually tries to set him up with other women.
Denise (Dee) Lincoln, creative director at
Peachtree Productions. Married to Sean, one daughter, Marla (3). Denise
isn’t keen to have another child just yet, though Sean wants to. Anyway,
she is having trouble conceiving.
Vette (Corvette) Vern, the only White member of
the group, she’s currently single but in a relationship with Louis Burns, who
is twelve years her senior and has grown-up kids of his own. She owns a court
reporting business. She has a troubled relationship with her mother, Tara, a
surgical nurse, and was only reunited recently with her estranged father. Vette
is inclined to gossip, which can get her into trouble.
The ladies have been the best of friends since junior high, and
meet regularly to share the tears and triumphs, the playfulness and passion,
and the ups and downs of their relationships with their men.
When the story opens, Cyndarella’s man, Thad, is away on business
in Singapore. Cyn hears from Vette that her ex, Bashar Bazzi, is back in town.
In 1991, Bashar went to Baghdad and though they had been living together,
Cyn never heard from him again. She is thrown by this latest news, but
when Thad returns from his trip and proposes marriage to her, she accepts.
At their engagement party on St. Valentine’s Day, Thad behaves
possessively about Cyn, which sows a small seed of doubt in Cyn’s mind.
Tavie’s relationship with Mack has been going well, she feels.
Though she knows Mack has cheated on her, she’s forgiven him and thinks
that they’ve worked through their issues. Recently, they enjoyed a
romantic mini-break in Toronto. Both were supposed to be attending an education
conference, but Tavie is unable to go as she’s still apparently suffering from
a stomach ‘flu bug that’s been making the rounds. Mack goes to the
conference on his own, and Tavie makes an appointment with her doctor. To
her amazement, she discovers she’s pregnant; she’s been taking the herb St.
John’s Wort for her anxiety and it has canceled out the efficacy of the
contraceptive pill. She decides to travel to the conference to surprise
Mack with the news about the baby—but there’s a surprise waiting for her: she
sees Mack canoodling with Geneva, a Jamaican fellow teacher, and then they
retire to Mack’s room. Distraught, Tavie has a miscarriage, and holes up
at Cyn’s place.
Knowing that if she and Louis ever make a commitment he won’t want
a family, Vette makes the decision to be a foster parent and starts the process
rolling. In the meantime, she has discovered through her court work what
really happened to Bashar when he went to Iraq and disappeared in 1991.
She has a dossier which she knows she must show Cyn. But first she
has to deal with Denise’s wrath. Denise is furious with Vette for
revealing that Bashar is back, as she is concerned the news might lead Cyn to
break off her engagement with Thad. However, when she hears about the
dossier, Denise has to agree that Cyn needs to know the truth.
Vette gives Cyn the dossier, which makes appalling reading.
Cyn discovers that Bashar was imprisoned and tortured for four years by
the Iraqis. Because he was born in Jordan and wasn’t a naturalized
American citizen, there was nothing that the US government could do to get him
released. When he did finally leave prison, he spent time in an English
psychiatric hospital being treated for post-traumatic stress, depression and
anxiety; he still has a therapist on call for when he suffers recurrences.
Sickened, Cyn realizes she must contact Bashar and see him. She
approaches his cousin, Wiyad, who offers to act as go-between and arrange a
meeting.
When Cyn and Bashar meet again, it’s clear that the chemistry is
still there between them. Bashar has never known why he was imprisoned.
Cyn tells Bashar of the agony she has suffered in the intervening years, and
Bashar grasps that his family prevented him from seeing her again when he was
released, tricking him into thinking that she no longer cared. However,
Cyn assures him that had she known he was incarcerated, she would have waited
for him. But realizing that Bashar’s family will never accept her, Cyn
decides to press on with her wedding to Thad, urged on by her mother.
However, she can’t resist contacting Bashar again once more, and accepts
his invitation to have dinner when he’s next in Detroit. By now, Bashar
knows that he wants Cyn back and, without her knowing, visits her parents. But
when she finds this out, Cyn reassures them that her marriage to Thad is still
on.
Tavie has told Mack that she knows about Geneva, revealed the loss
of her pregnancy and has moved out of their shared home. She’s also been
summoned by Mrs. Dooley to visit her. Tavie is aghast when Mrs. Dooley
says she wants to help Tavie reconcile with her son. She accuses Tavie of
having sat back and been complacent while she was with Mack, which Tavie can’t
deny.
Thad breaks it to Cyn that he doesn’t want to have kids straight
away after they get married, but wishes to wait a couple of years because he
wants Cyn all to himself. Cyn is devastated as he knows she wants to get
pregnant as soon as possible, and she wonders why he has waited until now to
tell her the truth. She goes to have dinner with Bashar. They talk
frankly about what happened, Cyn revealing how hurt she was by his silence and
his family’s attitude to her; she came to the conclusion that he’d gone to
Baghdad to make an arranged marriage in his own community. They make
love, but afterwards Cyn decides she must go back to Thad as Bashar’s family
will never accept her. Denise persuades her to come clean with Thad about
her night of love with Bashar. A furious argument ensues, and she calls off
the wedding, though Thad tries to persuade her not to leave him.
Cyn goes to an advertising conference in Mexico, using it as a
welcome chance to have a break and clear her head. She weighs up her
options and decides that Thad’s too possessive; Bashar is the one she loves.
Bashar has come to the conclusion that he has to reconcile with
his family, so he reaches out to his mother. He lets her know that he
loves Cyndarella and is determined to be with her. Mouna carries a guilty
secret: she colluded with her husband to have Bashar temporarily held in Iraqi
because of family disapproval about his relationship with Cyndarella.
However, Saddam Hussein’s regime intervened and what was intended to be a
short, sharp shock became a tragedy. She does not tell Bashar this, but
knows she has to facilitate a reconciliation for Bashar with the rest of the
family, and also persuade them to accept Cyndarella.
On her way home from Mexico, Cyn is forced to stop over in San
Diego, where Bashar now lives, because of bad weather, and she contacts him.
He comes to the airport and proposes. He’s already asked her
father’s permission. Overwhelmed and ecstatic, Cyn accepts, and the
wedding will go ahead on the Labor Day weekend—when she was meant to be
marrying Thad.
Corvette has got the permission she needs to foster, and is takes
in two children, Carly, who’s 4, and her brother, Brent, who’s 3.
Denise discovers she has fibroids, which have been preventing her
from getting pregnant. She will get them removed and is told she should
be able to get pregnant three months after the procedure is done.
Cyn and Bashar marry quietly in a traditional Catholic service,
and then, a week later, renew their vows at Cyn’s church and hold a joyous
reception. Cyn has discovered she’s expecting a baby, and eight months
later gives birth to a daughter, Nadia.
Tavie is still being pursued by Mack and ends up sleeping with
him. He confesses he’s finished with Geneva. But she’s now dating
Orville, a Jamaican narcotics agent, and decides to stay with him. Only
she’s in for another shock: she arrives unannounced at Orville’s house and
secretly witnesses him watching a sex tape that she and he made with Geneva!
It turns out that Orville and Geneva were married. Tavie accepts
Orville’s explanation, but she vows will have her revenge on Geneva…
Author Bio:
Vina St. Fran is the author of the Amorous Trilogy series. She
writes contemporary romance, and erotica romance for Zam Publishing, LLC. She
also is a Political Contributor for The Examiner. A native Michigander, she
resides in the Midwest with her family.
Author Links:
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