Deceptive Calm

The thing about past traumas is that they leave wounds. They may dry up into scars that become a part of you, but you will never be who you once were.

Our story dates back to the turbulent backdrop of 1968. At a time when two heroes of our country, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, were shot dead. And with them, the voice of a community suppressed by racism. It was a tough time to be black.

Among the victims of all the turmoil is Vanessa, a stunning, light-skinned beauty. Growing up in a Catholic orphanage for black children in the Jim Crow South, she suffers from traumas stemming from a Ku Klux Klan attack, witnessing a back-alley abortion, and the death of a nun who reared her. Emotionally battered and bruised, Vanessa has been dealt too great a damage through the tragedy she has encountered.

She will never be the same, but not in the way you think.

Vanessa gives the phrase, "starting fresh" a whole new meaning. Stealing the identity of a dead baby, she becomes a new person and starts a new life.

From there on out, deception becomes her new face. She starts out as a college intern and, little by little, goes up the ranks, making it to the newsroom-meet the first female co-anchor of the evening newscast!

Dazzling audiences with her on-air charm and glamor, she helps the station move to the top of the Nielsen ratings. Life is good. She marries into a wealthy and powerful family. But with the birth of her child, things take a darker turn.

Her first child is hospitalized and diagnosed with sickle-cell anemia.

The husband, naturally, is caught off guard by the diagnosis. But what he cannot understand is that the child is black.

Slowly, it's as though Vanessa's past begins to catch up. With a police investigation into Vanessa's facade, the only question that remains to be asked is this: Can she keep her deceptive calm?

Author: Patricia Skipper
Publisher: Patricia Skipper
Published: 09/01/2023
Pages: 294
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.87lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.62d
ISBN: 9781685153144