DOROTHY by LaToya S. Watkins
ISBN:
GENRES:
PRE-ORDER ONLY
- Book will not be shipped until July 2010
BLURB
Child psychologist Chocolate Campbell learned self-hate early in life. At six
years old she knew that her sea green eyes and silky golden hair, set her apart
from her sisters—her beautiful black sisters in the eyes of the only father
she knew. The product of an adulterous affair, as an adult Chocolate finds herself
in turmoil of whether to forgive the man who rejected her and her biracial features
while accepting his legitimate daughters. While reminiscing on a past of longing
for the same love from her father that her sisters received, Chocolate is also
reminded of how his rejection, anger, and drunkenness resulted in the death
of two of her siblings.
Undercover detective Danni Campbell doesn't want to know love.
She has seen too much hate to consider giving herself—her heart over to
a man the way she witnessed her father give his to her mother only to end up
with more pain and regret than anyone she knew. She dates men that are already
taken and lets no one close enough to her heart to break it. When she meets
Muhummad, who is a far cry from conventional ideas of "handsome,"
her footing becomes shaky and she finds herself seeking her true identity in
him. She battles with sticking to her vow to never love or letting go and falling
head first into the unknown.
From a prison cell in East Texas, James Ray Campbell serves
time for the murder of his daughters. Dying from cancer and seeking absolution
from Chocolate, he attempts to reappear in her life through letters and messages
from Danni.
As the sisters face their pasts, embrace the presence, and look forward to their
futures; a sibling bond is built, held onto and threatened in a major way. In
order to heal completely, Chocolate has to reevaluate the past and determine
whether it is too late for her to forgive her father and give him a chance to
make good on promises he never made, let alone, tried to keep.
EXCERPT
“Get cho whoring ass up off my couch!” His voice ripped me out of
my sleep. BAM!!!!
Something had hit the wall in the next room so hard that my sisters' whole room
shook. My sister Sassa sat up rubbing her eyes. She looked over to discover
my frightened six year old eyes staring at her in the dark.
“What chu doing in here Chocolate? You scared again?” She was whispering
because our other sister Tori, was still asleep in her twin bed on the opposite
side of the room.
I nodded my head at her and turned back to the closed door where the only light
in the room was coming from.
“You bring a white man baby back home and thank life here fo you gon be
easy?” We both cringed at the sound of our father's powerful voice.
“James please,” I could hear the pleading of my mother's voice from
the safety of my older sister’s bed. “The girls are asleep. They
gotta go ta school tomorrow.”
Sassa and I both jumped when we heard what sounded like a slap.
“Stay here, “Sassa whispered again. “If he see you it’ll
only make things worse. She threw her legs over the bed, climbed her thin body
out, and headed toward the door.
Sassa was six years older then me and while I couldn’t possibly understand
in my baby mind why I always made the situations worse when he was beating momma,
Sassa and Tori did.
Tori was the older than Sassa by a year, but she never moved to get up and go
stop him from dotting momma’s eyes. When Sassa disappeared through the
door, Tori’s voice leapt at me through the dark, “He ain’t
never usta hit her fo you came.” That was all she said before shifting
her healthy body in the bed and going back to sleep.
As young as I was, I knew my older sister didn’t like me. It really hadn’t
mattered to me when I was six because Danni, the sister who was only two years
older than I was, Sassa, and momma all loved me enough to make up for where
Tori and daddy lacked.
“Daddy, that’s enough!” Sassa’s voice was loud and full
of authority.
“Sassa baby, go back to bed. This here tween ya momma and me.” His
voice was softer with Sassa than it had been with momma. His words were always
like cotton candy when he talked to my sisters, it was a beauty in him I longed
for.
The next voice I heard was momma’s, “Sassa, daddy and I just wor--,”
“Shut up!” His teeth were gritted. I could tell by the way he growled
his words. The door creaked open and Danni tiptoed into the room. She hopped
into Sassa’s bed with me and snuggled into the covers.
“You left me again,” she whispered.
“I was scared,” I answered in the same hushed tone that she had
used.
“I told you Chocolate, you don’t have to come in here. I’ll
take care of you.”
