Trafford Publishing: After the Storm

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After the Storm

by Lakesa Cox

326 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0052; ISBN 1-55369-239-X; US$28.00, C$33.95, EUR22.10, £16.50

After the Storm is an urban, modern drama about a love triangle that takes a tragic turn.

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About the Book

Jerome Clements can finally say that he has it all. He has finally met the perfect woman and he has a job that he enjoys. There are two problems: Jerome's wife of 10 years, Anita, and his mistress of four years, Charlene. Katrina, the woman of Jerome's dreams, has no idea that Jerome is married, nor does she know about his children. Jerome plays with fire as he juggles three separate relationships, trying to figure his way out of the mess he's created for himself. He wants a monogamous relationship with Katrina, which forces him to sever his ties with Anita and Charlene. By doing so, Jerome tells Anita that he wants a divorce and ends his relationship with Charlene. Jerome's plan is thwarted when he receives a call from his daughter. She tells him that Anita has attempted suicide, bringing a halt to Jerome's plans to be with Katrina.
Anita's close call with death lands her in a mental institution. Jerome decides to stand by her until she is stable, which causes friction between him and Katrina because he doesn't have any time to spend with her. Desperate for companionship, Jerome reconciles with Charlene, temporarily in his mind, until he is able to win back Katrina.
The story takes an unexpected turn when Katrina finds out tragic news that that affects Jerome. Charlene is happy as ever to have Jerome to herself, until Katrina comes back into the picture and shares her tragic news. The tragic news causes Jerome to transition from a smooth, debonair player to a deranged psychopath.
After the Storm will take the reader on an emotional roller coaster that ultimately crashes. Find out exactly how the roller coaster ends, and see who survives, in After the Storm.

About the Author

LaKesa Cox lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband and two children. She attended Old Dominion University, and is currently attending Strayer University. She is an avid reader of women's fiction and is currently working on her second novel.

Excerpt
from Chapter 6
Katrina rolled over in bed and hit her alarm clock as it went off. Her pajama shirt was soaked with sweat. She thought about the nightly sweats that were becoming a regular occurrence. Her mouth felt dry, and she immediately began to feel nauseated. 'I can't be pregnant, not if I've been using my diaphram each time,' she thought to herself. The thought of her being pregnant made her smile, then she began to get angry. It had been two weeks since the last time she'd heard from Jerome. She couldn't understand why he hadn't called or been over to see her since they last talked. At first Katrina thought that maybe his mother's condition had gotten worse and maybe Jerome didn't have time to spend with her. But once the second week went by, Katrina was sure that Jerome was out of her life for good. Jerome hadn't given her any indication that he wasn't happy with her, so she had no idea what to think. Even when she tried reaching him on his pager, he never called her back. Katrina just shook her head and sighed heavily. The man that she finally allowed herself to love didn't want to be bothered with her. She knew getting involved with him was the wrong thing to do but she let her guard down. She went as far as to tell him she loved him, and what happens, he never calls her again. Just as Katrina walked into her bathroom, a terrible pain shot through her abdomen. This time the pain was so strong, her knees buckled. Since going to the doctor a week before, the pain seemed to have stopped. Now, all of a sudden, she was getting this sharp pain again. The doctor assured her that she was not pregnant, in fact, he told her that she was under a lot of stress and that she really needed to take it easy for a couple of weeks. The doctor gave her a complete physical, so Katrina couldn't understand why she was still having the same symptoms as before. He told her to call him if she had any more problems, and right at this moment she felt it would be a good idea to call. She waited a few seconds as the pain decreased, then she stood up slowly.
    "Stress my ass!!!" Katrina yelled as if the doctor was in the same room with her. She decided that she wanted a second opinion and that she would call her gynecologist. Since her regular doctor was just a family practice doctor, she was sure he didn't know what he was talking about. She decided she would call and make an appointment as soon as she was finished in court. She only had one case this morning and she was sure the case would be thrown out of court by the judge. Katrina turned on the water in her shower and took off her pajamas. Her mind drifted to Jerome again, and she begin to cry. She just let the shower run down on her face while the tears mixed with the water. She couldn't understand why he didn't want to be with her. 'Come on Katrina girl, he's just a man,' she kept saying to herself over and over again. But this was a man that Katrina loved. She knew in her heart that what she was feeling was indeed love and right now her heart was aching.
    Katrina realized that she'd been in the shower too long so she turned off the water. When she finished drying off, she realized that she forgot to wash her hair. She decided that she'd have to pin it up because she didn't have time to wash it now. The telephone rung as Katrina started walking to her vanity.
    "Hello?"
    "Hello?" she said again.
    "Katrina, it's Jerome."
    Katrina didn't know what to say. She was excited to be hearing his voice but mad that he was calling after two weeks.
    "Jerome who?"
    "Come on Baby, don't be upset with me, just hear me out for a minute."
    "Don't call me baby. You have a lot of nerve calling me now after I haven't heard anything from you in two weeks. What do you want?"
    "Katrina, look, I understand that you're mad, but can you at least let me explain?"
    "Explain? Explain? What the fuck do you need to explain? I haven't heard from you in two weeks! Two weeks, Jerome! I've been paging you, and you don't return my calls! I'm bright enough to figure out what's going on! You don't have to explain shit to me!" Katrina hollered.
    "Yes I do Katrina. I owe you an explanation and an apology. First, I would like to apologize for not calling. Second, I want to give you an explanation of what's been going on with me. Can I see you today so that we can talk?"
    Katrina paused for a moment and thought about this. If she saw him today, she knew that they would make up and she couldn't give in this easy. But she really wanted to know where he'd been the last two weeks.
    "Katrina? Did you hear me?" Jerome asked.
    "Yes, I heard you. I don't know Jerome. I mean, you disappear for two weeks, and then, out of the blue, you want to see me. What am I supposed to think?"
    "Katrina, I just want to talk to you, that's all. Besides, after I tell you what I need to tell you, you probably won't ever want to see me again."
    "What?" Katrina asked.
    She was definitely confused and couldn't figure out what Jerome was trying to tell her.
    Katrina started shaking her head, then she said, "You know what Jerome, what ever it is that you want to tell me, you keep it to yourself. I don't have time for this shit. You're a grown man with total self-control, so if you've done something in the last two weeks that you regret and now you want me to forgive you, then you deal with it by yourself."
    Katrina hung up the telephone and sat down on the edge of her bed. Without realizing it, Katrina started crying uncontrollably and rocked herself back and forth. She could not believe it. She was assuming Jerome had cheated on her and now he wanted to give her some lame excuse to make her feel sorry for him and take him back. Katrina laid down on the bed and realized that she was naked. She wrapped her blanket over her body and just cried. Jerome held the telephone to his ear as if someone was talking. He couldn't believe she'd just hung the telephone up in his face. He put the telephone on the receiver and thought about what had just happened. Jerome knew that Katrina would be angry with him, but he thought she'd at least give him an opportunity to see her today. He knew that he was wrong for not trying to contact her in the last two weeks, but so much had been going on with Anita and Jerri that he didn't have time to do anything. Anita was committed to an institution the same day she was released from the hospital and, that night, she tried to kill herself again. Before Anita was released, she managed to steal some pain pills from the hospital. She stuffed the pills inside her bra and once they got to Fair Glen Hospital, the mental institution, she swallowed them all. By the time Jerome had signed all of the insurance forms, Anita was lying on the ground going into convulsions. No one at the facility knew what had happened until Anita started vomiting and the doctor noticed that one of the pills hadn't even been digested yet. The doctors and nurses rushed Anita to their medical ward where they pumped her stomach and put her under 24-hour watch. During this whole encounter, Jerri stood back watching, not saying anything. She asked one of the nurses was her mother crazy, the nurse just hugged Jerri.
    Jerri was staying with Anita's mother now since she decided that she didn't want to stay with Jerome while her mother was away. Jerome went to the institution every day for the first week trying to make sure Anita would be o.k. He wasn't doing this for his benefit, he was doing it because of his daughter. Jerri told him she would not see him until he could take her to see her mother and show her that her mother was well. Until then, Jerri refused to see him. This tore Jerome's heart all to pieces because Anita's mother didn't want him to come around anyway. So, for the first week he's been going to see Anita telling her that he loved her, didn't want to lose her and that he wanted her back. Of course he was lying when he told her all of this. He had to do something to make her better so that Jerri would see him, so he told Anita all of the right things and after two weeks, she showed progress. Jerome knew what he was doing wasn't right, and if Anita found out he wasn't being honest with her, she might try to kill herself again. But Jerome had to do what he could to fix the situation. He figured if he could at least lead her on enough to make her well, then she could go home and be with Jerri long enough for him to make things right with Katrina.
    Jerome wasn't sure now if he even had a chance at getting Katrina back. She was so angry with him on the telephone that he didn't know if it was over or not.
    Even though he hadn't planned on telling Katrina the complete truth, he was going to tell her about Jerri. He still didn't know how just yet, but he was definitely going to tell Katrina that he has a daughter. 'If she really and truly loves me, she'll take me back regardless of me having a daughter,' he thought to himself. Then Jerome begin to think about Jerome Jr. He knew deep down in his heart that not only did Jerri need him, but Jerome Jr. needed him, too. Jerome began to go over and over in his mind how he could tell Katrina about his daughter. Should she know about my son, too? Jerome's thoughts were broken when he heard his pager. He picked his pager up from the kitchen table to see who was paging him. He realized it was Charlene.

Catalogue Information