Truth Meets Love by J. D. Freed Read Free Book Online Page A

The bond that formed between us would not be broken, even in death. She left me Mace, her soul, for strength and for peace. She got to spend about two years with Macey before the cancer eventually took her from us. She was my hero, my rock, my soul sister. She was also Tyler's wife and Macey's mother and how she learned to be such a good one always escaped me, considering that Dez's mother, a Sioux Indian, left them when she was three years old and her father, who was black, died at age 42 from injuries he suffered during a car accident when she was 15.
    However, taking one look at Mace when she was born made me understand why Dez couldn't terminate the pregnancy. They found the breast cancer in her right side during the end of her first trimester. She made the ultimate sacrifice for Mace. That is what a good mother does. She would put her own life on the line for the sake of her child, not push their daughter out the door with a wad of cash saying, "Don't ever come back."
    I closed the subject for the last time but I couldn't hold out on her any longer. That is just one more reason why I am never having kids. I would ruin them. I spoil Macey, but Tyler is the disciplinarian. Shelby was kind of like an "autopilot" kid, wise beyond her years. However, that came with its shortcomings, too. I don't think she got much of a "childhood" growing up.
    I have a successful career and the peace and inner strength to stay in control of my situation. Let's not rock the boat; it is not my calling. I watched my mother be a doormat for a drunk, violent boyfriend for over 10 years before the night she chose him over me. No kid deserves that.
    I didn't have many options other than to just grit my teeth and try to move on. I didn't know who my father was and my mom, Ally, has been on her own since 17 herself. She was in and out of foster care growing up and lived in abusive homes her entire life. If I have grandparents or family somewhere, I wouldn't have known where to begin to go to find them.
    What do you do? Accept your destiny or create a new one? "Destiny"… my old stage name was born! I chose the latter.
    If it was going to be, it was all going to be up to me. I needed to see how big my brave was.
    I was on my own .
    That was the decision that laid the scope and broke through my fear and reservations about using my body to shift my love for dancing into just adding the pole and removing my clothes in the process. Phase One of Three was executed.
    'Pugs and Petals' was an old train depot downtown that had been converted by Betty and Dorris or "Pugs and Petals", as I became accustomed to calling them. They were sisters and had turned the lower half into a dog grooming/flower shop. They let me rent an upstairs apartment and work in the grooming and flower shop while I was getting a GED. Petals had bought the store and restored it all from money she had earned… you guessed it… stripping. In her younger days, anyway. I showed her some of the moves dear ol' Mom had taught me and she instructed me on how to work the pole. She got me a job at a respectable joint. It was run by her cousin Wade. It was only required that I go topless, and I could keep my drawers on if I preferred… you know, unless I wanted more tips. Hmmm… no thanks.
    I wanted to earn and save enough money to get myself through college, but I had my standards. There were limits drawn very early on what values I might want to remain virtuous and in my control that I could build on. I knew I was strong-willed and I could dance. It was a start.
    I had to stay true to myself or it wasn't worth the risk… I saw where she went wrong .
    These values and self respect I had coarsely instilled in myself over the years were reinforced during a meeting I led earlier this afternoon. Once the Mathis Presentation and the meeting with Mr. Greyson and Mr. Harrison were over, Larry, the head of the data management and business intelligence group, decided to challenge my decision to call a