Tempestra

By H.D. Campbell

How far would you go to fight for your loyal man?  Delon Jefferson recently had to answer that question first hand.  After growing up and away from a broken home she meets a young Eddie Jefferson in college.  Eddie, an NFL hopeful and the first man to genuinely fall for Delon shows her through his actions that he's not the stereotypical cheating, not so bright athlete.  He wins Delon over and the two marries right out of college and straight into the NFL.

Fast forward years later, Eddie retires and buys a house with a secret from a realtor who has eyes for Eddie and not caring how Delon feels about it.  After closing on the couple's new house, the realtor, Sherry Sperry has a secret that will not only try to turn Eddie's head but will have Delon literally going through Hell to get him back.

When the last straw from Sherry put Delon in a coma, Delon and her friends must find a way to save Eddie's heart.  With God on her side, Delon also must deploy unconventional means to literally defy the woman trying to turn her man. 

How can a loyal man be turned?

Would you fight for your loyal man?

Whatever your answers, read this book and follow Delon's journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hard Drive Publishing
• Release date: Jan 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393791454

H.D. Campbell

H.D. Campbell has been writing all of his life and has over thirty years of experience in the writing industry with his first book, How To Lose A Black Woman (second printing published in 2018) and his book took off from there. In addition to starting this Paranormal Romance series, H.D. Campbell has three more series under his belt: Contemporary Romance titles including How To Lose A Black Woman (currently on sale) and Geraldine (second printing coming soon); Mystery/Suspense including Late Murder @ 10 (currently on sale) and Garth The Virtual Killer (third printing coming soon); Espionage Thriller including The Sergeant Wiseguy Chronicles (second printing coming soon) and The War-Hawk/Biological Threat (second printing coming soon). To learn more about his books, his editing business or his shows, please log on to www.hdcampbell3.com and the Hard Drive Publishing website is coming soon as well.

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H.D. Campbell

Hard Drive Publishing

St. Louis, Missouri

Cover By Delon Anoshi Hagood

www.queenanoshi.com

H.D. Campbell Production

St. Louis, Missouri

© Copyright 2020 by H.D. Campbell

All Rights Reserved.  No part of this book or cover may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper or magazine.

First Printing

ISBN:

PUBLISHED BY HARD DRIVE BOOK PUBLISHERS www.harddrivepublishing.com

COVER BY DELON ANOSHI HAGOOD

www.queenanoshi.com

Printed in the United States of America

This book is dedicated to Tara E. Campbell, my beloved wife whom has had my back from the beginning.  The woman who has healed my heart from many heartbreaks.  The woman who will be a part of my life until death do us part.

This book is also dedicated to my mother Shirley Ann Westbrook who passed away in 2019.  She has been our rock.  Someone who has taught me strength from watching her own strength among every.  You can now rest.  I love you.

Delon Jefferson

I haven’t written in a diary since I was a little girl but Doctor Byrd said it would help me cope with everything I’ve been through. With all that me and my husband been through, I needed help and a listening ear.  I mean, two of my best friends knew but I needed fresh ears.  I needed to talk to someone biased.  A lot of people would think my story is crazy but I do promise you, it’s all true. 

I believe my upbringing prepared me for this fight.  This was my marriage and I wasn’t going to back down from it.  All of my life, I was told a man isn’t worth fighting over but Eddie isn’t just any man and this was no ordinary fight.

Lindell, my best friend’s husband and our pastor suggested I do this one-day counseling session as a mental release.  Lindell himself is also full of surprises.   

My counselor, Doctor Sophia Byrd is a clinical psychologist specializing in...my special case.  I’m happy she listened objectively without calling the white suits on me because the story sounded crazy. 

Doctor Byrd is a beautiful woman in her full red dress with black comfortable slip on shoes.  Her big glasses complimented her outfit. Her look was complete with her hair rolled up in a bun.

Nervous, I kept looking all around her office.  She sat in a huge black comfortable office chair I needed for my office.  I sat on an equally comfortable light brown couch matching the walls and carpet.  Her framed degrees hung me on the wall over the couch perfectly next to each other.

You and your husband were just through a lot, she said.

I inquired, Is that why you won’t let me finish my story?

No, I’m going to let you finish but I want to get to know you first. Tell me who is the real Delon Jefferson?

You mean from when I was born?

How about starting with your teenage years going into your marriage.  What was your upbringing?  How did you and Eddie meet?  What’s your marriage like?  Then you can tell me what led up to your fight for his soul.

Okay, that’s a tall order but here we go.

Prologue

From birth, I was the skinny dark ugly girl no boy wanted.   Boys only started noticing me when I started developing at thirteen.

I admit I didn’t know a damn thing about love nor was I trying to figure it out. I was really into school back then.  I wasn’t even giving up sex and these boys still gave me attention.  I guess they wanted a challenge to see who can wear me down first.  I just wasn’t playing their game and these boys had a lot of games.

I’ve seen too many girls from the neighborhood fall for their tricks and I wasn’t having it.  I wanted a future not involving me being stuck as a single parent. One thing my mama taught me and she didn’t teach me much, was to never give myself to just any man.  She just never took her own advice but she still wanted more for me.

My mother died of full-blown AIDS in 1997 a year after I graduated college.  She wanted so desperately to be loved.  I had about twenty stepdads and she only married about five of them.  Many of them tried to molest me unsuccessfully because I would fight them off and tell my mother. 

At least my mother was woman enough to not only believe me, she would kick them to the curb.  Many other winners cheated on her.  There were the few who tried to beat up my mother.  I begged my mother to get out of those relationships and she eventually would.      

She never listened to my advice on relationships.  My only experience came from watching others giving me a clear view of what not to do.  She desperately desired to be loved and her daughter’s love wasn’t enough.  I supported my mother through thick and thin.

She just wanted more.  She told me she needed that love that only a man can give me.  I just knew I did not want to be like her.  I once told her the man I choose will love me and the love will be mutual. 

She laughed in my face and said, "Life is not a Luther Vandross fantasy Disney romance.  We live in a Billy Paul Me and Mrs. Jones Betty Wright No Pain No Gain type of world.  Having a piece of man is better than having no man is the truth just like Betty said."

I learned at an early age that not all older people have wisdom.  All they have is time spent on this earth.  We always lived with our grandmother because she never had her own place long enough before the sheriffs knocked on the door.  She lived life so fast without any responsibilities.  

The second I got my scholarship to Clark University I got the hell out of Saint Louis for a while.  I worked hard on my studies.  I didn’t have time to party or even socialize at the time.  I went out on a few dates without any chances for a second one.  Either we just weren’t compatible and almost all of them wanted me to give something up at some point. 

Don’t get me wrong, I get it.  First time away from home, let’s have some fun.  I’m just nobody’s playground to have fun with.  I wanted to be a good man’s temple.

I told people since high school it would take a special man to earn my virginity.  That went in one ear and right out the other. 

Then, I met Eddie Jefferson, the jock of the school.  Rumored to be the NFL’s number one draft pick.  He stepped to me at a finance class we had together.  I never dated jocks because stereotypically they’re not too bright and always trying to get some sex.

Eddie impressed me because he had one thing most jocks I’ve met didn’t have, a brain.  Eddie was the king of finance class for God’s sake. This man knows numbers back and forth but so did I. In fact, we were the top two students in the class.

We soon became the it couple of the school.  I’ve seen the it couple.  I’ve been around the it couple but I’ve never been the it couple.  I went from envying to being envied. 

There’s only couples I’ve known and grew up with since high school that’s still together today.  My friends Pamela and Lindell Oglen. 

They got married right out of high school.  Both went to college closer to home attending Lincoln University.  Pam studied Social Work while Lindell studied Business Management and then went to seminary school after graduation.  Though Eddie worked hard to get drafted into the NFL, he studied Business Management at Clark as a backup plan.  Once drafted, he finished his schooling on the offseason.

Again, not your typical jock.

Eddie and I got to know a lot about each other throughout college.  We talked about our families and upbringing.  He seemed to have more of a stable family life than I did.  I leaned on him more in times of need.

Any intimacy initiated was done so by both of us. Eddie highly respected my virginity.  We had a few hot intimate moments that almost went there but he respected me when I stopped him. In fact, Eddie’s the first man to make love to me fully without taking my clothes off.  That’s a true man.

Trust me, it was hard for me to stop too.  Eddie wasn’t a virgin but respected my virginity fully.

There was no limit to what we had in common. 

There were naysayers who predicted we wouldn’t last long while others tried sabotaging us.  It didn’t work.  We knew better because we survived college without me getting pregnant or us breaking up over some bull.

He was drafted into the NFL ahead of his senior year, playing quarterback for the San Francisco Forty-Niners.  We compromised on our living and financial situation on the offseason.  I started my own business during his first few years in the league. 

I got married immediately after graduation.  Even though I went from Delon Calloway to Delon Jefferson I didn’t want to just live off my man’s salary.  I chose stay in Saint Louis while he got an apartment in San Francisco. 

He stayed there during the season. We visited on holidays he came home in the offseason.  I’m sorry but I’m allergic to earthquakes. I know Saint Louis is in a fault zone too but for some reason I believe I could handle it better here.

His first few years in the NFL, I started a private CPA firm. Because of my status as an NFL wife, I was able to acquire some of the region’s biggest clients: business leaders, alderpersons, local entertainers and even a few of Eddie’s NFL friends. 

I strived to be Eddie’s equal partner and he made it easy for me to be.  Partners in every way. Three years into our marriage, we finally got our footing just in time for us to have children.

Our first child, Derek Jefferson is a natural born athlete like his father but has a business mind like his mother.  He’s a handsome boy with my mother’s brown eyes and his father’s dimples.  He likes video games and hanging out with his friends.

His future could go either way in life and we both agreed to let him choose his own path.  Then we had Ramona Jefferson two years later.  Ramona was a natural born talent from birth.  She loves to write, sing and draw.  We’re not sure what she’s going to do but it’s going to be in the creative field and she’s going to do it well.

After about ten years in the league, he retired and we agreed to live in St. Louis.  We eventually settled for a nice home in Hazelwood on Plum Tree Drive.  It’s a nice two story four-bedroom, two-bathroom home.  There’s a room for everyone including a home office for me where I run my CPA business.  There’s also a sealed attic crawlspace in the hallway leading towards my bedroom boarded up.  According to our realtor, the crawlspace is very drafty. 

The second I walked under it I had a really bad vibe.  Even sealed up, that crawlspace gave me the creeps and I didn’t know why at the time.

The crawlspace was the only caution our realtor had.  Sherry Sperry was cool until she won the house for us. A week later, she started acting strange.  It seems overnight she started developing a too serious crush on my husband.

Six months after retirement, Eddie started his own sports agency.  He specialized in young, upcoming talent just recruited into the NFL.  Being the numbers he is, Eddie helps young players learn how to manage their money and time while playing for The League.

Eddie worked hard to be one of the country’s