Ten the Hard Way

By C. R. Clark

Heaven loves her family and they are all very close, especially Heaven and Jaha. But for some reason, drama always finds its way, knocking at their front door. Heaven is the middle of ten siblings, and at the same time, she is the glue that holds them all together. However, she has her secrets - ones that are so deep that once brought to the surface the family will never be the same. There is love between this family, but like any family, they are far from perfect and what is done in the dark will surely find its way to the light.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514472811

C. R. Clark

C.R. Clark was born in The Bronx and was raised in Upstate New York. She was a day dreamer. Her mom would always say, "Charisse, pay attention. Where did you go?" She always imagined redoing her punishments or changing what the outcomes were. Too bad that was never the case. After earning a degree in Criminal Justice, she worked as a New York City Probation officer for a few years. Currently, she is an Employment Recruiter but she always finds her way back to writing. She figured why work for someone else's dream when she could apply the same focus on hers. When C.R. Clark is not writing, you can find her having family time with her son and enjoying life with her family and friends.

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Copyright © 2016 by C.R. Clark.

Cover design by Xaundrae Hepburn

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 03/22/2016

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1    Where It All Began

Chapter 2    What’s Baking

Chapter 3    Watch Your Back

Chapter 4    Guys’ Night Out

Chapter 5    Levels To Happiness

Chapter 6    The Secret Is Out

Chapter 7    Love Thy Sister

Chapter 8    The New Beginning

Chapter 9    Out With It

Chapter 10    Shit Just Got Real

Chapter 11    What’s Next

Chapter 12    This Can’t Be Real

Epilogue

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my Father God for giving me the gift of imagination and the understanding of how to grasp the concept and order of writing a book.

I want to take the time out to thank my son Donnaven for giving me the drive to finally sit down and create a book that will bring us out of our current struggles of life, and I would also like to thank my family and friends, especially my mother Desiree, my father Garry, my nanna Katie, and my three sisters Qushawna, Cyisha, and Vivian, for all of their support and positive words that kept me motivated and driven to accomplish my lifelong dream of finally getting my work published.

Also a special shout out to Xaundrae Hepburn for doing my graphics on my book cover.

I hope you all enjoy and appreciate my work. God bless.

INTRODUCTION

H ave you ever felt like no matter what you do it’s never enough? I’m sure you have, but my question is, how do you bring yourself out of it? I hope that by the end of this story, we will all see a little bit cle arer.

My name is Heaven, and I’m about to tell you my story.

March 17, 1980, is when it all began. I was born to two beautiful people and the sixth child in the pound of ten. My family was awesome. We did everything together, from picnics in the park to drive-in movies, and I know it doesn’t seem like the lavish life as we all see on TV, but it was mine. Life was a fairy tale, and I was the star of the show.

There were ten of us, six boys and four girls. My brothers were the best and taught me what a girl should know to survive in this crazy city they call the Big Apple. We lived in the Bronx, the South, to be exact. It was not the best neighborhood; on each corner, there were liquor stores and the neighborhood drug fiends, and every day on my way to school, all I received were catcalls, but it was home, and I couldn’t get enough of it.

So who am I? Do you really want to know? Of course it would be no fun just jumping into the end of my story where all answers are revealed after all, I have to set up the scene. So are you ready, because it’s takeoff time. Remember I said I was the middle of ten. Well, it wasn’t as cracked up as I made it out to be.

CHAPTER 1

Where It All Began

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Heaven

H ey, what are you doing out here at this time of night? You know damn well that you are going to get into trouble. It’s not safe.

Yup, you guessed it, my eldest brother, Joe. Joe was and still is a father figure to me. He treated me as if I was his own daughter from day one. Joe had me by ten years, making him thirty-four, so that’s where his overprotectiveness came from.

It’s twelve midnight. Who are you waiting on? asked my protector.

Don’t worry about me, Joe. I’m old enough to take care of myself.

Besides, he would kill me if he knew that I was waiting on his best friend. Man, let me tell you, Mark is his name, and Lord have mercy, every girl in the Bronx wanted a piece of that, and he was all mine, secretly of course.

Joe, I’m just getting some air. Ma knows I’m here, okay? Please, just not tonight. I already had a dad. Not looking for another.

Damn, I hated to start an argument just to get him to go away, but a girl got to do what a girl got to do. Joe wasn’t stupid though; for weeks he was gaining suspicion of me and Mark, though that’s all it was, for now at least. Looking back, how could I not fall in love with Mark? Shit, he was like a Picasso; he was perfect, or at least it seemed.

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Mark

Mark stands at a whopping six feet five inches tall, chocolate as can be with deep brown eyes, the kind that you look into and without blinking you pull your panties off. He is amazing and has almond eyes, smooth skin, thick lips, chiseled body, and the manly hands to handle all the right places on my body. He was a businessman, CEO of an investment banking firm, yup, and he was all mine. Well, at least in privacy he was.

Joe, my main man, what you doing out here? Isn’t it past your bedtime?

Really, bro, you asking me that, but what I don’t see is you hawking Heaven. She’s the one that needs to have her ass in the house, Joe shot back at Mark sarcastically.

Ha-ha, yeah, you right. Sup, Heaven, looking good as always. How’s school? You still pulling out those high honors? Remember my word to you: you get that degree and I will set you up in my firm.

Yeah, Mark, I’m on it, and I’m damn sure going to hold you to it.

Damn, if only he could sense how wet he was making my panties with just the anticipation I was allowing to build up inside of me.

Yeah, sweetie, my grades are right where they need to be, so you better be serious about this job. But hum back to you, Joe, can I hold some money? Truth is they fighting upstairs, and I just want to leave for the night. I’m not with it. I really need to just move out altogether. A hint I threw toward my love; hope he caught it.

Oh, now the truth comes out. I knew you were up to something. You always are. Joe laughed for a quick second and quickly put his serious face back on. Here’s fifty dollars. Now get to your destination and off of these damn streets. I’m going up to check up on Ma and the rest of the pack. Love you, sis.

Love you too, bro.

Mark, you coming? Joe asked as he turned to walk into the duplex.

Nah, bro, not this time. I have a run to make, but we will get up tomorrow. Call you when I wake up, Mark called out as he began walking back toward his truck.

Okay, be safe.

And that he would.

beep beep

Mark was signaling for me to get into his car.

You walked off so fast. I was trying to offer you a ride. Get in.

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The Argument

"Jaha, how many times have I told you that when I’m not home