A Mother’S Sin

By Mia Henry

Author Mia Henrys novel, A Mothers Sin, is a riveting, engaging story, bringing family drama to the forefront in a touching and moving way which readers will absolutely love..

This book is great for readers who like emotional fiction with strong female characters. The novel is laden with astute observations about family, forgiveness and love that transcend the narrow label of the genre.

The inspiring message of A Mothers Sin would be essential to readers who want to gain the strength of hope in their reading material. Mia Henrys debut novel is a dramatic and inspiring book which enlightens as it entertain readers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 22, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524650940

Mia Henry

Mia Henry, born in Angola in 1961, moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, with her parents when she was 6 years old. She now currently lives in Nelson Mandela Bay, known as Port Elizabeth, on the east coast of South Africa, with her husband, Michael, and her younger daughter, Chelsi-Kay. Her son, Trevor, lives in Cape Town. Mia was inspired to write this creative novel based on real life experiences. It encompasses relationships, the challenges of dealing with the gut wrenching loss of two children and the destructive effects of drug abuse. A Mother’s Sin, is a compelling story, with the haunting backdrop of a mother’s initial sin and the question of whether it affected what followed.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

FRANK & BETTY

It stormed the day Amber was born, on the eastern coast of South Africa, the second child of Frank and Betty Bandrock. They were delighted. But from that day forward it appeared that the storm would never abate.

Betty, she was tall and of slender stature, with striking sea blue eyes, and a capable woman who thrived on busy activity. Frank, also tall and lean, with a mop of prematurely silver hair in his late twenties, lacked ambition. He preferred a much more languid lifestyle, providing a mediocre life for the family. Betty also worked to supplement their income. Despite that, family income was erratic and they often struggled to make ends meet.

But there was one perfect aspect to their life. That was, their daughter, Amber. Raising that beautiful little girl with penetrating blue eyes and a mop of golden curls brought Betty and Frank a bucket load of joy. Every passerby would ‘ooh’ and ‘wow’ every time Betty or Frank would take her out in the stroller.

Their firstborn, William, was a bonny little boy, but never created the attention that they were now experiencing with Amber. Frank then was already entertaining thoughts that one day, his doll, his little girl, would ‘go big’ as a model.

And so Amber grew in her beauty. School was hard for her and Betty would often agonize with Frank regarding her poor performance.

‘O lighten up woman, she doesn’t need all that education, her beauty will bring in the big ones’, Frank would say to Betty.

And so the conflict continued through the early years of Amber’s school career. It was during these years that Frank enrolled Amber in a modeling school.

By the time Amber turned sixteen her eyes were set on Europe. Although she still had four years left of school education, legally she could drop out.

‘O Frank, she is our baby, she is too young’, Betty would lament day after day.

His reply would always be the same. ‘What else is there for her? She has been blessed with beautiful looks and a body for modeling. Let her go and we will all reap the benefits one day.’

Frank always made light of something that caused Betty great anguish.

In no time, Amber was grabbed by a modeling agency. Whether or not her parents approved, she was going. At the least, she knew she had her father’s blessing to fully pursue a modeling career.

Dropping Amber off at the airport was traumatic for Betty. Although she was her baby, Amber’s confidence and looks meant she could easily pass for twenty-six, yet at only sixteen she was about to embark on a journey unfamiliar to both Betty and Frank.

Frank stood proud in the airport departure lounge. Betty on the other hand was a broken woman, but had to put up an appearance of strength in the face of her baby daughter appearing callous and unaware of her mother’s emotions. When Amber did notice tears welling up in her mother’s eyes, her reaction was ‘O mother, please lighten up!’

They shared one last cup of coffee together before Amber set off on her new virgin venture. Thereafter they met up with a representative from the agency who eased Betty’s emotions somewhat.

‘Don’t worry about a thing, we will take good care of her’, said the agent. Betty needed that reassurance.

So with some tears of excitement, some of joy and some of fear they said their goodbyes.

CHAPTER 2

NANCY & EDUARDO

In a small town, a civil parish, in the northern coast of Portugal, Richard was born. Barely a few months later, his father Eduardo Gelo, once again ventured into Africa. He wanted a new life for his family. It took Eduardo three years to establish himself well enough there and only then did his wife, Nancy, his daughter Ella and son Richard, join him in the city of gold, Johannesburg, South Africa. Those three years waiting in Portugal had been tough for Nancy.

She had spent some time in Angola, where her daughter Ella was born and had fallen deeply in love with Africa. The prospect of returning was exciting but even more so, that of seeing and being with her husband again.

Nancy and Eduardo had first met in Angola. Nancy was a beautiful, elegant blue-eyed woman with long goldilocked hair. Her passion for the theatre had seen her become an actress.

Eduardo, dark and handsome, often called an Elvis lookalike, was acting in a movie for a French company. He had been given a lead role as a sheriff and the producer had chosen Angola as the location to film the movie. A hidden gem of rambling nature reserves with rugged highlands and scads of pristine scenery situated inland to the east of Lobito, was a perfect spot for a Western production.

Both Nancy and Richard were based in the picturesque shore town of Lobito, a hub of maritime activity. Before the country was ravaged by war, it was at that time one of the main harbors in West Africa. Besides the miles of beautiful beaches, one could never tire of the daily ritual of watching the fiery golden majestic sunsets rippling across the evening sky, enlivening the ocean with glistening and shimmering rays. The local community, were also known for their fun loving and friendly nature, making living in this port paradisiac.

In time Nancy and Eduardo met. For Eduardo it was love at first sight. For Nancy it took a little longer before she fell head over heels in love with Eduardo.

One late afternoon, Eduardo together with his crew, were at a local pub after a sweltering hot and demanding day, when the dames from the theatre company arrived for a refresher. Due to the intense and scorching African heat, it was common practice for the men and woman to spend late afternoons in the local pubs drinking the local beer or cerveja, as it was called.

Nancy glanced over her shoulder and noticed Eduardo perched on the upper deck of the pub, intensely gazing at the picturesque shoreline and the mile long pristine beach impregnated with coconut trees. Looking at Eduardo shirtless, in bermuda pants, she felt her heart miss a beat.

Nancy went over to the bar to collect her cerveja filled caneca (mug), and then walked over to Eduardo.

‘You look deep in thought, mind somewhere in America maybe?’ she asked.

He winked. He had spied her approaching him.

‘Can I join you?’ Nancy asked.

‘My dreams are just getting better,’ he responded with a wry but delighted smile.

Three hours later they were still perched on the same deck, titillating, laughing, joking, stirred on by a good few more cervejas. Eduardo even missed his ‘pot bonding time’, with the boys. They cultivated their own cannabis and on every occasional late afternoon off work they would meet on the beach, at their ‘bonding dune’, for their four-twenty indulgence of the forbidden fruit and the witty banter which followed rapidly thereafter. This indulgence could only happen on days when they didn’t have to get back to set in the evening. Jokingly, they would say it was their creative way of team building. It would seem that for these aspiring actors their métier was breaking free from reality. Spending many hours on film set and using the few that remained to pursue their pleasurable indulgences meant that there was no time for the real world.

When the boys left for their little escapade, Eduardo offered to walk Nancy over to her beach bungalow. They rambled alongside the shoreline, jolly and frivolous, under the influence of the considerable intake of cerveja. Nancy relished in all the flirtatious comments from Eduardo as to how young and beautiful she was.

They arrived at the bungalow, both now bellowing with laughter as they tripped over the fallen coconuts. Despite Nancy’s thundering alcohol-induced headache, she still invited Eduardo into her bungalow for an espresso.

Nancy’s beach bungalow was hidden behind a sand dune under the shade of towering palm trees. A little rustic but superbly clean, neat and very appealing. The only place to sit was her bed draped beneath a mosquito net.

They talked and flirted some more. Although it was a sultry hot late afternoon, there was a gentle breeze coming in through the netted screens on the windows and door. As they both sat on the bed Eduardo would reach over sometimes and whisk a hair off Nancy’s face. They stared into each other’s eyes for a little while. The attraction was intense and the desire overwhelming. Eduardo parted the mosquito net and pulled Nancy onto the bed with him. He slowly rolled her body under his. They were soon entangled in each other’s arms, erotically exploring each other. The lovemaking continued unabated into the early hours of the morning.

Three months passed and it dawned on Nancy that she had not had a period for two months. She confided in her friend Irene.

‘Maybe the change of climate has thrown my hormones out of sync’ Nancy lamented.

‘It could well be so, but best you see a doctor’, was her friend’s response.

Nancy was suddenly overwhelmed by nausea. Deep in her gut she knew.

The news tormented Nancy. It was the early 1960’s. She had embarked on a voyage about which her parents had been apprehensive. The director of the theatrical crew was a close friend of the family so this had given Nancy’s parents some reassurance that their daughter would be fine.

‘What am I to do?’ she sobbed to both the bearer of the bad news, the dotora, and her friend Irene.

The dotora was very understanding and compassionate. She was a young doctor, with a presence and aplomb of a woman ten years older.

‘You go home and think about it. Tomorrow morning when you wake up, your mind will be made,’ said the dotora.

That was easier said than done. Nancy knew any decision meant hell. Her parents were staunch Catholics and she had been raised strictly. To her however, abortion was out of the question. She needed to muster some strength and face the consequences.

Eduardo was extremely supportive. He had loved her from the day he had set eyes on her. To commit to her for the rest of his life was both easy and very desirable. He suggested that they get married immediately. So a whirlwind of arrangements followed and they were married two weeks later.

It took another six months for Nancy to tell her parents that she was heavy with child. She remained traumatized about it and carried this guilt with her for the rest of her life.

‘Our baby must never discover it was conceived out of wedlock’ she would say to Eduardo. ‘This is Africa, the systems don’t work well here, to tweak a birth certificate shouldn’t be a problem’, Nancy muttered, trying to find solace in her own words.

Late January, on a sweltering Tuesday, she lay in the early hours of the morning in discomfort. The heat was intense, the pains were becoming more consistent and fierce. A few hours later, a baby girl was born with far less intensity than the night she had been conceived. The birth was easy.

‘How could I have been blessed with such an easy birth and a beautiful baby?’ Nancy asked, looking quizzically at the dotora.

Eduardo beamed with pride as he looked down at his newborn baby with a mop of jet-black hair.

Eduardo had been offered a role in another movie. The offer had come from a filming company in the USA. So life seemed good for Eduardo, Nancy and their newborn daughter, Ella.

CHAPTER 3

AMBER A YOUNG MODEL

Amber stepped onto the soil of Europe and was in a world of her own. Competition was rife but everyone loved her. She was outspoken, bubbly and vivacious.

She was experiencing a different world and although loving all the attention and her new found freedom at the age of sixteen, she also witnessed a world, which encompassed both the sublime and the bizarre. There was a dark side to the glamour of walking ramps and the clicking and flashing of cameras.

The pressure was immense! Dealing with body size constraints, regulated meals, exercise, and more often than not, an empty wallet, made it easy to become a target of the sinister world of nightclub moguls. Sex, alcohol and smoking were a big part of the business. Competition was fierce, each one hoping for the ultimate reward of a multi million dollar contract. Drugs would help with calming the storms within, dealing with peer pressure and would trigger the pleasure sensors.

Amber struggled to draw the line between commitment and allowing herself to be swept up in a social life of decadence and debauchery. She quickly transformed into an adult and reveled in the experimentation of it all, and soon discovered what worked and what didn’t and so was born her new mantra: ‘Pussy is Power.’

Despite the pressures, Amber relished in the so-called glamour of the modeling world. She was euphoric, she had found her niche and men were drawn to her. She only gave as much as she wanted to, but made sure she got whatever she wanted in return. She loved all the attention and made it to the covers of top magazines. Vogue was her jam. Life was one big party and she was going to ride it hard and keep rolling in the pastures of her dreams. She had the power and would use that for her own gratification. Yet, her Achilles heel was that she lacked self-control and had poor financial management skills. She was reckless, as fast as the money was coming in, so it was going out.

CHAPTER 4

SOUTHERN AFRICA

In the lusciousness of southern Africa and its blistering heat, even in winter, Eduardo became ill. It was known for an array of tropical diseases. To diagnose the exact one was a guessing game and so treatment was like playing Russian roulette. Malaria was prevalent. The dotora diagnosed Eduardo with this complicated and life threatening infection. She was quick to source quinine and started him on treatment immediately. His condition however deteriorated. Nothing was working.

‘I suggest you take him back home to his family, so he can be laid to rest at his roots’, said the dotora.

Eduardo’s American dream was shattered and Nancy was devastated.

‘This is God’s way of punishing me and Eduardo’, said an inconsolable Nancy to her friend Irene.

Eduardo, now a sickly, frail man, looking years beyond his actual age, flew back to Portugal, accompanied by Nancy and his daughter, Ella.

Seemingly miraculously, after visiting a few doctors there, he slowly started to feel better. It took a year to fully recover.

He believed his illness was a sign to leave his acting career, so he abandoned his American dream. But the drumbeats of Africa were calling him. He was itching to return even if it meant selling fruit and vegetables for an income.

A few months later, Richard, their son was born. He was merely an infant when Eduardo headed back to Africa. He first made his way to the