Living A Double Life

By Annette Christian

Latrese is a single, beautiful and educated woman who's past will not leave her alone. She's a lawyer but has a dark secret that she is trying to get away from. She found someone who she wants to have a relationship with but is torn between telling him the truth for fear of losing him. She decides to handle the situation to cut all ties but t

• Language: English
• Publisher: ALC UNLIMITED
• Release date: Jul 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9781088039823

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Copyright © 2019 by Annette L. Christian. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. No parts of this book may be reproduced in any form or any means without the prior written consent of the publisher.

LIVING A DOUBLE LIFE is a work of fiction. There are references to the several establishments and names of close friends that have been used in this novel.

ISBN 978-0-359-67781-8

Printed in the United States of America Cover designed by Arash Jahani

www.ARASHJAHANI.COM

Acknowledgments

It’s a great feeling when you see the final product of your work. I call this novel my baby. I started writing this book in the summer of 2009. After completing three chapters, I had to put it down. Life happened, my mother and my father took ill, and I had to become a caregiver. I picked it back up in 2012 and wrote another chapter.

In 1988, I decided to take a break and sit out a semester from college. I found myself down at the Federal Building, inquiring about joining the Army Reserves. I completed basic training and AIT by 1990. My goal was to eventually return to college and continue with my studies. Instead, I started a family. I knew in my heart that I wanted to go back to school to get my degree. Thanks to the encouragement of a good friend, Paulette Harris, I enrolled in the 2013 fall semester at S.U.N.Y Empire State College. I had a lot on my plate, which included school, taking care of my father, and raising my two blessings from God: my daughter, Alexis, and my son, Alex Christian. I also stayed active in church and acted on stage during theater season. In December of 2014, my mother got her wings, and in April of 2016, my dad got his. After the devasting loss of both of my parents, I was was able to celebrate a victory. In June of 2016, I graduated from SUNY Empire State College with my Bachelors of Science degree in Information Technology.

When 2017 arrived, Mary Craig, a great mentor and a phenomenal director, told me it was time to pick my book back up and finish it. Deborah Davis, one of my fellow actresses at the PRT, Paulette Harris, and Allen Knight III, also gave me words of encouragement. After completing the first rough draft, I let my daughter Alexis read it. Just seeing the look on her face showed me that my hard work was going to pay off. I asked Mary Craig to read my rough draft and asked her for her honest opinion. She told me the skeleton was there; now all I needed to do was to bring my characters to life. Thanks to her, I went back to the beginning, and now I have a masterpiece. I hope whoever reads this book will get as much enjoyment out of it as I had writing it. Thank you in advance for your support.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter One

I haven’t been on a plane in over 20 years. The last time I flew was to go to my family reunion in South Carolina. After a terrible experience on a flight one year, I swore off planes forever. I would drive, and if any trip were longer than five hours, I would take a train. Both my parents were born and raised in the South Carolina area. After dating for three years, they got married and moved to Atlanta, where they lived for five years. My Dad was an Executive Finance Officer for a pharmaceutical company and was offered a position in the Chicago office. My parents discussed the move by going over the pros and cons. They decided to step out on faith and relocate.

Life was simple back then because I didn’t have a care in the world. My entire family was still in the south. I had lots of cousins there and enjoyed going to visit them once a year. My best summer was when I was seven years old; my aunt begged my mother to let me come for a visit. My parents finally gave in and let me spend the whole summer vacation with my aunt, who has two daughters and one son. I had the best time ever, and it was great having other kids around to talk with and share my secrets. When I came back home, I asked my mom why I didn’t have any brothers and sisters, and she told me that I was her and my dad’s miracle baby.

Before I was born she had two miscarriages, and the doctors said that she probably wouldn’t be able to carry a baby full term. But as you can see, the good Lord up above had the final say so. My mom is a very petite woman, she was anemic, and the doctors said her body was just not healthy or strong enough to give birth to a child. Taking vitamins and iron pills to boost her energy was her plan to have a healthy baby. She had a miscarriage during the second month of the first pregnancy. A year later they got the news they were expecting again. She had the worst morning, noon, and night sickness, and carried the baby for three months before she suffered another miscarriage. My father was very supportive and knew that my mom wanted to start a family. He couldn’t bear to see the sadness in her eyes and told her that they would adopt a child, but my mother refused. She wanted to try one more time and promised him that if she lost the next one, they would start the process to adopt.

Two years later after seeing a specialist who put her on a strict diet and vitamin regimen, she got pregnant with me. The doctors wanted to see her every month for a checkup; they were monitoring her high blood pressure and lack of weight gain. When she reached the middle of the second trimester, the doctors were more optimistic that this time she would carry the baby to full term. She started putting on weight, but her blood pressure was still on the high side. Her feet and legs were swelling up; the doctors were concerned that she was showing signs of preeclampsia. They told her that she needed to stay off her feet and put her on bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy. My mom was an accountant, and her firm was very understanding and accommodating. They set her up at home with anything and everything she needed to perform her duties from the comfort of home. She was their best accountant, and they didn’t want to lose her.

The third trimester of her pregnancy was difficult; she was so big, her tiny body was struggling. My mom was admitted to the hospital at least once every two weeks, during the last three months. She told me when the day came for me to make my entrance into this world, everyone wanted to be there. The doctors were kind enough to accommodate my parents’ request for all of their friends and family to be there. They closed off one of the areas of the hospital cafeteria to allow everyone to wait for my big arrival. My grandparents, on both sides, and some of my aunts and uncles came from South Carolina. Most of the nurses and doctors who had followed my mom through this process were as excited as the family was; they had become part of the family. Due to her high-risk pregnancy, my parents knew that they were having a girl because my mom had to get a sonogram at every doctor’s visit. Because of her tiny frame, a C-section was scheduled, and she was afraid that it would leave a nasty scar. She said my father told her that scar would be a reminder to him of how much she sacrificed to have their baby. It was a hot June day, when I made my entrance into this world, weighing 6 pounds, 12 ounces.

I grew up not wanting or needing anything. Being an only child, my parents gave me the world. I wasn’t the spoiled brat that everyone thought I was, and I would tell my parents that they didn’t have to get me the things that I received. They took me on trips and cruises, but there was always something missing. I wanted someone my age to hang around with. Sitting around with your parents when you were twelve years old and on vacation was not fun.

You can say I lived a sheltered life; there were a few friends, when I was in grammar school, that had the approval of my parents to come to our house. After my parents met their parents, I was allowed to attend the sleepovers of some girls in my class on the weekends. In high school, I kept to myself. I promised myself that I was not going to get involved in any cliques. You know the kind…the mean girl or stuck-up girl cliques. Instead, I joined the debate team, where I became the best debater in the school district. When I wasn’t doing research or studying, I was at the park taking pictures of birds, trees, flowers, and all of what nature had offered the world. I had to find ways to keep myself occupied; my parents were very protective, which meant I couldn’t venture off very far.

I made it through high school in four years and was ready for college. I applied and got accepted into several universities. My final decision was to attend the University of Illinois. When I got to college, it was a whole new world. Even though I lived in the same state as my parents, I wanted to live in the dorms. Thanks to my grandparents, that wish come true. They convinced my parents that I should experience college life fully. My parents fought it tooth and nail, but in the end, my grandparents finally convinced them. I was free to come and go as I pleased because I wasn’t under the watchful eye of my parents. My freshman year of college, I couldn’t decide what I wanted to major in, so I took all of my general courses to get them out of the way. By my sophomore year, I decided that I wanted to be a lawyer. I figured I might as well put my debating skills from high school to work in a courtroom.

I never had a boyfriend in high school, so dating was a task for me. I started seeing a guy during my freshman year, but it didn’t last long. All he wanted was sex, and I was not that kind of girl. I was still a virgin, and I wanted to wait until I met the man I was going to marry before I lost my virginity. In my sophomore year, the whole wait until I got married fairy tale went out the window. I dated two guys and lost my virginity to the first; that relationship lasted five months, and the second one lasted almost eight months. They both complained that I had to have the last word in a discussion or argument and that everything was a debate with me. I couldn’t help it; the more I tried to control it, the worse it got. I turned my focus to my studies, and since I didn’t have anyone to occupy my time, I spent most of it in the library and took as many classes as I could handle to accelerate my undergrad years.

I achieved the highest honors, graduating Summa Cum Laude; then I headed off to Yale to begin another chapter in my life. My parents were both retired now and wanted to leave Chicago. Since I was in another state, they decided to move back south, with the rest of our family. They sold the house, paid for the first two years of my tuition at Yale, and headed to South Carolina to live out the rest of their golden years. I knew when I eventually graduated from Yale, that I would come back to Chicago. South Carolina was a beautiful place to visit as a child, but not to live as an adult. Chicago was busy, and I liked the hustle and bustle. South Carolina was the opposite; it was too slow for me. I did some research and compared several law firms in Chicago and South Carolina, to make sure I was making the right decision.

Heading into the third year of law school, I realized that my funds were getting low. I was not willing to ask my parents for any more money. My parents always made sure I was taken care of financially, even before I was born. My dad opened a savings account when they knew my mom was going to carry me full term. On my first day of college, I was given a debit card and a bank statement. My mouth dropped when I read the balance; this account contained fifty thousand dollars. My parents had also started a college fund for me; this account paid for my undergrad years and the first two years of law school.

I had to find a job that I could schedule around my classes, and that would not be as hectic as my academic life. I tried my skills at waitressing, but that didn’t last long. I was at that job two weeks before I called it quits. I got hired as a cashier at the grocery store around the corner from my apartment, and to my surprise, I liked that job. When I interviewed for the position, I was told that I could work evenings, three nights a week and two weekends a month. This schedule would give me ample time to study, without stressing out or falling behind in my studies. Five months later, a new store manager was hired and put a monkey wrench in my schedule. He started putting me on the schedule during the day, insisting other employees were complaining about not having enough hours. Because of the schedule change, I was only working two days a week, and I found myself back to square one with my money issues.

It had taken me months to find that job, so frustration started setting in. One day while reading the local community paper, I ran across a compelling ad. It was for females only, who wanted to make some extra money by going out to dinner with clients. My first thought was that this sounded too easy and too good to be true. There wasn’t an address listed or even a name of the company; the ad said all serious inquiries should please call a phone number. I decided to write down the number, just in case, I couldn’t find anything else on my job search. Two months went by, and I hadn’t been on any interviews. I did not even have any leads on a job. This situation was starting to stress me out, so my quality of school