Can a dream come true be a mixed blessing?
Paris Simmons-Holyfield is finally pregnant with the baby she's dreamed of for so long. There's just ONE complication: she's not sure who the father is.
Meanwhile, after a battle to keep her adopted daughter and an ugly confrontation with Paris's family, Gabrielle Mercedes has finally found love and happiness. But when someone from her past shows up, it is merely another round of trouble.
Darius Connors is still...well, he's still being Darius Connors. As all three navigate the path from sin to redemption, can they forgive their way to the other side?
The Other Side of Divine (Blessed Trinity Series)
Prologue
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. --Ephesians 6:17
When I tell you how beautiful, you’re not going to believe just how much so. In fact, beautiful doesn’t even begin to describe it or give it justice.
I’m sorry. Please forgive me. I’m getting ahead of myself here. I hate when someone starts in the middle of a conversation as though you’ve taken part in what was apparently going on in their heads before they began to speak and you have no earthly idea what they’re jabbering on and on about.
To those who don’t know me, my name is Esther Crowe. Those who know and love me best call me Esther, Aunt Esther, or Miss Crowe. A few folks even call me Zion from my days when I had a dance group called the Daughters of Zion many forgotten years ago. The miss part of Miss Crowe is actually a miss statement. There I go again: my attempt at a little humor and playing on words. I love words. For anyone who may have missed it, I was playing on the word misstatement.
I was born Esther Morgan, no middle name. I married into the last name of Crowe. My husband died young (much too young) early into our marriage, from complications of an illness called lupus, to be exact. I don’t like talking much about it. Suffice it to say: I never remarried; I never got around to finding anyone special enough to fill his space.
Then there was that terrible automobile accident that pretty near claimed my life here on earth. I was spared, although barely. For ten years, it was as if I didn’t really exist. But then my nephew, Dr. Zachary Wayne Morgan, stepped into that Chicago nursing facility, bringing with him someone near and dear to my heart: my dear, sweet Gabrielle Mercedes Booker all the way from Birmingham, Alabama and all grown up now.
Gabrielle dropped the last name of Booker and goes by Gabrielle Mercedes. That poor child has indeed lived a hard life. That wretched woman who was given charge over the almost four-year-old at the time was actually the cause of Gabrielle (eight years old when I first met her) and I becoming acquainted. I was out in the community on a summer jog and Aunt Cee-Cee (Mrs. Cecelia Murphy) was out there treating that sweet child like she thought her name was Cinderella (before the glass slippers). I laugh sometimes because Gabrielle has told me on more than one occasion that I was like her very own fairy godmother.
I suppose it’s true what some folks say: What Satan meant for bad, God will use it for good.
I figured out a way to get that precious little girl some joy into her life while she endured being treated even worse than a redheaded stepchild. At least I’d like to believe I brought some good into that child’s life. But Gabrielle could dance, oh my goodness, she could dance! The first time my eyes fell on her running around picking up after those four other children like she was their hired help, I saw the greatness in her. I often described her movements as like the seeds on the feathers of dandelions being carried in the wind: Graceful with a capital G. I saw the greatness in her future.
Gabrielle’s aunt Cee-Cee tried to say I believed Gabrielle was the child I never had. She even said jokingly (or so she claimed after she didn’t get the response she’d apparently hoped for) that I could have Gabrielle outright, for the right price, of course. If I could have gotten Gabrielle without the insult of seeming to buy her, I would have taken that child in a heartbeat, in a heartbeat. After I learned how badly Aunt Cee-Cee had done Gabrielle after my automobile accident—taking the money I’d paid for Gabrielle to attend Juilliard, then throwing her out on the streets with nowhere to go . . .
I don’t even like thinking about that. Why couldn’t I have been here? I wanted so much to see the look on her face when she received the information about Juilliard. But to think: That wretched woman took that money, stole it is what she did. . . . Well, needless to say, Cecelia Murphy’s day of reckoning is coming. And you can believe that. Those that live by the sword shall die by the sword.
( Continued... )
Copyright © 2013 by Vanessa Davis Griggs. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. This excerpt is used for promotional purposes only. Do not reproduce, copy or use without the publisher's written permission. Share a link to this page or the author's website if you really like this promotional excerpt.
The Other Side of Divine (Blessed Trinity) by Vanessa Davis Griggs
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Books by Vanessa Davis Griggs
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Author of Promises Beyond Jordan, Wings of Grace, Blessed Trinity, Strongholds, If Memory Serves, Practicing What You Preach, Goodness and Mercy,The Truth Is the Light, Ray of Hope, Redeeming Waters, Forever Soul Ties, The Other Side of Goodness, and The Other Side of Dare.
Meet the Author
Vanessa Davis Griggs is an accomplished, best-selling, award-winning author with 16 published novels: Destiny Unlimited, The Rose of Jericho, Promises Beyond Jordan, Wings of Grace, Blessed Trinity, Strongholds, If Memory Serves, Practicing What You Preach, Goodness and Mercy, The Truth Is the Light, Ray of Hope, Redeeming Waters, Forever Soul Ties (a Romantic Times 2012 nominee for Best Multicultural Fiction).
The Other Side of Goodness, The Other Side of Dare, and newest release, The Other Side of Divine receiving a 4 1/2 Stars review, Top Pick from RT Book Review.
Vanessa is a contributor of 10 devotionals in the Sisters in Faith Holy Bible (KJV) released by Thomas Nelson on January 1, 2013.
A former BellSouth Telecommunications employee, Vanessa left 18 years of service to pursue her purpose and passion as an author and motivational speaker.
Website. www.VanessaDavisGriggs.com
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/vanessagriggs
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/vanessadavisgriggs
