Amazon Gloria Mallette Gloria Mallette Category:  Mainstream Publisher: Gemini Press ISBN-10:  0967878926 Type: Fiction Pages: 329 Copyright: June 15, 2007 ISBN-13: 9780967878928 Winner - The National Best Books 2007 Award; and Winner - The National Indie Excellence Awards 2008 - African American Fiction When Nadirah Lewis unveils the shocking lie she has been forced to live the seventeen years, she is hell bent on fleeing the home of her Aunt Stephanie who has been her guardian since Nadirah was twelve years old; but it seems no matter which way she turn, lies surround her. Breathe a lie, live a lie. That’s what Nadirah Lewis learns when she uncovers the stunning lie she was forced to live for seventeen years. Nadirah was twelve years old when she was blamed for crippling her Aunt Stephanie. Guilt and her trust fund kept Nadirah a prisoner in Stephanie’s home and the object of Stephanie’s cruel tongue, but it took another vicious lie and a threat to Nadirah’s career as a teacher to infuse her with the energy to fight back.   Nadirah’s fight is not just for herself, it’s also for one of her young students, Bree Morrison. When Bree is hospitalized after drinking a near fatal dose of poison, Nadirah petitions the Administration for Child Services for guardianship. Bree's mother has inexplicably disappeared, and what Bree won’t say is what Nadirah needs to hear before Bree’s aunt Erma, a she-devil on wheels, wins the custody battle.   Erma, the soon-to-be ex-wife of Austin Gray, Nadirah’s handsome new landlord, and close friend of Lynn, Nadirah’s cousin, lets Nadirah know she will never get Bree or her husband. But what unforgivable lie does Erma live that could stop her cold yet devastate all around her? And Lynn, as well put together and as orderly as her life is, what shameful lie lurks behind her picturesque suburban doors?   Unveil the shocking, real life truths of Living, Breathing Lies. Excerpt “So it was for the good of the center that you said Nadirah was sleeping with one of your students?” “Old woman, you didn’t come up with anything better. Other than drugs, what else was there? Everyone knows Nadirah doesn’t use drugs. No one would have been convinced of that. I said she was sleeping with one of my kids, but—” “But you never expected for Nadirah and Lynn to show up and go after your delinquents.” “Stop calling them delinquents!” BJ roared. “Those kids just need a break. I’ll never sell out any one of them. What I do and how I do it is for them. I’m all most of them will ever have. They count on me.” Stephanie applauded. “How noble, Mr. Parish, but it seems to me you dragged your cape through the mud.” BJ slowly got to his feet. “Hmm,” Stephanie said. “I wonder who’s in charge of defrocking super heroes. Who can I report you to?” “You expose me, old woman, and—” “Stop calling me ‘old woman’!” “If you try to expose me, I’m sure Nadirah and your daughter will have plenty to say when I tell them you paid me to destroy Nadirah’s life just so you could keep her your personal slave?” The smirk on Stephanie’s face deepened. “You think, old woman, they’ll show you love or contempt?” Although her face didn’t show it, Stephanie was scared. If Lynn found out she did one more thing to Nadirah, she’d disown her for good. As for Nadirah, Stephanie wasn’t concerned. How much more could Nadirah hate her? “Yeah, you better think about it,” BJ said, feeling more in control although he couldn’t stand still. He moved anxiously about. “I want my money tonight. Five thousand, tonight.” “My, you must be desperate, Mr. Parish. You broke? You need my help?” Stephanie asked, feigning concern. “Cut the bull, goddammit! You know damn well I’m broke. My center is broke. The lease went up. I got to keep paying the rent. You promised me ten thousand. I need the balance.” “You should have gotten Nadirah fired then.” “No, I should have never agreed to mess with Nadirah. You destroyed my relationship with her. She was one of the best volunteers I had. She’ll never work with me again.” “That’s your fault. You should have come up with a better plan to get Nadirah fired that would not have brought her into your center questioning your delinquents. You don’t bring the enemy to your front door. You meet the enemy on neutral territory.” “Old woman, just pay me my damn money so I can get the hell out of here.” Stephanie wished that she had a gun because she’d shoot BJ as sure as she’d shoot a grizzly snarling down on her with his teeth bared. She hated stupid, arrogant men who would do anything for money, but when things don’t work out like they want they run like babies back to their mama’s breasts. “So what you gonna do?” BJ asked. He stood more than a yard away from Stephanie and was itching to smash something in her sneering face. Trying to not show BJ that he had the upper hand, Stephanie cooly crossed her big legs, which exposed a good portion of her fleshy upper thigh through the side slit. It was but a fleeting second, but she saw BJ look at her thigh, prompting her to look at the slight bulge in the front of his pants. She didn’t even try to hide her blatant observation of his crotch. There was definitely something lurking under there, just how big she wondered. She almost wanted to ask BJ to unzip his pants. Suddenly, she was tickled. It had been a very long time since she thought about being with a man.” “You better tell me something,” BJ said, “before I have a talk with Nadirah.” Stephanie wasn’t thinking about Nadirah. After Lester died, her vibrator had become her trusty nighttime companion. But electric currents and a rubberized head have never been able to do what a living, breathing man could. Until now, looking at BJ Parish’s crotch, it had not entered Stephanie’s mind that she might want to lie down with a man again. Now that she was thinking like that, even a weak man like BJ Parish might do. Sure, he was at least two decades younger than she, and maybe he had never entertained the thought of sleeping with a woman darn near as old as his own mother, his fat mother at that, but if she put a couple of hundred dollar bills between her thighs, there’s no telling what he might do to claim them. “Are you listening to me? I want my damn money!” “Would you please calm down! My goodness. I heard you the first time.” “Then pay me or I tell Nadirah everything.” “Do you think you can tell her without implicating yourself?” “Ever hear of email? My email address gives me complete anonymity. The lie I make up to point the finger at you will in no way touch me.” “Don’t be too sure of that, Mr. Parish. Lies have a way of worming their way to the surface and exposing themselves for all to see.” Stephanie’s own words weren’t lost on her. “I guess you know about that, huh?” Stephanie chuckled sadly. Yeah, she could speak from experience, but she wasn’t so old she didn’t know the damage an email could do to her fragile relationship with Lynn. Well, here’s where brain meets brawn. “Have you considered, Mr. Parish, that an impropriety on your part could lose you your center?” Feeling unusually warm, BJ loosened his tie. “This is all a game to you, isn’t it?” “Actually, no,” Stephanie said, softening the tone of her voice, “but I figure unless we take care of each other, we could both lose.” “And how do you propose we take care of each other?” “Sit down, Mr. Parish, or I won’t tell you what’s on my mind.” BJ turned to go back to the chair. He didn’t see Stephanie open the slit in her gown a few inches more “Say what you gotta say,” BJ said. His eye was drawn to Stephanie’s thighs. “As an aside, Mr. Parish. Did you ever sleep with my niece?” “Hell no! What you ask me that for?” “Just curious. So how would you like to double what you say I owe you?” Immediately suspicious, BJ paused. “Ten thousand,” Stephanie said, carefully watching BJ’s eyes glaze over. “I’m sure your center would appreciate my magnanimous gift. Don’t you think?” In his head, BJ calculated how far ten thousand dollars would take his center. “I won’t go after Nadirah again.” “I didn’t ask you to,” Stephanie said. “Besides, I don’t need her anymore.” “Now that you can walk you shouldn’t need anyone,” BJ said. “By the way, how is it that you can walk at all? Nadirah told me—” “Do you wanna hear what I propose or not?” BJ pondered the pros and cons of getting in cahoots with Stephanie again. Yeah, he needed the money. The first five thousand was gone. He’d used it to pay the back rent for the center, but if he could get his hands on the additional five, the center would be set because he’d be back on track. Stephanie’s offer was tempting, but at what price? “The clock is ticking,” Stephanie said. “In another minute, I will take my offer off the table, but before I do that, let’s speak of fairness. I didn’t get the results I paid for. Therefore, I believe I’m entitled to some satisfaction.” “Like what?” “Ten thousand dollars is a lot of money to simply give away, Mr. Parish, especially when I’m not guaranteed to get anything in return.” “So what do you want?” “Well, we both have needs. You need to keep your center up and running. Have you asked yourself where your delinq. . .excuse me, your students will go if the center is closed down? Or have you considered how long it will take for most of them to drop out of school and give Rikers Island as their legal address?” It sickened BJ to think of his kids ending up back on the street. “What do I have to do?” Stephanie softly drummed her fingers on the top of her thigh, prolonging the suspense. This was no time to be shy. Unless she asked for what she truly needed she wasn’t ever going to get it. “Goddammit, woman—” “Sex,” Stephanie said as calmly as she’d say, ‘good morning.’ She watched the color drain from BJ’s face. He didn’t get up, he didn’t flinch, he didn’t laugh. He gaped at her in stunned silence. What his answer would be, Stephanie could not read in his startled eyes. “Five thousand tomorrow morning after the bank opens; five thousand, four weeks from now.” BJ’s mouth closed, but he didn’t know what to say. “I guess you wanna know why four weeks? Well, I figure it’ll take four weeks for you to earn the balance.” BJ’s mouth dropped open. Daring to be risqué, Stephanie, her eyes fixed on BJ, uncrossed her legs and when she saw him lower his eyes, she began to slowly ease her gown up her legs and even further up on her thighs exposing their fullness. It was too late to be ashamed of their fleshiness, they were all she had to work with. She didn’t know what she’d do if he rejected her, but what other way to find out than to show him what she needed from him. Naughtily, Stephanie opened her thighs showing BJ what she needed him to take care of. “How good are you, Mr. Parish?” BJ stared, transfixed at what lay before him uncovered. “Can you rise to the occasion, Mr. Parish? Can you give an old woman, who’s probably as tight as a thirteen-year-old virgin, more orgasms than an electric vibrator?” Stephanie gently touched herself, while BJ, unable to pull his eyes away, lay his hand atop his crotch and lightly squeezed what was rising there. Still with her eyes on BJ, Stephanie began rubbing herself, and when she saw BJ breathing a little deeper, she knew he would put a bit more muscle in his engine. She wasn’t stupid so she wasn’t about to fool herself. BJ’s prime motivation was money, but it wouldn’t hurt if she imagined, just for a little while, that he wanted to be with her.

A Powerful Character Study
October 22, 2007

When her parents died eleven-year-old heiress Nadirah Lewis moved into the home of her paternal Aunt Stephanie Richards. Whereas Aunt Stephanie is cruel and abusive to everyone, her spouse firefighter Lester was very kind and loving to his niece as was her twin sibling older cousins Les and Lynn. A few years later, an accident leaves Stephanie physically crippled and Nadirah emotionally crippled as her guardian blames her ward for causing the trauma. Just under a decade after Nadirah joins the Richards family and long after the cousins moved out, Lester dies.

Stephanie uses guilt as a weapon to keep Nadirah home with her. However, the elementary schoolteacher is turning thirty in ten months and besides inheriting a four million dollar plus trust fund from her late parents, she begins to want out of jail, but is afraid to go it alone. Lynn, who left her acrimonious mother almost seventeen years ago, encourages Nadirah to make the break. However, it is her at risk eight years old student Bree, who desperately needs help and that leads Nadirah to believe she can do it especially if she wants to become the child's guardian. A desperate Stephanie fearing being left to die alone, does what she does best; spreading lies of a teacher-student affair that harms her niece especially when Bree's unstable family surface with demands of the teacher.

LIVING, BREATHING LIES is a powerful character study that focuses in on dysfunctional interrelationships built on fabrications. Each of the Richards are unique, but the most profound protagonist is Aunt Stephanie who is a household Machiavelli as she manipulated her husband to do what she wanted and likewise her niece; in the latter guilt is tight handcuffs. Nadirah is also fascinating as a willing victim filled with guilt that her aunt insures overflows. As the web of lies that go much wider than Nadirah knows begins to unravel one thread at a time, readers will demand more angst family dramas like this tense tale.

Harriet Klausne, #1 Amazon.com reviewer