About The Characters (Angela Morrison)

Angela Morrison’s perfect world is shattered after she discovers that her hero is the boogeyman. One night, she walks down the stairs and finds her parents huddled at the bottom of the steps. Then, she watches in silence as her father punches her mother in the stomach so hard that she crumples to her knees in pain. The contempt in his eyes is like that of an angry beast devouring his prey, and his ferocious behavior forever traumatizes her. After that night, Angela’s love for her father and compassion for her mother challenges her loyalty, and years later she is forced to choose between them.

Excerpt:  For the rest of that week, we tiptoed around each other like thieves.  I avoided her for my own sanity. It allowed me to control that urge to want to do something to help her. Since I was five years old, I’d taken on the role of her knight in shining armor, and secretly I had vowed to do whatever was necessary to save my mother from the fiend within the walls of our home. Each time I saw a new bruise, abrasion or injury on her delicate skin, I accepted responsibility, because ultimately, I had failed to protect her.

Twenty-two years later, Dr. Angela Morrison agrees to facilitate the Women’s Meeting at her church, and she becomes engrossed in the traumas of four women. Ultimately, their life’s issues hurl her back into the horrors of her own harrowing past, and she is forced to confront her demons.

Excerpt:  I pursued a career in psychology because I wanted to help women combat domestic violence. After I graduated from college, I was bursting with enthusiasm. Initially, I intended to start my own practice in Charlotte, North Carolina. I wanted to boost women’s self-confidence so that they would view themselves as beautiful, black women not lifeless, black punching bags. I wanted to encourage self-love and self-respect so that they would have the courage to walk away from relationships that perpetuate loathing and shame. I wanted to challenge decades of domestic oppression with the voice of reason. I wanted to inspire battered women to raise their voices and sing triumphant tunes for change in their communities. No more sorrow! No more pain! However, since the banks wanted their student loan payments, I postponed the dream for a job with a salary.

Excerpt:  After Toni and Ernestine left, I stared at a pigeon perched outside the windowsill and wondered if a pigeon’s life was similar to a human’s being. Many people spend a lifetime chasing the impossible dream, friendship, relationship, happiness or love, and they forget to live in the moment; to enjoy that which is right in front of them; to love themselves enough to create their own happiness; to celebrate life’s joys and grieve and let go of life’s woes; to live for today instead of for tomorrow or yesterday. A pigeon seemingly lives in the moment always focused on the meal on the ground.