Excerpt: Revenge: Sweet as Cain by D.A. Kelley

Revenge: Sweet as Cain by D.A. Kelley

Release Date: 8th December 2015
Publisher: Got'cha Covered Publishing

Genres: Urban Christian

Available on Amazon

Bitterness=Revenge

Dr. Elissa Johnson has an aching bitterness in her heart that only revenge can soothe. Adopted at birth, at an early age it was no secret the people she called parents, had no real love for her, or any love for that matter. Although they proclaim to be Christians, the treatment she endures at their hands would suggest otherwise.

Elissa sets out to find her biological parents by hiring a private investigator. The information given to Elissa is more than she bargains for. Her new found view of life fuels her need for revenge while the flame of hatred grows. Elissa’s plan for vengeance is in motion with everything falling into place, until she reaches the final stage and an unsuspected twists is revealed.

Author Bio

Denise Ann Kelley (pen name D. A. Kelley) is a freelance writer whose love for writing and reading began at a young age. She has written short stories, poems and Christian plays. Denise’s work has appeared in The Motherhood Diaries 2 by bestselling author, ReShonda Tate Billingsley. Kelley’s debut novel released in October 2014 entitled 70:7: The Road to Forgiveness. She has been selected as contributing author in the anthology, Bruised but Not Broken. Her articles have appeared in The Focus, a local magazine in her community and she has been a guest on several talk radio shows. She is a member of the National Writing Month writing club.

Denise is a lover of education and knowledge. She received her Diploma in Business Technology and Office Administration, AAS in Paralegal, and certification in Pharmacy Technician. She is licensed as a Certified Medical Coder and Life, Health and Annuities seller in Virginia, where she currently works as a Quality Performance Auditor II for Blue Cross and Blue Shield. 

Denise believes in being an asset to her local church organization performing various administrative duties. She writes Urban Christian Fiction, which brings to life her writing whether poetry, novels or plays. Denise’s Christian plays have been performed in various locations in her local community. She currently resides in Roanoke, VA.

Website: dakelley.wordpress.com

Email: daknovelist@gmail.com

Facebook Fan Page: Author D. A. Kelley

Twitter: @mzdakelley

Periscope: @mzdakelley

Instagram: msdkelley

Google+: danovelist@gmail.com

Excerpt: Chapter Two

Clifford and Bernice Johnson had long since moved out of New York and relocated to Georgia, and when they left, Elissa couldn’t have been happier. Bernice attempted to keep in touch, but Elissa didn’t want to be bothered. Although the Johnsons had no qualms about telling her she was adopted, they never revealed to her who her biological parents were, either. She was sure they knew, and she pondered why they kept that information from her. What was the big deal, she often wondered. It would have made her search a little easier had they just told her who her parents were, but that didn’t stop her quest. She just had to find other means to get the information. She would come up with something. 

She tried her hand at adoption agencies, but it always led to a dead end. It was thirty years ago; the record keeping wasn’t as advanced and accurate as it was today. Elissa was still determined. She figured that since she was smart—she was a doctor, after all—she would figure something out. She considered hiring a private detective, but then thought better of it. If she hit a dead end, she assumed they would too, and that’s when it hit her. The idea was obvious and simple. It was one of those, “In plain sight” type of deals. She would just go back to her old neighborhood and ask questions.

Elissa sat in her brown leather chair in her office at the hospital, composing a list of questions she would ask her former neighbors when she went to visit her old neighborhood. She hadn’t been back in years. She didn’t even know who still lived there, but she was going to soon find out. While writing the list of questions, so she wouldn’t leave anything out, she paused and stared at the notepad she was writing on and the pen that was in her hand. Something as simple as the act of writing triggered a flashback; she recalled the time she got caught chewing gum in church. Clifford spanked her with a wooden paddle, which had her name carved into it and the phantom verse, “Spare the rod, and spoil the child.” Elissa always remembered thinking about how with all of the preaching he did and how much he read the Bible, he still didn’t know that verse was not in the Bible. 

The paddle resembled a poor man’s version of the Cat O’ Nine Tails. It was a whip the Roman soldiers used for punishment, and it was also used to whip Jesus. The nine strips of twelve-inch thick leather he had didn’t have the pieces of metal tied to the ends like a real Cat O’ Nine Tails. What he did, though, was tie thick knots at the end of each leather strip and stapled them to the paddle. Clifford made the punishment tool from his old leather belts that he no longer wore. She recalled that day as one in which the beating made it difficult for her to sit down for a week. He also made her write three thousand times, “I will not chew gum in church.” She angrily threw the pen on her desk, crumbled up the piece of paper, and she typed her questions onto the Notepad app on her cell phone instead. She hated that incidents from her childhood constantly popped up in her head and had such an effect on her.