Shades of a Battered Mind by: Sylvia Stein

Hello everyone,

I wanted to share a tease of my upcoming book which I am working very hard on:  This is my WIP: I hope you enjoy!

Shades of a Battered Mind  by Sylvia Stein 

Chapter 1   “ The Normal Life “

As I lie here holding on to my sanity.   I have to say never in a million years would I have thought all would turn out the way it did.  

You see for most of my life I had been searching and hoping that one day I would find the one 

and be able to finally lead a “ normal life.” 

However nothing could be farther from the truth.  My name is Sadie Martin Carlyle and 

on May 27, 2010 I was charged with the murder of my husband Dante Carlyle.  

The thing that makes this so horrific is that  I do not even remember  committing the crime.   

All I know is that when I awoke the next morning,  My husband Dante was dead and I was found 

next to his body and the murder weapon.  

As of now all I can do is await my trial which will not be for a few months.  

Sadly because of the circumstance of the crime I will have to sit in a jail cell until my trial. 

You must be wondering why I seem to know so much about the law in particular.  

One second,  “ Can you please let me finish talking.”

  Sorry,   being locked away in this cell has made me a bit paranoid. 

Well in any case as I was saying.  The reason I know so much was because my beloved husband was a lawyer and before I got married.  We both met in law school.  

Oh it was so simple back then.  

If only I could go back to the beginning.   Things were so simple then.  At least I thought they were.   However maybe if I can just go back to the beginning I can try to salvage a bit of my dignity. 

After all I was born and raised to be a good girl and right now I am really placing a damper on all the years my parents spent trying to make me something I never wanted to be.   You see I was born and raise in the Atlanta Georgia.

Sadly, I was never able to lead a normal life.  This was vastly due to my parents Lila and Jackson Martin.  

My mother was born to parents of money and my father was no different.  However he was known for being one of the best criminal defense attorneys in all of the state of Georgia.   

He was deeply admired for his hardcore antics.  My father was never one to give up on his client 

and he isboth loved and hated throughout the community.  

On the other hand my dear mother Lila Reece Martin has always been in the public eye.  As a child her parents owned several wineries all over the state of Georgia and North Carolina and she  was left with a trust fund and decided to invest in stock and has done pretty well.  She is now the Ceo of The Reece Winery and overlooks them along with my father and she is also one of the main members of the Women of Atlanta social club.   

All in all she is always busy and thinks that I am just spoiled.   My mother and I are not close. 

She was always gone when I needed her.  The only person that seemed to care and worry about me was my father Jackson.  

He always made time to see me and for that I am very grateful.  My father has always said I was 

his everything.   At the time I thought I was but then I discovered it was all lies.  I will get to that later. 

As I was saying my mother was never around as a kid.  She was always out and busy with all her numerous work and charitable events.  

“ I hated her, and I still do!”

As you can see  I get a bit angry being cooped up in here.  I mean there are many criminals in here and I know they are women like me.  But I am not one of them.  I am different and I want to do is start over again.  

“ Let me outta here!”