At my desk, I receive mail from various authors enclosing their manuscripts for both my leisure reading as well as for possible future review. Here is an excerpt from the book “Diamond Life” by award winning journalist, Aliya S. King.

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She was gaining weight. He noticed her rear was just slightly more plump than before she left him. [Last time], she’d dropped 20 pounds in less than a month. This time, though he knew she had to be devastated to learn that he had cheated again, she was gaining weight. Her eyes were clear. She looked strong and in control…

He pulled his knees to his chest and put his hands behind his head. He could see the future and he wasn’t having it- he was determined to reunite with his wife at any cost. His mind began to drift, thinking about several things at once. A random thought drifted into his mind and settled there. Bits and pieces of body language from her made him think even harder about the random thought. Why did she seem so relaxed? Suddenly, he scrambled up to his feet and ran down the stairwell in the direction of the parking garage where he knew she kept her car.

He saw his wife, bending over to buckle the baby into her car seat. He sprinted. He didn’t stop when he got close to the car. She saw the blur coming toward her and stood up straight, her arms outstretched and her mouth wide. He ran directly into her and pushed her against the car.

“Who is it?!”, he screamed.

Her eyes widened but she said nothing. He held her wrists above her shoulders against the car. He squeezed. When she still didn’t respond, he sank his nails into the delicate skin of her wrists.

“Who” he asked, through gritted teeth. “When?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said calmly. “But I do know my wrists are bleeding.”

He didn’t take his eyes off his wife’s face to see if it were true.

“You’re having sex with another man. Who is it?”

She closed her eyes and sighed. “What makes you think that?”

“I can tell. You’re gaining weight. You’re… everything about you is… I just know. Now tell me who it is.”

“How many women have you been with during our marriage?” she asked.

He was silent, still squeezing her wrists.

“Dozens? Hundreds?” she asked, her eyes still closed. “You were my first. Remember? I cried. It hurt so bad. I kept saying, ‘it’s not going to fit!’ And you laughed and said ‘We’ll go slow.’ And we did. Do you remember?”

He was silent. He stopped digging his nails into her wrists but still held them tight. She kept her eyes closed.

“You took your time. You were so patient with me. You would try to go in. And then I would stop you. And you’d try a bit more. For an hour, until I bled. And I was no longer a virgin anymore. Then you bathed me and took me back to bed and made love to me with ease. There was no pain. Did you know I had never had an orgasm in my entire life until that night?”

He bit his lip to keep from speaking. He did know that. He also knew she’d never been completely nude in front of a man and had never given a blow job. He wasn’t even sure she’d actually seen a penis up close until they had sex that first time.

Everything he did to her was brand new, which made it feel brand new to him as well. He remembered that first night. The second time, when he was able to move inside her, she asked “How will I know when I’m coming?” and he laughed. Five minutes later, she was shaking and whimpering in his arms. “That’s how you’ll know,” he said, before rolling her over for round three.

“You were my first,” she said, a slight smile playing on her lips. When she opened her eyes, the depth of the hatred inside them almost made him jump.

“But you won’t be my last,” she said.

He pulled her wrists, pulled back his hand and slapped his wife’s face before he could think twice. The baby heard the loud noise and began to cry.

She kept her head down and rubbed her cheek with her hand. She tossed her hair back, stood up straight, and looked at her husband.

“You want to do that again? I’m sure the baby would love to have that burned in her memory. Go ahead. Smack me again.”

He saw the red hand-print clearly across the right side of his wife’s face. Every finger was outlined, the pinkie finger right underneath her ear. A tiny line of blood began to drip out of her ear and onto the shoulder of her suit. He was in disbelief, the only woman he’d ever loved in this world besides his own mother, was standing before him, bloodied by his own hand.

“I’m going to get in the car and go to my office now,” she said. “Are you sure you don’t want to hit me again?”

“Who was he?” he asked.

“He was a man. A man who said that this right here, this part of me?” she motioned between her legs. “He said this was like an orchid. Waiting to bloom. And you know what? He opened it up. And now I’ve got a f’ing bouquet up in this piece.”

He grabbed her face and squeezed hard. More blood dribbled from her ear.

“And tonight, I will see him and he will tend to my cuts and bruises from you. And he will make me well and tell me that everything will be okay. And it will be.” She smiled again. And he noticed that the gums under her cheek were also bleeding. Yet she didn’t look like she was in any pain at all. His wife walked around to the driver’s side of the car, got inside, and settled the baby with a cup of juice and a few soft words. She turned around, looked at herself in the rear view mirror. She looked at him and mouthed the words “Thank you” before pulling off.

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Diamond Life: A Novel Alex Maxwell’s career as a journalist and celebrity ghostwriter is taking off, but it pales in comparison to her rapper husband Birdie’s multi-platinum debut and world tour. Slowly but surely, everything they swore would never happen begins to happen—leaving Brooklyn for a mansion in suburban New Jersey and letting a reality TV crew into their home. Birdie is confronted time and again by the sexy groupies who pursue famous rappers, and he’s forced to make some life-changing choices.

Meanwhile, the largely unknown performers Trip and Step release their new single, and it becomes the hottest song of the year. The duo’s popularity spreads like wildfire at the expense of entertainment’s leading icons—Jake and Z—who seem to be losing their edge, their market share, and perhaps their reputations, too.

Diamond Life doesn’t just pick up where Platinum left off—it reintroduces Platinum’s main characters from a different perspective and gives background characters center stage while presenting future stars. Whether readers have read the first book or not, they’ll be swept up by this intoxicating story of love, sex, ambition, money, betrayal, and the surprising realities of making it big.