Diamondacious! A Fabulous Novel and a Lauderdale Lady's Tale

Fort Lauderdale - what image does that conjure up for you? Do you think about the gorgeous beach and the sparkling ocean? Maybe the glamour and glitz comes to mind - the divine luxury yachts and the multi-million dollar homes.

Then of course, there are the beautiful people; the gorgeous, suntanned young men and the lithe, bikini-clad girls.

They're all there, plus the exclusive restaurants, the expensive boutiques, the exotic cars and the hedonistic atmosphere of unlimited fun, the finest things in life and the best that money can buy.

Since its earliest days, there's been another side to Fort Lauderdale and South Florida that visitors rarely see.

Whilst the glamorous people are sipping their lattes, enjoying the chef's lobster au gratin and listening to the champagne corks pop ordinary people are getting on with their normal lives.

Some are wondering where all that money comes from? How do these people remain so beautiful? Where do they get that boundless energy that makes them party all night?

Do people aspire to their lifestyle? One little girl did.

Sometimes, when she was a small girl, Debbie would accompany her mother to work. They'd leave their home on the wrong side of the tracks and her mother would work cleaning the luxurious waterfront homes of the rich.

Debbie was smart but she wasn't an attractive girl. She didn't have friends. But she had a dream. Her dream was that one day,she too would be a Lauderdale Lady with money, a waterfront home and a luxury yacht moored right there in the backyard.

Debbie was driven by her dream.

Arden was the sort of girl Debbie admired and aspired to be. Arden had everything. She was beautiful and self-assured. She came from an excellent family.

Debbie studied hard at high school. She wanted to go to university. Her dream was to go to the same college as Arden, where she'd be studying law. But that wasn't to be. When Arden left to study law, Debbie went to the University of Florida.

Debbie met a young man at college. She knew her parents wouldn't approve. Then the blow came when her father died.But worse was to come.

Debbie had a serious problem. She confided in her priest who broke the bad news to her mother. There was one aspect though that her mother should never know.

Debbie knew that her mother was disappointed in her but the priest kept the additional news to himself - the baby would not be white.

Debbie had no choice but to give her baby away. She dropped out of college. She found work as an entry-level clerk at the hospital in Fort Lauderdale.

Her dream was fading away but she was determined not to give up.

Arden was still at university. She was discovering more than just her law studies, she was having a great time discovering men.

She eventually discovered Peter who was more responsible than Debbie's D'Juan, particularly in one department of life.

There was no unwanted baby for Arden. She graduated and returned to Fort Lauderdale to join a law firm. Debbie's career meanwhile was really taking off. She married, had a daughter, got divorced. As her finances increased she enhanced her appearance with plastic surgery, she lost weight ... she was becoming a Lauderdale Lady.

Debbie and Arden became firm friends. Through her friend, Debbie met the man of her dreams. Fair enough, he wasn't 100% straight but this is South Florida, after all. They married and lived a life of luxury. She had everything she had dreamed about when she was a little girl.

Of course, the lifestyle was incredibly expensive but now that Debbie was the chief financial officer of the Lauderdale Health System and all its complexities, she was able to help finance their lifestyle with embezzled money.

It was worth it to have the life she had always wanted and she was so very careful. She knew exactly how to cover her tracks.

It wasn't to last. The roller-coaster that was Debbie's life caught up with her again. When her crimes were discovered, there was no-one she could bribe, charm or sleep with to get out of the inevitable situation.

At forty-two years of age, Debbie had lost everything. She was no longer the Lauderdale Lady of her childhood dreams.

She had worked so hard. She had lied, cheated and stolen. Now she had been exposed all over the local press.She was no longer the person she'd always wanted to be.

But surely, you know Debbie better than that by now...

Part of the proceeds from this book go to charity - to the AIDS Athens.

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