About Burning Desire
Burning Desire is the tale of three daughters of extreme beauty and courage. Placed in the care of merciless relatives, Nadia, Joseline, and Vera grow into three distinctly different women, each with a vision of love until their bond is tested when desire in the form of three men enters their lives. Love, once such an innocent spurs lies, deception, and betrayal as Nadia faces a choice between the promises to the man she loves and the possibility of a future with an American. One by one each sister will face her truth and loss of innocence.
From a city torn by religion and war comes the story of three women whose cultural differences and newly found freedom in America twist into a powerful story of love, hate, passion, and betrayal.
This book is for anyone who had found, lost, and sacrificed under the intense heat of their own Burning Desire.
Extract from the book
Many Middle Eastern people and tourists vacation in Lebanon because of its climate and beauty, even though Lebanon experienced massive physical and emotional destruction during a civil war between its two religions. Until 1974 Christians and Moslems lived relatively at peace with one another. The war left the country and its people with economical and spiritual wounds for years to come.
In 1960, in one of the more subtle neighborhoods in Beirut, Saleem Al Khoury stood on his apartment's balcony, staring past the fruit tree-lined streets to a point far off in the distance. It was late afternnon and a soft darkness edged the horizon as it made its way across the sky and over the city. Saleem took a deep breath, passing his fingers through his dark hair. As he looked below, he watched for a moment as people strolled by, enjoying the cool breeze of a June evening in Beirut.
He couldn't enjoy the sights, smells, or feel of the night approaching for his financial problems weighed on his heart and mind. He turned and walked with lazy footsteps inside his home, theough the living room, and into the bedroom. Standing by the open door of the room, he looked at his beloved and paralyzed wife, Norma.
"I'm going to Kuwait," Saleem said sadly, pausing for a moment to wait for his wife's reaction.
Norma turned her head toward Saleem, silently searching his face as she waited for him to continue.
"There, I'll be able to find a good job." He breathed deeply, adding, "When I have enough money saved, I will return."
Norma watched as the lines in his face that she had come to love grew deeper. "But, what will the kids and I do?" Norma asked miserably.
"You'll stay with your brother, Elias," Saeelm said sadly, knowing it was not the most pleasant of situations in which to place his family.
Elias, younger than Norma by ten years, was a selfish and mean man. Beside Elias, there was Lisa, Norma's sister who wasn't much better than he was. Lisa, who is almost seven years older than Norma, was an old maid, mean selfish and without mercy in her heart. Her face was stoic; a smile never crossed he lips. She was lazy, lying about the couch all day and night reading the Bible, but sadly, never hearing the Spirit because of her cold soul.
"Do whatever you think is right." Norma said unhappily, fearing the idea of staying with her brother and sister, knowing in her physical state that she would be mentally abused and unable to protect her daughters from the same or worse.
Saleem and Norma have three beautiful daughters. Vera, the oldest and most responsible at 12 years of age is a soft-spoken girl with medium length brown hair and large brown eyes while her seven-year old sister, Joseline, was blessed with a lighter complexion, hazel eyes and sandy brown hair. But it is Nadia, the baby, who receives all the attention. Even at the age of five her exotic looks, long blond hair and sparkling emerald green eyes make her the most beautiful amongest her sisters.
From the moment Saleem turned away, Vera took all responsibilty for her mother and sisters upon her frail shoulders. Though they were used to not receiving much affection from their mother because of her illness or their father because he was always working, it was still painful to see Saleem leave. She, her sisters and mother would share a small room in the back of the house; barely big enough for one large bed much less their suitcases. As soon as they moved in, their uncle and Lisa divided the work between Vera and Joseline. Lisa sent Vera to take care of her mother and ordered Joseline to begin cleaning the little house they lived in.
One day, Vera made a doll. She put two sticks together as a cross and covered them with cloth. Joseline was thrilled to see it and picked it up to play with it. Nadia came and grabbed it from her, and they both ended up fighting for the doll. When Elias approached it was Joseline he slapped, snatching the doll out of her hand and giving it to Nadia. Joseline started screaming and crying for the doll.
"Shut up you dump, ugly thing!" He screamed, slapping her again.
Joseline kept crying and screaming. Lisa then came and slapped Joseline. "Shut up! You dirty, dumb monster!" Lisa yelled, pulling her hair.
"I got it first, I want it back," Joseline whined, ignoring Lisa's screaming. Lisa grabbed a belt and began wickedly striking Joseline over and over.
"Shut up! No-good monster! Ever since you were born, it's been nothing but bad luck for this family!" Lisa was hitting and screaming so hard that her words spit out like sharp daggers between her heavy breathing. "You 're the reason your mother can't walk. Your name should be 'bad luck' not Joseline!" Joseline lay helplessly on the floor, trying to cover her head from the razor sharp crack of the belt until these words sank in.
When Joseline heard this, her cries died instantly in her throat. She ran to her mother with tears streaming down her eyes. Only now she wasn't crying from the ache of the beating; Joseline was crying from a worse pain, a pain that would never heal nor leave her in the days and years to come. this idea, this thought, so sinfuly planted in Joseline's heart, took root.
"Mom, did I make you sick? Am I bad luck?" she shrieked.
"No honey, you are not bad luck. Darling you have nothing to do with me being sick," Norma cried, hugging her and caressing her hair. "Lisa said that becuase she's upset. It is not true."
The answer from her mother didn't comfort her at all; they couldn't uproot what had already laid calim to her heart. It would not be until she was a grown woman that one senseless act of verbal abuse would start to diminish.
Saleem's daughters grew into three beautiful young ladies. Nadia was the most ravishing among her sisters standing 5'7" with thick, long, wavy blond hair and a natural tan that attracted even more attention. Her emerald eyes remained large and bright, crowned with arching eyebrows and balanced with thick lips. When she walked down the street, everyone turned their heads. Her confidence in herself only emphasized her natural beauty. She was very intelligent; everyone called her the brain of the family. She was almost sixteen years old although she behaved much older than she was. Her soul seemed wise for her actual age. Full of courage and determination, no one, or nothing, could stop her when she wanted something.
"My mother never had a good life, all of us suffered so much. I simply wish she could be here now."
"Vera. she is here in this face I'm looking at; in these eyes I lose myself in and in the woman I am about to marry. She is here," he said, while placing his hand on her heart. "And she will be with you on our wedding day," he smiled.
They sat and spoke through the night, sharing pains and promises until the moon rose high above them, lighting the smooth glassy water separating Vera from her home here, and her future home, an ocean away.