Jeanette Cooper's Novels
Drama, Romance, Passion, & Thrilling Suspense
Dr. Heather O'Neal falls deeply in love, but she's in for a shock when she marries corporate tycoon, Anthony Trevor Hampton, whose abusive lessons learned from his father in childhood turn her life into recurring nightmares. Anthony is determined to break the abusive bonds, while Heater struggles in a dysfunctional marriage. Untamed passion, undying love, and the journey to trust are just beginning in this suspenseful and heartwarming story of love.
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Back Book Synopsis
Dr. Heather O'Neal's world is destined toward traumatic upheavals the minute a phone call sends her racing into an abandoned neighborhood to save the life of a young boy. Brought up in a poor neighborhood by loving parents, beautiful, innocent Heather dedicates her life to serving others until the boy and his father impacts her life drawing her into a relationship wrought with adversity.
When young Wally Hampton, traumatized by a past ordeal that renders him mute, bonds affectionately with Heather, he breaks his silence for the first time in over two years, activating a chain of events that will affect Heather’s entire life.
Anthony Trevor Hampton, a self-made multi-million dollar corporate tycoon will go to any lengths to make his son happy. Witnessing Wally’s affection for Heather and the miracle precipitated by her presence in prompting him to talk touches off Tony’s plan to keep Heather in Wally’s life. He decides to marry Heather—and he always gets what he wants. He eventually falls deeply in love with her, which sparks negative emotions and behaviors leaking from the core of severe childhood abuse. Suddenly engaged in an emotional arena he’s unfamiliar with, his feelings are beyond his control, and inadvertently, Heather, an innocent party, becomes the object of his sickness. Untamed passion, undying love, and the journey to trust are just beginning…
Dark Depths of Love is a tragic story filled with deep love, passion, and a man’s determination to break the crippling bonds of childhood abuse, and a woman’s generous heart to save her marriage against all odds.
EXCERPTS
"I don’t know who I am, Heather. Sometimes I think I’m still trying to earn the praise I craved from the old man when I was a kid. If he’d just said one good word to me, just one time let me know he was proud of me, I think it would have made me the happiest kid in the world. I had food, clothes, a good home to live in, but no kid I knew was as deprived as I was. I didn’t know what love was, maybe I still don’t, but I was literally starving for affection, hungry to believe that maybe I still had enough redeeming value that someone cared just a little for me.
"Then Bob came along. We connected and Bob gave me what the old man never did. Bob became my father figure, and I lay in bed at night wishing he was my real father.
I’m amazed that I didn’t grow up into a demented idiot after all I suffered. I think my love of school and books is what saved me. I grew up, went away to college, and came home for visits only when the old man demanded it. The last time, Bob called and asked me to come home. My old man was on his deathbed. I stood over his bed and watched him die and as the life seeped out of him, it seeped into me. A sense of relief flooded through me.
“I thought I was free, that I’d never have to prove myself to anyone again. However, the need to excel was so ingrained into my character that it was as natural to my life as living and breathing. Striving for success was the only tool the old man ever gave me. I was goal oriented and succeeding was a compulsion.
Excerpt of a conversation between Heather O'Neal Hampton and her husband, Anthony Trevor Hampton:
"I can’t handle the rollercoaster anymore, Tony. I want my life back the way it once was when there was a place for warm friendships and laughter. I want my days filled with peaceful thoughts that allow me to appreciate the moments of my life without fear of what your anger will bring tomorrow. I want all the pain to go away so I can sleep just one night in the deep comfort of knowing there is nothing to fear, nothing to worry about that can't be resolved, nothing to torment my life."
“We had it once, Heather, and we can have it again. Do you think I enjoy the hell I go through with this sick tormenting mind I have? I want to get well and stay well so I can know the joy and happiness of what you and I shared together. I want you in my life. What would it take for us to have the kind of marriage you want?"
“I want happiness,Tony. I want to live in peace with you and our children and know that tomorrow isn’t going to bring more torment like what I’ve gone through since I met you. Your father made you a victim and you've followed his tradition and made me a victim. I don’t want to live in fear of your anger and rage anymore, or your inclination to hurt me. I don't want you to use threats or other means to manipulate me to your will. You can’t hold on to my love by bullying me. You will lose me just as your father lost you if you continue trying to control my life. Only your love and gentleness can gain from me what your heart desires.”
Excerpt of scene after Heather leaves Tony:
The maid answered the door at Tony’s knock. “Find me a damn key to this door!” Anthony "Tony" ordered the frightened girl.
Tony found Wally in his room with the television blasting too loud, but he wasn’t watching it. Instead, he was using the famous old leather belt to beat the hell out of his stuffed gorilla. Every lash he sent the gorilla accompanied the words, “I hate you!”
“Wally?” Tony said gently, touching his shoulder.
“Leave me alone,” Wally screamed, turning as if ready to use the leather belt on his father.
“Give me the belt, Wally,” Tony said, reaching out to take it.
Tony realized in that moment that all the emotional upheavals Wally had been through was leaving the boy as damaged as he was, maybe more so. With his emotions traumatized so frequently, his young life was a rollercoaster of frightening situations, hurts, pain, and disappointments.
Tony put his arms around the boy. “Son, I know you’re hurting, but I promise you, one way or another I’m going to fix things. Do you know where Heather went?”
Tears rolled off Wally’s cheeks. He shook his head. “She wouldn’t tell me where she was going. She said she didn’t know. She said she would call me when she could. Why did she have to leave? Why did you go with that woman last night? Why do you treat Heather so mean?”
Tony shook his head. “I don’t know, Wally. I’ve got some problems I have to deal with, and I've really been trying, but I’ve got to try harder." He hugged Wally with tenderness.
“If you didn’t treat her so mean she wouldn’t have left,” He flung himself on the bed and buried his face in the pillow. “Just leave me alone,” he cried.
Tony stood there a few minutes listening to his forlorn son’s weeping while he unconsciously slapped the leather belt against his thigh.
My father’s legacy, he thought. Now my son has inherited it, too.