The Mask of Love

About the Book

Except for the descriptions of verbal, emotional and sexual abuse, this is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Descriptions of the abuse were greatly influenced by women who, respectfully, will remain anonymous. All of whom, however, along with my fictitious character, Lee Carlton, agree to bare the title of ‘abused woman.’ “The Mask of Love” will hopefully bring a visceral awareness to what such abuse and its consequences might bring to any relationship. In order to present this story in a more direct fashion, I have written it in the first person. Lee Carlton is the narrator. Her story, or confession if you choose, is harsh, raw, often pitiful in her determination to make this abusive marriage work. Her hopes and dreams, her constant guilt that she cannot be the wife her husband expects her to be, may bring empathy from the reader. Her self-denial to the fact that he may never change, her lack of courage to stand up to him, may quickly erase that empathy. Her confession begins on the day of Edwin’s death. The day he accuses her of being totally responsible for the broken marriage and their shattered family. After his death, the overwhelming guilt that this may be true, follows Lee like a plague. To cure herself she must remember everything, from the very beginning to his end: her own childhood filled with love to that day she meets Edwin and on through their marriage. A marriage filled with that punishing abuse that only leaves its mark on the heart and soul. She tells us of her hopes, her dreams and the constant belief that her marriage and relationship with Edwin will improve—that Edwin, eventually, will change. In remembering, Lee recounts again the irreparable devastation Edwin reaped upon their children. That moment in time when she realizes how futile her hopes and dreams and waiting for that change really were. If her confession sparks understanding and sympathy as she bows to Edwin’s abuse, we may also become bewildered, and angry, that she allows this to continue. When Lee finds that her remembering brings little, if any, repose, she now has no choice but to probe into Edwin’s past. In this search Lee discovers a man she never knew. That her doomed marriage and broken family was not the result of what she did or did not do, but what a past did or did not do for the boy that would one day have to hide behind a mask of love.

About the Author

Pat Carpenter-Wood was born and raised in Chicago’s Back of the Yards district. She now lives in Tucson, Arizona. She is a member of the Society of Southwestern Authors. This is her third e-published book. Her first, ‘Tata’s Tree’, is a non-fiction story of life in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood. Her second book, ‘The Mask of Love’, is a fictional story of a verbally and emotionally abusive marriage.