Chapter 29 Replies

Replies are under the cut:

@OH MY GOODNESS:
I'm going to respond in the same order as your review.
1. Jared doesn't forgive betrayal, and Anita basically just destroyed any chances she may have had with this little stunt.
2. Depends on your definition of bad guy, lol, as a brother he would've been a great one but right now things are up in the air because he has no issue playing hardball and Judi doesn't play like that. Add in the fact that he's a part of a life she's tried so hard to forget, things will be rocky and there will be resentment on both sides.
3. Hilda isn't the only person in play here and this is one of the reasons Jared and Judi's relationship might not work out. And blood definitely isn't thicker than water but it does help.
4. There will be suffering. After everything Judi has been through and the way she's been treated, there will definitely be suffering.
5. And I'm a fan of happily ever afters but I also try to keep everything realistic so just wait and see :)


Thanks for the review!


@Little Lisa:
My grandfather passed away and there was a bunch of other personal issues and drama so this story was put on the back burner while I figured everything out.


@Medina:
I'm glad you're enjoying  the story and yeah, I know a lot of people wish the updates were more frequent/constant but life does tend to take over. Thanks for the review :)


@MushroomCorpse
I'm always nervous with chapters like the previous ones because getting across the emotions, especially the conflicting ones without it feeling forced or as if I'm deliberately trying to play with your emotions just because so I'm sooo glad you enjoyed it and found it to be realistic and well balanced.


In regards to which side of Judi we'll see it's most likely going to be a mix, because she'll put on a brave face but at the same time she's going to be hurting and the hits will keep coming.


And I'm glad you went with IWOAK since When Doves Cry isn't as strongly written as this one, it needs a major overhaul for sure.


Thanks for the awesome review :)


@The Dark Duchess In Waiting
Haha, Missy gets a lot of love, her attitude plus loyalty makes her the kind of friend you want around you even if she's telling you things you might not want to hear.


And I didn't want Jared to come out of left field so I tried to put hints in throughout the story that could be overlooked until the reveal and you realised why he kept getting mentioned even if he had no face time.


I hope you enjoy the latest chapter and thanks for the review!


@SequinedPajamas
Yeah, high school was hell for that kind of backward mentality, and honestly so is college/uni sometimes. Or worse, where you're not 'black' because you don't fit someone's preconceptions of what being black is.


People always try to justify their own insecurities by tearing down other people and I figure Judi is the perfect example of someone who everyone made their own assumptions about when in reality she was trying to get by.


I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter and that parts of it rang through, I figure it's easy to read about the likable characters or the insecure ones who are secretly pretty and have no real reason to feel the way they do but people who have to change because of their environment are harder to write even if more people relate to them.


@BettyBoo
Jared didn't run after her partially because of the fact that she was afraid of him and partially because Sean/Vince. He figured if he gives her space she'll be more open to him later on. And we definitely haven't seen the last of Jared since now that he has found her, he has no intention of letting her go.


Thanks for the review and your patience, hope you like the latest chapter.


@Anon
I'm glad you found everything to be balanced and the descriptions on point since with a scene like that half of the emotions are portrayed not through what the characters say but their body language and what they do, and I have a tendency of going overboard when it comes to setting the mood.


If this had been Missy there would've been a lot more violence and I hate yous and I never want to see you again type drama, lol, Judi is a forgiving person and she tries to see it fro the other person's POV. I wanted to keep that part of her while keeping the strong person she has become now who knows she deserves better than to cling to someone because they're nice to her sometimes.


Jared is a dynamic character and I like him, but I made him so I know the reasons behind his actions, lol. Hopefully I'll be able to portray him in a way that does him justice.


Thanks for the review :)


@A.K.
Yeah, AJ definitely needed to say his piece, I figured this whole thing was caused by a lack of communication and AJ would try and fix it by finally telling her everything even if it's a little too late.


I think a decent chapter length is 5000 words or longer although I know my chapters tend to be more the 10000 word length which is one of the reasons it takes so long to update, lol. My chapters have gotten shorter but I'm updating more regularly now so hopefully that balances it out.


And I agree, I have been known to stop reading stories I might love because the author thinks 500-1000 words is a chapter and it's barely a taste.


Glad you liked the cut scene, it's always hard to figure out what to keep and what to get rid of since it's interesting to me but it bogs the story down.


I hope you like the latest chapter and thanks for the review :)


@Lethe's Oblivion
I know you have an account but you have the PM function disabled and that's the way they send review replies now.


Jared breaking up with her isn't that reprehensible, people get dumped all the time. The problem was that Anita is a spoiled little girl who's used to getting her way and blew it out of proportion and AJ automatically took her side and got the belief that Jared was just playing with her in the first place as a passive aggressive stab at him.


See, the thing is that the truce being finished is a big deal. You can't beat up someone like Jared and not have to face the consequences and AJ knows what it's like to take out the leader of a gang, even if it's your own and he never wants to do that again or put his people through that again.


He was in between a rock and a hard place. If he let it slide then his sister would be in pain but if he attacked then a whole bunch of people could end up hurt or worse. But after Carmen they had the whole men not getting physically involved in relationships which gave him an opening and he took it.


I mean, the story could've still worked if I had made AJ physically attack Jared, but he still would've gone after Judi because he's a fan of an eye for an eye and hurting Jared is one thing but hurting him through the one person he cares about the most? You could destroy someone like that. But that would've been a darker story since violence begets more violence.


Although if AJ had been thinking clearer he'd have realised that by doing what he did his plan could've backfired and he might have made it easier for people to attack you via your family members even if they don't actually raise a hand to them.


I'm glad you're enjoying the story even if you don't really buy AJ's reasoning or agree with it, thanks for the review :)




@g
Anita definitely isn't worth all of this drama. When she was getting everything she wanted she was the type of person who you would love to be around, but the minute things don't go according to how she expects it too she lashes out and doesn't expect to have to face the consequences for her actions.


Nothing is ever her fault. And you make a really good point about their reactions showing who is actually the strong character. Yes, Jared didn't handle the situation well but like you said, if she was as strong as everyone thought she was, she would've sucked it up and kept it moving but she didn't. Judi however keeps getting pummeled and yet she continues to push on even when for all rights you wouldn't blame her if she just gave up.


The thing with AJ is that he's been raised that as the only boy he should protect his sisters. Yes, he was probably spoiled and he's just as used to getting his own way but there's always that underlying knowledge that at the end of the day, he is the man of the house and their protector. So it blinds him to some basic facts that he might have noticed with someone else.


The issue of the DNA test will be dealt with in upcoming chapters, I have thought about that but the scenes that deal with it haven't come up yet.


Thanks for the great review and I hope you like the latest chapter.