title: Peeling Back the Layers: A Story of Trauma, Grace and Triumph
author:  Lawayne Childrey 
description: Birmingham, Alabama native, Lawayne Orlando Childrey is a national Edward R. Murrow award winning journalist. He has also won numerous Mississippi Associated Press Broadcasters awards. In 2014 the Alabama Community College System named Childrey as one of its most outstanding alumnus in the institutions fifty year history. As a result, the ACCS awarded a $5,000 scholarship in Childrey's name to a deserving Alabama high school senior. During the same year, Childrey was named as alumnus of the year for Jefferson State Community College in Birmingham. He currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee and serves as a national Voice Over artist, HIV/AIDS activists and motivational and keynote speaker. For booking information contact: lawaynechildrey@gmail.com Facebook: Lawayne Orlando Childrey Twitter: @LChildrey
zlib_text: **EVER AFTER**
  
   _ **A Novella**_
  
   _ **By**_
  
   **ANYA WYLDE**
  
  Copywright 2014 Anya Wylde
  
   _Smashwords Edition_
  
    
    
  
  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
  
  Once again, I am ever so grateful to my adorable husband, my poodle, my
  friends, my family ... in fact the whole wide world.
  
  (i)
  
  It was time.
  
  The land was pining, the people yearning and the queen getting on in years.
  The king, too, had lost all the hair on his head save one tiny grey curl.
  
  Yes, it was time.
  
  Time for the king and queen of the great snowcapped mountains to have a child.
  A child who would be heir to the throne and rule over the people of the
  snowcapped kingdom. A wonderful, obedient child who would love and care for
  his ageing parents.
  
  The king and queen smiled at each other. Yes, it was time.
  
  Once the decision was made, the king and queen immediately turned to the wise
  council and asked them for the best method to achieve this end. The wise
  counsel consisted of four very old turtles with wrinkled necks and dark,
  mysterious eye