Are you
familiar with the story of Samson and Delilah? Samson was a strong warrior
whose enemies tried and failed to destroy him.
His girlfriend Delilah betrayed him to his enemies by telling them how
he could be defeated. He was taken
prisoner and blinded. Ultimately, he got
his revenge, but it was at the cost of his life.
Modern
literature is also rife with betrayals. For instance, think of Scarlett O’Hara
in Gone With the Wind. She betrayed her own sister Suellen when she lied to
Frank Kennedy and persuaded him to marry her instead of Suellen.
Betrayals
aren’t only used as a device in novels. A great many Hollywood movies deal with
some type of betrayal. Have you seen Payback with Mel Gibson? In this movie Mel
is shot by his wife and best friend and left for dead, but he survives and sets
out to get his revenge.
Of course,
romantic betrayals aren’t the only kind.
Think of how Benedict Arnold betrayed his country. His name is synonymous with treason. Another good example of a betrayal is when
Brutus betrayed his good friend Julius Caesar.
Brutus was one of the Roman senators who stabbed Caesar to death.
Don’t forget
Disney either. In The Lion King, Mufasa’s brother Scar betrays him and
manipulates Simba into running away, ultimately leaving the way clear for Scar
to take power.
On a
personal note, I’ve written some pretty intense betrayals into my own work.
Here’s a betrayal scene from Her Kind of Man which was released by Lachesis
Publishing. In this excerpt, my heroine
Kara and her sister Katie have gone to the movie together. Kara had a date with
her fiancé, Brandon, but he called and cancelled. Kelly is Kara’s other sister.
“What a great movie!” Kara gushed
as she and Katie left the theater. She tossed her empty popcorn box and
leftover soda into the trash can by the door. “Mama and Daddy will want to see
it too.”
Katie blew her nose and dabbed at
her eyes. “I know. It was too sad for words.”
As they left the theater and
crossed the parking lot, Katie turned her head at the sound of a car door
slamming. “Why, there’s Kelly and Brandon.”
Kara looked in the direction of
Katie’s pointing finger. “Great! They can….” Her voice trailed off as Kelly
moved into Brandon’s passionate embrace.
“What…?” Kara’s words choked her
as Brandon buried his hands in Kelly’s hair and kissed her as if he held the
world’s greatest treasure in his arms.
Katie grabbed her arm. “Come on.
We’re getting to the bottom of this.”
Kara dragged her feet as Katie
towed her across the parking lot. “Katie, maybe….”
“What’s wrong with you?” Katie
glared over her shoulder. “Hurry up!”
Kelly and Brandon were still
wrapped around each other when Katie and Kara reached them.
“Kelly!” Katie exclaimed. “What
do you think you’re doing?”
Kelly jerked away from Brandon so
fast she stumbled and had to grab his arm to keep her balance. Even in the parking
lot’s dim light, Kara saw her sister’s face had gone scarlet as had Brandon’s.
Kara didn’t say anything. She
couldn’t.
Kelly flinched as Brandon took
her hand and squeezed it. “I’m sorry, Kara. We never meant for you to find out
this way.”
“What were you going to do?”
Katie demanded with a wave of her hand. “Leave her at the altar?”
“No,” Kelly replied. Her eyes
glittered like two burning blue coals. “We planned to tell her tomorrow night.
That way she’d have the weekend off to…to…to get used to things.”
Brandon looked Kara directly in
the face for the first time. “I’m sorry, Kara. You have to know I never meant
to hurt you, but I can’t marry you if I’m in love with your sister.”
Kara didn’t bother to answer. She
didn’t know what to say anyway. How do
you act, what do you do, when you catch the man you love kissing your sister? Her
sister! Oh, how could she? This betrayal by one of her nearest and dearest cut
to the bone.
She gritted her teeth to hold
back her tears and hurled Brandon’s beautiful ring toward him and Kelly. He
tried to catch it, but he missed, and the ring landed at his feet.
“Let’s go, Katie,” she said. She
spun on her heel and stomped away with her head held high.
Her Kind of Man is on sale for .99 at Amazon and at Lachesis Publishing for only .99.
