Sunset by the Sea

Sunset by the Sea THE GOLDEN ISLES TRILOGY BOOK ONE GISELE BRISEIA Contents A Note Before You Continue 1. Rose 2. Rose 3. The Stranger 4. Rose 5. The Stranger 6. Rose 7. Rose 8. Rose 9. Rose 10. The Stranger 11. Rose 12. Rose 13. Rose 14. Rose 15. The Stranger 16. Rose 17. Rose 18. Rose 19. Rose 20. Rose 21. The Stranger 22. Rose 23. Rose 24. Rose 25. The Stranger 26. Rose 27. Rose 28. Rose 29. Rose 30. Rose 31. Rose 32. Rose 33. Rose 34. The Stranger 35. Rose 36. Rose 37. Rose 38. Rose 39. Rose My Dearest Readers: Thank you! Join My Newsletter! Midnight by the Sea Acknowledgments About the Author Copyright © 2023 by Gisele Briseia First Print Edition: April 2023 ISBN (ebook): 978-4-911045-00-8 ISBN (paperback): 978-4-911045-01-5 ISBN (hardback): 978-4-911045-02-2 All right reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Cover design: Marie Mackay Map: Melissa Nash Interior illustrations: Etheric Tales Formatting paperback/hardback: Etheric Tales Editing: Marie Mackay, Manu Velasco, Raelynn Nelson To those who dream of a home you don’t yet have May you find your sanctuary A Note Before You Continue This story contains mention of certain sensitive topics such as profanity, explicit sexual content, abuse, parental death, violence, threats of violence, mentions of cancer and hospice, and other topics that may be sensitive to some readers. For a full list of content warnings please visit my website. Preface There are pivotal moments that determine the course of someone’s future. Decisions that once made cannot be undone. These crossroads moments alter their lives permanently, often in ways they never expected. Mine would end my life as I knew it. Forces beyond my understanding, a destiny I never knew was meant for me, strife unlike anything I’d ever experienced… It was a perfect, unexpected storm. Yet, just as fate propelled me forward, so, too, did a song. It carried on the wind, whispering promises of peace and tranquility. The notes were mere wisps at first as I drove up to the cliffs of Five Islands Point and put my car in park, but as soon as I got out, what were once brushes against my mind became hooks, sinking deep. From the depths, it pulled forward a memory, one I was loathe to relive yet powerless to stop. My feet carried me forward, slow at first. Tentative. All else was forgotten, my eyes unseeing as I succumbed to the song. My steps grew surer the deeper into the memory I sank, and soon I was running, nothing but me, the song, and the memory in my mind. The cliff’s edge crept closer and closer until it was too late to turn back. I jumped. CHAPTER 1 Rose Wind off the ocean whipped my hair around my face, loose tendrils tickling my skin. From my place high atop the cliff, I stared over the water, watching the sky change color as the sun laid itself to rest for the night. The waves below pummeled the ancient rock face, and the darkening clouds behind me announced an incoming storm. I paid it no mind. This was my reunion with the islands… and a wake all in one. Before me, from the vast blue of the Pacific, rose five islands in shades of green and brown: the Golden Isles. The islands of my childhood. The place I ran to when life grew to be too much. My new home. With memories playing in my mind, I looked over this place as wildflowers and tall grass whispered around my ankles with each gust of chilled March wind. Last time I’d been here at Five Islands Point, my father had dared me to sit with my feet dangling over the edge, and not wanting to disappoint him, I did it, terrified. Such primordial fear was impossible to forget, knowing my life hung in the balance. One strong push or even a misplaced step would send me falling to my death. I imagined every moment of such a fall and the pain of my body being dashed and broken upon the rocks below. Yet I sat there just waiting for him to call me back. He never did. Instead, he came and sat behind me, his legs on either side of me, and wrapped one arm around my shoulders as I shook. I’d never forget his words to me as we sat there that day. “Are you scared, Rosie?” he asked, his voice uncharacteristically soft. “Yeah.” I wanted so much to get away from the edge, but he held me fast. “What is making you scared right now?” “That I’ll fall and die.” “Are you afraid to die?” “Yeah. It’ll make you and Mom sad.” “It would make us sad, yes. But I wanted you to learn an important lesson.” “W-what lesson is that?” “The lesson is that the most important thing in life is to do things that scare us. Being scared makes us human, but what makes a human extraordinary is facing that fear and overcoming it. I want you to be extraordinary, Rose. I expect nothing less from you.” At twelve, I’d really had no idea why he was talking about that or why I had to do something that made me want to pee myself, but the lesson stuck with me. He’d never get to see me accomplish it, though. Because he was dead, pancreatic cancer having eaten his life away not even a month ago. I’d given up my freedom, my life, and my career in Boston