(Complete) Michael Bassett will do anything to protect his daughter even if it means sending her away. Soon he finds his trips east mean more than just seeing his daughter, because with each one he gets closer to the mysterious woman he wants to sav...
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Maribelle Hughes woke in a cold sweat. Her shivers were a relief because in her nightmare she had felt the heat. She looked around the shadows in her room that were cast by the glow of a nightlight. At thirty she couldn't sleep without some light. The fear was paralyzing and the vivid memories never left her.
She got out of bed and bundled up against the cold and made her way downstairs. She slid open the door leading to the patio and let the frigid air surround her. She breathed in the salty scent and listened to the wind blow off the water. She knew it wasn't low tide because of the absence of the odor of decaying shellfish. Some found that smell distasteful, but to those who lived by the beach it was a reminder of home.
There was only vast darkness looking out at this time of the year, except for the infinite number of stars that were twinkling down at her. Feeling too cold, she shut the door and locked it. She couldn't remember the last time she had really stepped outside. Perhaps last fall, but it would have been rare since she hid upstairs much of that beautiful season.
Maribelle had been living at the Hughes' family house on The Point for over a year. In that time she had become a recluse. Did she have agoraphobia? Dr. Freeman didn't like to put that label on her. She met with him weekly over video chat - more often when necessary. She had met him in the hospital and he had been treating her this way since they had released her.
No one was happy when she announced that she planned to live alone in the big house on the coast of Maine. They had left the house vacant too long. Even in the summer her father only vacationed in his beloved family house for two or three weeks each year.
Her mother was happy about Maribelle taking up residence in the summer house because Maribelle was an embarrassment to her. She had stopped caring what Ruby Hughes Abernathy Shelton thought about her years ago. Her mother was on her fourth husband - each one had been richer than the one before, but only the new one would be younger. At fifty-eight, Ruby was not that young anymore. Although thanks to plastic surgery, she looked it even if she couldn't smile.
Her parents divorced tore the family in two. Lucinda and Jed chose their mother while she and her other brother Davis wanted to live with their father. After some bitter fights they each took custody of two children. The visitation schedule should have brought the four siblings together on weekends, but it never worked. Luci refused to go to their dad's because he was too strict. Maribelle and Davis hated their mother's husbands. Each one was older and meaner than the one before.
Luci and Jed could have used a stricter parent since they both did a good job of screwing up their lives. Jed spent his weekends drinking and getting arrested for multiple DUIs. The last Maribelle heard, he had straightened things out. Lucinda was a different story. Maribelle was convinced for years that her sister caused her parent's divorce. At fifteen Luci came home from their summer in Maine pregnant. Her father was always cursing 'that Alfano boy' and he blamed Ruby for being a bad role model.
