The Heart of the Sea

Chapter One Laura

'I remember everything like it was yesterday, I stayed with my husband Clay Hammond all those years, we had been married when we were seventeen, I had miscarried, all that time I had longed to start a family of my own. Clay had turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism for losing the baby, I just sat by the window, locked in my room, staring at the wedding band on my finger, I had taken it off, placing it on the table. One day, when Clay had left for the bar, I had written a farewell letter to him, leaving the ring on the bottom of the note, I had packed and left that house... Until I had decided to take a boat to live with my sister in New York, helping to raise her children, that was when I vowed to never fall in love with another, my name is Laura St. Hamilton, and this is my story..'

"Laura, you left Clay? I just never thought that you would be brave enough to go through with it." Vivienne said

"I was pregnant at seventeen, Vivienne. I didn't have a choice until after we lost her. He needed me, he was a broken man, I didn't decide to leave him until I saw what the alcohol did to him. At which point, I vow to never fall in love again for as long as I live." I said

"You might find love again, Laura. Clay just wasn't the one." Vivienne said

"I only stayed with Clay because I thought I loved him.. But after we lost our daughter, I only stayed with him for comfort.." I said

'I had then boarded the ship headed for New York, it wasn't long before I was about to cross paths with someone I wouldn't have expected to fall for.. I nervously traced the tan line where my wedding band used to be, when a handsome young man tapped my shoulder..'

"Excuse me, miss, you seem to have dropped this." He said, lifting a bracelet at eye level

"My mother's bracelet.. Thank you so much. I didn't realize that it had fallen off my wrist.. You're a writer.." I said after seeing a book and pen in his hand

"A novelist, I'm headed to Brooklyn to get some inspiration. What awaits a beautiful woman like you in New York?" He asked

"I was pregnant six years ago, but miscarried, I stayed by Clay's side until he started drinking, so I said my final goodbye in a note, and I'm off to live with my sister, Vivienne to help raise her children.." I said

"My name's Adrien. Adrien Cyrus. I've been on the path to writing since I was five.." He said

"Laura St. Hamilton, recently separated." I said

"Nice to meet you, Laura St. Hamilton." Adrien said

"So, Adrien, what are you writing about?" I asked

"I've had a bit of writer's block lately so maybe I'll find inspiration on the way to New York.." Adrien said

"Maybe.." I said

'I had seen something inside Adrien Cyrus that first day on the way to New York, something that I hadn't seen in Clay for four years since we lost the baby, but I had to show restraint, remembering the promise I made to myself..'

~End of Chapter One~