Anya's Innocence: Friendship. Love. Deceit.

By Daltonell Minors

A beautiful unassuming girl.

A debonair suitor.

A dream dashed...

Beautiful, trusting and alone, Anya has always been the poster child for honesty and integrity.

Handsome, suave and smooth, Gus reconnects with Anya in a way she didn’t expect.

She’s a bit of an introvert and enjoys the simple things in li

• Language: English
• Publisher: URLink Print & Media, LLC
• Release date: Oct 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781643679297

Daltonell Minors

Daltonell (Dal) Minors is a wife, mother, sister, aunt, friend, grandmother and educator. In tandem with these roles she is a writer with a penchant for poetry. Innocence is her debut novel. A graduate of Mount St Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, and Endicott College, Beverly, MA., Dal has taught in both private and private education systems in her island home of Bermuda

Book preview

 Prologue

Spring, that season which brings new life and added meaning. Just as the subtropical winter doldrums seem to take root, the arrival of this season of refreshing serves to wash the mood and soul of any cobwebs that were forming. Anya always embraced Spring because this was the time when she and her parents would begin preparing the backyard beach and patio for the upcoming summer evenings. After the temperamental and sometimes uncooperative Bermuda winters, Spring reminded Anya that life was worth celebrating.

For Anya, enjoying the breezy and salted air of the Atlantic Ocean has always been a therapeutic must. The lull of the waves and the tranquility of the clouds engulf you with a sense of peace that soothes and quiets any inner unrest. That’s exactly what Anya was thinking about as the almost stealth appearance of the White-tailed tropic bird, fondly called the longtail, broke the private reverie she was experiencing. She could never understand how this native Bermuda bird, which was prized for its beauty, always found her during these moments of reflection.

Anya began to believe that she and the longtail were kindred spirits. Her knowledge of the longtail and its Bermuda connection was a result of what she learned in her Social Studies class about Bermuda’s flora and fauna and the tidbits of information from her parents. She recalled that the bird was seasonal and made its home on the rock faces around the island. They would be tucked away in the crevices out of reach of other birds and too high up for any unwanted visitors. This bird and Anya shared common ‘characteristics’ - distant and enigmatic, simply beautiful yet elegant.

Those beautiful and unassuming birds somehow seemed to have one goal - to bring Anya back to a reality she had been desperately trying to escape. She was always amazed at how this particular species unnerved her. All of her years near the ocean never prepared her for what eventually became an eerie presence. Her father often told her that those things that annoy us are usually the things that bring solace. She had no faith in that line of thought or reasoning. To Anya, there was no clearer oxymoron than that! Anya smiled briefly as she recalled those times when life was simple. But now, with the murky waters of mistrust under her personal bridge, she continued to leave one foot in the water. She often felt that her happy days were an illusion.

From the moment they met as teenagers, Anya had been enamored by his chiseled face and his suave moves. However, that day in late August when he returned to the island after a four year absence and their eyes locked across what would become their favourite restaurant, Le Château d’Oiseaux, Anya felt as if she had symbiotically met her future mate. She never thought this would be possible and the thought of having him in her life left her feeling breathless and weak.

He was that man that her friends told her to avoid because of his nefarious and womanising reputation. He was that man who had convinced her that she could make an honest man of him. He…

 Chapter One

Anya

Anya Smythe, the only child of Lawrence and Emma Smythe, was born at a time when her parents had given up on the possibility of having children. Emma had been plagued by endometriosis which exponentially reduced her chances of conceiving, let alone carrying a child to full term. But, after ten years of marriage the Smythes had defied the doctors’ diagnoses and their miracle baby was a reality.

There was no greater joy in her parents’ lives than their beautiful daughter. Anya’s birth was free of complications which seemed justice for the years of trying and the emotional pain of three miscarriages. Lawrence and Emma doted on this bundle of joy and Anya grew to love her parents with a love that was often envied by her parents’ friends - many of which had at least three children who caused their parents ongoing challenges and worries. Not Anya, she was easily referred to as the ‘perfect child’ and her parents were often asked how they did it. Their unified response was always, By God’s grace!

As a child, Anya was always busy and loved to roll around in the soft grass which covered their front yard. When she tired of climbing the trees she would find her way to the back of the house and chase the birds that would land on their private beach area. Anya revelled in the cool feel of the sand oozing between her toes. During the summer months her naturally curly brown hair would take on a ginger tone and her brown complexion would turn a hue of red which was attributed to her maternal grandmother’s Native American ancestry. Combined with her paternal grandfather’s Irish genes, she was simply exotic. People would always remark on her beauty and her parents beamed with pride at this gem which they had created.

Anya grew up in a small neighbourhood in Hamilton Parish, Bermuda, where everyone was connected either through blood or marriage. This connection lent itself to a feeling of safety amongst parents and guardians. The concept of being one’s brother’s keeper was commonplace. People from other parishes across the island would always refer to the Hamilton Parish people as clannish and ‘crazy’. This craziness was due to the undeniable fact that people married within the parish. The close familial ties meant comfort and familiarity which often resulted in marriages and unions between relatives. There were many ‘tales’ of such dalliances and it became an accepted and almost comical norm, depending on who was explaining the connections.

The importance of family was always stressed; the concept of the village was not lost on this neighborhood. Boys and girls roamed the neighborhood together, visiting areas such as Abbott’s Cliff and Crystal Caves without fear or reservation. There was seldom a time when the neighborhood was quiet as the children went about their days exploring caves, picking loquats and cherries when in season and catching lizards.

Summer days were spent ‘island hopping’ the parish. This is when the children would travel the tribe roads of the parish on their pedal bikes and dive from the jagged rocks into the beckoning azure blue waters of their island home. From Shelly Bay to Coney Island, they would ride and jump, jump and ride, competing with each other for the most original dive. Island living was beautiful and safe! Any walk along the tribe roads of Hamilton Parish would be greeted with the shouts and dares of boys and girls jumping from the rocks into the ocean. You could hear them arguing playfully about who had the best dive and who could only do belly busters. It was a rite of passage to be able to swim from the rocky coast to the small islands that were a few miles out to sea. Anyone who didn’t ‘go out to the island’ was labelled as scared. Life was good and happiness was contagious. Parents didn’t have to worry about their children because they knew that they had been raised to be their brothers’ keepers.

For the most part, Anya’s teen years were smooth and her reserved nature was credited for her ability to recognise when situations were negative. She was always able to remove herself from such occurrences and this made her even more of an enigma amongst her peers. Many of them felt that she had been bestowed with a gift of discernment and they often sought her advice. Anya didn’t consider herself to be special, she just took it in stride and brushed off the sentiments. In fact, she was often embarrassed by this perception as she didn’t want to be seen as someone who could do no wrong.

There were occasions when Anya would tell her mom that she felt that the other girls didn’t like her and mom’s advice was, Anya, surround yourself with people of a like mind and you will be fine. For mom this was a sense of deja-vu; it appeared