Crystal Clear Truth
Introducing a new book in the Antonello Brothers series, a slow-burn, forced proximity romance set in the far, far future in an empire full of treachery, mystery, and long-hidden secrets...
His entire life, Joe worked for this moment: Primary Terraforming Scientist assigned to the firestorm planet. Yet tragedy mars the day with the accidental death of both parents. Grief-stricken, he plods through family decisions and moves forward, surviving day by day. While reading his mother's handwritten diary, he discovers a folded flatpic of a teenaged girl and the cryptic words, "our son's mother." He searches for details, determined to know more.
When a friend asks Shohn to help a locate someone, she jumps at the chance. She's researching the firestorm planet for her employer, who seeks access to eyes-only information. Helping Joe might be her opportunity to uncover long-hidden secrets.
As their unexpected friendship deepens into more, each mystery they solve reveals yet another hidden layer. The truth they seek could immobilize interstellar commerce in the empire. To protect the Empire they both love, they must solve the riddle behind this elusive young woman, and trust one another.
But how can they trust when the "truth" they've been fed is a lie?
Crystal Clear Truth - Chapter One
Tarthian Empire, Kyrenie
Fenris City, Taskya District
Birit 40, 4669 Tradestandard
From the moment Joe Townsend had learned of his folks' accidental death a week ago, life had screamed past him. A banshee bearing a never-ending whirlwind of around-the-clock decisions. He leaned against the inside of his parents' front door and slid down.
Today, he'd said his formal goodbyes at their memorial. He'd smiled like a wooden soldier at the unending I'm-so-sorrys and the non-stop oh-poor-Joe-how-are-you-doings.
How did they think he was doing?
Life had plunged him into a lightless, inescapable world of sympathetic platitudes.
How could he move forward when everywhere he looked, the past held him fast?
How could he move forward when every step he took led him that much further away from the people he'd loved most?
How could he move forward and somehow lever past this pain?
There had to be a better way to handle heartbreak. A saner way.
Joe stood and dusted himself off. He should throw himself into his work. That's what his dad always...
A fresh ache swept over him as he recalled the man's sage advice.
"Whatever you can't change, accept and work through, Son. Focus on what you can do, what you have to do, and don't waste time looking back."
Joe braced an arm across his stomach. Would he ever think of his father's words of wisdom again without this foreboding sensation of loss? This sense that part of himself was missing? Or of his mother and her strength? Her abiding belief in him, encouraging him, guiding the way?
Dragging his feet, Joe staggered through the house, back to the room that had been his when he lived here as a boy, now stripped bare. His parents had put the house on the market and accepted an offer a week prior to their deaths. The new owners would arrive tomorrow.
Nothing remained of the place Joe had once called his haven.
There was no home to go to. Starting tomorrow, this place would be someone else's. Not his. Not his parents'. Not anymore.
This sterile room symbolized everything he'd lost.
He couldn't think about this tonight. Couldn't think about work, even work he'd prepared for his whole life.
Primary Terraforming Scientist assigned to the firestorm planet. Part of the elite team studying the formation of fiery tornado-like monsters that ripped across the planet Kyrenie, leaving wakes of sand crystalized in an instant. Joe had studied his whole life for the opportunity to follow in his father's footsteps. Carried three doctorates, each chosen with an eye to firestorm science.
The pride he'd felt when appointed had rivaled the thrill of working at his father's side. The joy of raw discovery, uncovering new truths while pushing the frontiers of knowledge to the nth degree.
Right this moment, science felt like a meaningless distraction.
Exhausted, he curled up in the middle of the floor, surrounded by nothing but loss. He'd spend one last night in this empty shell of a place he'd once considered home. Come morning, he'd walk away from his past forever.
Currently, there is no release date for this book other than "early next year." I'm about half-way finished writing it. Want to read chapter two? Nothing to sign up for. Just click and download in a format you prefer.
The first book in this series is permafree and introduces all the major players in my Tarthian Empire. Check out A Stolen Heart, linked below.
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