Goddess of the Sea

Prologue

It was December 27th of the year 2006. Adriana Marie Williams stared blankly at the walls of her huge Victorian manor. A single tear slid down her pale cheek, and she wondered how she managed to lose everything that ever meant anything to her. Thoughts of her dark past came rushing back to her. It had been exactly 10 years ago (Adriana was only 17 then) when her father passed away, died painfully of a cancer known as lymphoma. At that very moment she found out about his death, her life changed forever.

Adriana's parents had never been rich. In fact, they were quite poor. Her mother worked as a secretary for a not-so-well-known attorney. The pay wasn't good, but it was enough to keep them off the streets. Because her mother worked much of the time, Adriana never really got to know her, and therefore, they never had much of a relationship.

Adriana spent most of her childhood with her father, who worked as a local fisherman. Since the day she was able to walk, he taught Adriana about the sea and about sailing. She grew up on the icy northern seas, until she felt she was just another part of the ocean. It was more of her home than their small house on the coast. When she wasn't at school, Adriana spent most of her time our on the ocean, learning the mysteries of its crystal waters. Perhaps that's why she loved the sea so much; it was as changing and uncertain as her life. Her father even came to call her princess of the sea, for her eyes were the exact same bluish-green as the ocean. Her name even has its ties to the sea. Adriana means dark woman of the sea, and Marie means star of the sea.

At that time, the three of them lived by the coast in a small town in Connecticut. Adriana's parents struggled to put her through school. If she'd been a normal child, she would have dropped out of school and got a job to support her family like so many of the other poor children. But Adriana was different. She was the smartest of every student in her class, and she was clever too. She graduated as valedictorian of her class and every college was eager to get her attention. Though college seemed enticing to her, she longed to spend the rest of her days on the sea. She couldn't even fathom how unhappy she would be as a lawyer or businesswoman. Other than this decision she had to make, her life couldn't have been better. She was popular, beautiful, and smart; she had her father and she had the sea. Everything seemed to be working out exactly as it should.

But as with anything, all good things must come to an end. That summer after she'd graduated, her father was diagnosed with cancer, and he died a few months later, right after Christmas. From that day forward, Adriana despised Christmas and everything about it. She was heartbroken. She'd lost the one person that had every meant anything to her. Now she felt more utterly alone than she'd ever thought possible.

It was her father's death that made her decide to become a doctor. She always thought she would end up on the sea, but life has a funny way of twisting things. She was accepted into Harvard Medical School with a full tuition scholarship. Two years into her study of medicine, she received a letter. Her mother had passed away.

As she read that letter, she realized she had nothing left of her past but memories. It was time to move on so she could have a future. She threw herself into her studies, shut away the pain of the past, and became one of the greatest doctors that ever lived. Her skills had made her famous… not to mention, rich. She even fell in love once. He was a kind, young doctor, or so he seemed. Perhaps all he wanted was his share of her fame. They were engaged for a while, and then on their wedding day (which was said to be the most beautiful wedding ever seen), he stood her up. She never saw him again. She felt more alone and empty than ever, and she felt life had no meaning. Or maybe she had no purpose in this world. And then she remembered the time she was in love with the sea, and she cried. She hadn't seen the ocean since the day her father died. She could hardly remember its crisp salty smell or the sound of the waves breaking on the sand. She was 25 then. And that's when she decided to buy an island in the Caribbean. It was a small, remote island, and there she built her beautiful Victorian manor, a home much too large for just one woman.

When she first saw the sparkling Caribbean waters, she knew this was where she belonged. For her eyes were the color of the sea. And she finally felt like she was home again. She'd expected painful memories of her father to come flooding back, but none came. Only peaceful remembrances of what they'd shared so many years ago. But even memories couldn't take away the loneliness she felt. One of her good friends suggested that she take up some sort of activity to keep her mind off of things. That's when Adriana took up fencing. She requested a personal trainer come to the island every other day to coach her. And soon she had mastered that skill as well.

Two years passed uneventfully for her. She refused to go back to the mainland. When she needed supplies, she got her maid and butler to go and fetch them. She felt like she was slowly fading away. Another Christmas came and passed, and she hardly even realized. One thing she missed of her childhood was the snow. There was always snow in Connecticut, but here in the Caribbean it was always peaceful and warm.

And that is how Adriana Marie came to be staring blankly at the wall. She wiped the single tear on the sleeve of her silk blouse and sighed. She slowly stood up, allowing her feet to carry her toward her bedroom. She paused for a moment as she passed a mirror, disgusted at how her appearance had changed over the years.

She had always been beautiful, and even now you could still see it, but it was fading. Her pale skin seemed hollow in the moonlight, and her once vibrant chestnut-colored hair hung lifelessly past her shoulders. Even her eyes that were the color of the sea were starting to fade. She looked even thinner than usual, she thought, brushing her fingers over a protruding collarbone. She shook her head. How much more of this could she take?

Instead of heading off the bed as she'd planned, she decided to go down to the beach. She grabbed her doctor's bag (she never went anywhere without it) and her fencing sword (just for protection). Then she threw on her boots and a light jacket and headed down to the shore. How many years has it been since I've sailed? she wondered silently. She looked at the small fishing boat on the dock, and smiled to herself. "We can always pretend," she whispered into the night. And she realized this was the first time she'd truly smiled in years.

She untied the boat from the dock and row rowed out into the sea. It was breathtakingly beautiful, the moonlight reflecting off of every ripple in the water. The brightness returned to Adriana's eyes that night and she knew she was home. She leaned back and watched the stars until she slowly drifted off into a peaceful sleep.