by Charlotte Vale-Allen

Wynne Shipton is the woman who lives in the small house at the corner. Tony Wakeman lives in the large, imposing house across the road. They are people who have merely nodded politely in passing -- until the day Tony accepts a delivery for his neighbor who isn't home to receive it.

The simple act of crossing the road to deliver the package evolves into a heated sexual encounter between strangers. Sexual intimacy is easy; getting to know one another is anything but. They each have past sorrows and present secrets that must be overcome before they can become truly intimate.

Wynne's past has actual shape in the form of a daughter she's never met and a granddaughter she's only heard about. And in one of life's great ironies, it is this unknown daughter who winds up purchasing Wynne's house when she is finally able to commit herself to Tony Wakeman.

It's inevitable that mother and daughter must one day, some way connect, but it comes about as a result of violence that, horrifyingly, breeds even more violence in a generational study that demonstrates very literally how the sins of the father are committed upon the children.

Published by Island Nation Press