Starlit Shadows

Chapter 1: The Ferry’s Wake

Mary Ellison stood at the ferry’s rail as St. Elspeth’s Island rose from the mist like a half-remembered dream. The horn sounded one last time, low and mournful, cutting through the salt-laden air. She did not look back at the mainland shrinking behind her. She couldn’t. Derek’s betrayal was still too fresh—the cologne on another woman’s scarf, the cold finality of his words: You’re too much, Mary. The memory sat heavy in her chest, a stone she carried across the water.Her fingers tightened around the strap of her worn leather sketchbook. It was the only thing she had brought that felt truly hers. Everything else—the apartment, the life she had built in Charlotte—had been left behind with a single note on the kitchen counter: I need to breathe.