Sunset on Monarch Bay

She finally found the courage to run... toward a love worth staying for.

For eighteen years, Stella has lived in fear behind the closed doors of her own home, hiding bruises with makeup and excuses while her husband, Robert, controls every breath she takes. When she finally finds the courage to run, she takes her twins and flees to the one place she knows he can’t follow: Monarch Bay, and the sister she hasn’t spoken to in a decade.

What she finds there is more than safety. David, a kind, devoted widower still grieving the wife he lost, offers Stella something she’d nearly forgotten was possible—gentleness, partnership, a love that doesn’t come with a price. Slowly, carefully, they build something real.

But Robert isn’t done. He’s not divorced, and he’s not letting go—not of his wife, not of his control, and certainly not of the man who dared to love her instead.

As Stella’s new life and her old one collide, one impossible night will determine whether she finally gets to keep the family, and the love, she’s fought so hard to build.

Book One of the Monarch Bay duet. The story continues in Sunrise on Monarch Bay.