Chapter one

Malinao Island, Catanduanes

I was walking here on the beach to pick up shells not far from our house when I saw something that looked like something on the shore so I went straight to it.

I was surprised to see that it was not an object but a lifeless person so I was afraid of falling behind.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing because it just happened, I deliberately looked around to see if there were people here but there were none.

Mom was at home and cooking lunch I wanted to run away because I was scared but my curiosity got the better of me and I approached the person who was lying in the sand.

I came closer to it and I swallowed when I saw that it was a man who i don't if he still alive or not.

I remembered what my mother taught me how to know if someone is alive or not, like what she did to grandma when we saw her that day she died.

I put my hand around the man's neck and felt his wrist, I was so surprised when I felt it that he is still alive so I immediately stood up.

I ran home to tell my mother that I saw someone who had been seen for a while and I immediately got home and immediately went inside.

"Mom!" I shouted and suddenly she got out of the kitchen.

"What's wrong with you and you're screaming?" She asked curiously, I took a deep breath and told her what I saw.

"What? Is what you're saying true?" She immediately asked so I nodded and led her to the place where I saw the unconscious person.

When we arrived at the place, mom was shocked and she immediately checked to see if he was really alive, it turned out to be a man with bruises on his body and a gunshot wound, he was pale but still had a pulse so mom and I decided to take him to the our hut.

“Come on and help me put him here on the bamboo." Mom told me this is what we used when we buried grandma at the foot of the mountain.

My mother and I had a hard time to take the man in our hut but we were able to handle it even though the man is heavy because this man needs to be treated immediately.

I didn't see much of his appearance but I noticed that his body was big and heavy.

I have been looking at the man who is still unconscious until now.

I counted on my hands since the first day I saw him at the beach but until now there has been no change in him, he is still asleep, mom said it's called comatose, fortunately, mom is good at treating him.

She saved the man, she treated him with herbs, mom used to be a nurse and she learned herbal medicine from her grandmother who was also a healer and we planted the herbs ourselves in our backyard because when I get sick that's what heals me.

And by God's mercy, his big wounds on his side and thigh are also healing, his head is also bandaged and his arms also have small wounds that are slowly healing.

Who is this? He looks nice because of his gentle face and he is very handsome, unlike the male actors that I once saw on television when my mother took me to town before.

But he is very different from those artists that i saw.

The sleeping man is handsome and has a pointed nose and narrow lips and he has also started to blush because his color is returning which was still pale before.

I looked away from him and fixed the blanket that serves as a cover on his naked body because he can't be dressed yet, said mom because of his wounds.

When I left our small room where the man was sleeping, I went to the kitchen and prepared lunch.

My mother has gone to town early to sell the vegetables and fruits that we harvested in our own yard and at the foot of the mountain where we also have crops that helps us to survive and get through our daily lives peacefully we live here on Isla Malinao, a small island here in Catanduanes, here I grew up and thought with my mother, father, youngest brother and grandmother.

I remembered my father and my brother died in the typhoon, we never saw their bodies because we didn't have enough money to search for them, it was ten years ago when they died.

My grandma, on the other hand, had been dead for three years when she was struck by illness and her old age has brought her to this day, and I am still saddened by her death.

I'm Heart Serenity by the way. I'm sixteen years old I have a porcelain complexion even though I grew up by the sea.

My skin color hasn't changed because it's my natural color, I also have long reddish hair.

I don't know why it's this color, mom doesn't say anything and another thing is that mom always says that I'm beautiful, so she doesn't take me with her on her walks in town.

All I know is that my father is from a foreign country. They say I am the daughter of mom's younger sister who died giving birth to me, that's what mom said.

From then on, they considered me as their real daughter, so I called them mom and dad.

We are happy here on the island, we have neighbors but it is far from where we are.

Our life here is simple, fishing and growing fruits and vegetables are the main sources of income for people here.

They are kind and generous here, it's just that life is difficult, there is no proper water here because we can only get by on the water that comes from the mountain where we also get our drinking water.

I just went to the kitchen to prepare our lunch, I made a fire on the stove and prepared the pot and took rice from the biscuit tin.

This is where our rice is placed, it is only half and we have been consuming it for more than a month because there are only two of us.

Me and my mom.