Modest

The things we want are so very rarely the things we need. Clifton Heights, a modest Adirondack town, offers many unique attractions. Arcane Delights sells both paperbacks and hard-to-find limited editions. The Skylark Diner serves the best home-cooked meals around, with friendly service and a smile. Every August, Mr. Jingo’s County Fair visits, to the delight of children and adults. In essence, Clifton Heights is the quintessential small American town. Everyone knows everyone else, and everyone is treated like family. It is quiet, simple, and peaceful. But shadows linger here. Flitting in dark corners, from the corner of the eye. If you walk down Main Street after dark, the slight scrape of shoes on asphalt whispers you're not alone, but when you look over your shoulder, no one is there. The moon shines high and bright in the night sky, but instead of throwing light, it only seems to make the shadows lengthen. Children disappear. Teens run away. Hunters get lost in the woods with frightening regularity. Husbands go mad, and wives vanish in the dead of night. And still, when the sun rises in the morning, you are greeted by townspeople with warm waves and friendly smiles, and the shivers pass as everything seems fresh and new... Until night falls once more. Handy's Pawn and Thrift sits several blocks down from Arcane Delights. Like any thrift store, its wares range from the mundane to the bizarre. By daylight, it seems just another slice of small town Americana. But in its window hangs a sign which reads: We Have Things You Need. And when a lonely traveling salesman comes looking for something he desperately wants, after normal visiting hours, after night has fallen, he will face a harsh truth among the shelves of Handy’s Pawn and Thrift: the things we want are rarely the things we need. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Amara Kol endured three years of Kalus Mike's compliant, subservient wife, enduring his chilly disdain silently while reserving his affection for herself. But when he serves her with a divorce notice, eager to wed his long-time sweetheart Lydia Osita, Amara is confronted with harsh reality: the union, to him, had been three years and a mistake that could not be erased. Heartbroken and spurned, Amara vanishes into thin air, leaving only tears-soaked divorce papers behind. What Kalus fails to know, however, is that Amara Kol was never the woman he thought she was. She is actually Dera Denz, only child and heiress of the powerful Denz clan—a woman infinitely wealthier and more powerful than he could ever imagine. By the time Dera re-emerges as the gorgeous, hot, and untouchable CEO of Zz Group, she is no longer the modest wife who pleaded with him to love her. She is a queen on her own terms, determined to get everything that had been lost—her dignity as well. Now Kalus is haunted by guilt, unable to shake the memory of the woman he spurned. But Dera is gone—and doesn't want to come back. As he watches her climb to the top, with a clique of powerful acquaintances surrounding her—including Frank Denz, ominously guarding over her—Kalus learns too late: The woman he had cast aside is the one he can't do without. But Dera isn't that woman who asked him to stay once before. It is his turn now. Will Kalus reclaim the love he never cherished, or will Dera depart leaving him where he so rightly belongs, in the past?