A Christian fiction book about faith, courage and love. Traveling two thousand miles across the country to be by her grandmother's hospital bedside, Jesse makes a startling discovery. Gabriel James, the man she spent years trying to forget, is staying at her grandmother's house. Even more disturbing is the reason. Her grandmother and Gabriel are working on a mysterious project as they prepare for the end of the age, the apocalypse. Stalked by strangers, Jesse becomes an unwitting pawn in a sinister scheme as she joins a small group of Christians determined to expose the plot of world deception, fallen angels returning to Earth disguised as aliens.
Excerpt:
She dropped the torn letter onto the coffee table. The question was inevitable. Who had been the bigger fraud? Tom said he loved her but had not been in love with her. Wasn’t she guilty of the same? Tom had done them both a favor by ending the charade.
Jesse thought about Tom, wondering where he was. So unpredictable, he might be anywhere, sweeping a woman off her feet in Paris, chanting with a mystic guru in India. Like a Chameleon, Tom could blend in anywhere. Certainly, a trait she lacked. Tom was fun and exciting, but he could also be reckless, and, as she had recently discovered, deceptive. She didn’t blame Tom. He had learned to survive, even excel, in the cold, manipulative world he grew up in. Tom came from a place where wealth equaled self-worth and he had plenty of both. He was right. She did feel sorry for him.
Memories of her first date with Tom brought a distracted smile as Jesse recalled the fidgety mess she had been. Just when she thought she couldn’t have been more nervous, the luxury car rolled to a stop to prove her wrong. The door attendant had stood like a sentry by the large ornate plaque engraved with the private club’s address. Taking Tom's hand, she crossed the threshold into a foreign world, cringing inwardly with each step across a magnificently detailed Persian rug. The antique floor covering had been too beautiful to walk on, too expensive to be underfoot.
The lavish room with vaulted ceilings, velvet drapery and a towering fireplace had been the perfect backdrop for the city’s most beautiful people. Men in expensive suits and women wearing the latest fashions lounged on Victorian sofas sipping cognac and fine wines. Tom’s remark praising the club’s old-world charm had gone unfinished when he turned to see her expression. Looking down at her plain sheath dress, she had said, “When you said dinner, I imagined someplace less—less exclusive.”
When Tom called for the car, she had been more than a little relieved. Her mind raced for an excuse to cut the evening short, but before she could come up with anything, Tom suggested they go somewhere more relaxed. Her disappointment turned to surprise when he picked up chilidogs on their way to the beach where they strolled barefoot across the sand.
Tom kept the conversation going with talk about cultures and people he met abroad. She never quite understood Tom's role in his father’s chain of retail stores but she knew he often traveled. As the evening progressed, Tom talked about his childhood, growing up as an only child with a mother preoccupied with Tiffany’s and a workaholic father. By the end of their first date, she suspected Tom had needed a friend, someone who didn’t care about private clubs.
