Between The Lines Of What Was (BOOK 1)

Author’s Note

Thank you for walking with Estrella through the lines of what was, the silence between goodbyes, and the waves that carried her home to herself.

I wrote this story because I spent too many years hiding my own truth in the margins of notebooks — scribbling down my dreams, then crossing them out, thinking love meant shrinking to fit someone else’s story. Like Estrella, I stumbled through grief and self-doubt, convinced that happiness required a neat ending tied with a bow. It took me a long time to learn that the real magic isn’t in the perfect plot — it’s in the messy, brave, beautiful act of writing your own next page, even when your hands are shaking.

Maybe you’re sitting in your own worn notebook right now, full of crossed-out lines and unspoken secrets. Maybe you feel lost in the silence, or broken by a storm you didn’t see coming. I want you to know, with every fiber of my being: your story matters. The parts you think are too messy, too scared, too small — those are the parts that make you real, that make your voice worth hearing.

We all carry a sea inside us. Sometimes it’s calm as glass, sometimes it rages with waves that threaten to pull us under. But it’s always there, waiting to be heard.

So pick up your pen. Turn the page. Your story is just getting started.

— with love and courage,

Renoir