Arianna moves to New York City to seek her fortune after breaking up with an abusive Jazz musician, Reggie Cole.  Arianna falls in love with a soap opera star, Trev, but quickly realizes he is just a photo image of Reggie.  When she is informed that Reggie has mysteriously died, Arianna runs away to the Philippines to escape her grief and to try to resolve why she keeps falling in love with the same abusive personality

 

Arianna's mother cryptically reveals that she must have inherited the curse passed on to her from her late grandfather but refuses to disclose anything further.  Resolved to find out about her dead Grandfather, Arianna travels to the deserted island in the Sulu Sea, where her grandfather died. Interviewing villagers and family on the mainland, she discovers a trove of shameful family secrets.

​

This story is based on real events, and is about the actual island- Santa Cruz Island, also known as Stanlake, that my grandfather owned.  It is a tropical paradise set near Roxas, Palawan, in the Philippines. A former sea captain, the late Eutiquio Santa Cruz, known as “Lolo Tiquio” to the Santa Cruz Clan, cherished and retired to this island where he died in 1976.  As the owner of this island, Lolo once said, “This island is the social security of all my children and grandchildren.”  He verbally bequeathed it to all his children and their children’s children.  However, after his death, a forged will cropped up and thus began a search for truth by several of his children and grandchildren.  I went to visit the island in 1993.  With its white beaches, tabon birds, seagulls, turtles, coconut trees and mangrove roots, it is an incredibly gorgeous, secluded haven.  As I was sitting on the beach however, I was suddenly overcome by a wave of terror and a sense of evil.  Something told me that all had not been well on this island.

​

Since then, I have been fascinated about the island, and have been searching the family history to find out what really happened on that island.

​