Two people are dead. One's in a coma. And then there's me. It's only been a few months since a crash stole my memories. No one wants to talk about that night, no one knows what happened, and nothing is working to bring my memories back. They tell me about me, but I don’t seem the same. They tell me they don’t know why I was there that night. And no one knows about him. Why am I the only one that sees him? Why were we near a construction site that night? I might not know who I am, but I’m going to find out what really happened. Trigger warning for anyone who might have PTSD regarding car accidents. Stay safe, everyone.
Ilai Areli is the director of criminal intelligence for the largest civilian intelligence agency in Toronto, Canada. At age thirty, he is a self-made man with a promising career, supportive friends, and a loving wife. Unable to meet the demanding sacrifices his new promotion entails, his life spirals out of control, leading him to lose everything that he holds dear. At the request of his agency to attend a meeting with the Ministry of National Security and Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Dominican Republic, Ilai leaves Toronto on a business trip in hopes of escaping what hes lost. Caught between letting go of his pride and facing the reality of his situation, he is completely unaware that an unforeseen meeting with a pregnant impoverished woman in the slums of Puerto Plata is about to remind him of lifes meaning and change the course of his life forever. Ilai and Shia meet when lifes challenges seem too difficult to bear, but what begins on that sunny afternoon transcends into their unpredictable futures, where only love, fulfillment, sacrifice, and the will to overcome remain.
Gemstones is the first attempt in English to bring together the geological, mineralogical and gemmological developments that have taken place during the last thirty years. Though there have been many gemstone books published in that time, most have been concerned, understandably and rightly, with the science of gem testing and have covered that area very well. Details of the geological occurrence of many of the classic gemstones, and of nearly all those which have only recently been discovered, have been less adequately dealt with. Coverage has been restricted to a number of papers in a wide variety of geological and mineralogical journals. Gemstones hopes to get the balance right. In the preparation of the book all the journals and monographs in the field have been consulted so that the book should stand for some years as the authority to which gemmologists and others turn in the first instance. Ease of reference and depth of coverage make Gemstones both a reference book and a bench book. Acknow ledgements I am grateful to Brian Jackson of the Department of Geology, Royal Museums of Scotland who read the manuscript and painstakingly indicated places where amendment or alteration was needed. I am also grateful to the publishers of the books on which the line illustrations are based. The colour plates present in the book derive from a number of sources, which I would like to acknowledge as follows. Plates 1, 4-15 and 17 Crown copyright reserved.
