About The Book, and What The Readers Will Learn from The Story

Asylum is about two individuals, Nicole and Ryan who suffered great loss at a young age. They happened to live in different countries and had different upbringings and cultures. Nonetheless, they both had a rich tie to Haiti. Somehow, fate brought them together. Nicole was the only child of Jerome and Marie Jean. At the age of twelve, she became an orphan after her uncle murdered her parents. She was raised by her aunt Sylviane Dieudonne, who later sent her to Port-Au-Prince to find work. While she worked as a maid at the Richard’s, Nicole strives to earn her nursing degree. She worked hard to accomplish her dream of becoming a nurse. She knew she made her parents proud, even though they weren’t there physically to witness her accomplishment. To her dismay, her world came crashing down after the impeachment of President Aristides. With nowhere to escape, she lost hope. Unexpectedly, Commander Ryan Walker walked into her life in a way she could never imagine. Commander Walker, on the other hand, had a great life upbringing. He had a loving mother and father who loved him very much. But his siblings would tease him and say some things to him that created doubts in his mind about his parents. Granted, Bill and Heather Walker were both white with blonde hair, and there wasn’t any suspicion that Ryan wasn’t their biological son. It is difficult to tell that he was mixed because he looks like the late actor Paul Walker except that he was 6’3 and weigh 230 lbs. Needless to say, his parents have never treated him any differently from his other siblings. If anything, Ryan was a spoiled child. The thought that he was adopted troubled him greatly. A couple of years after he enlisted in the army, he decided to have a DNA test to remove any doubts from his mind. But to his surprise, the doubts that he was having were confirmed to be true. Bill and Heather Walker were not his biological parents. Ryan was devastated by the news. He didn’t want to accept the fact, so he confronted Bill and Heather who eventually told him the truth. They explained that they were waiting for the right time to tell him. Their reason for not telling him sooner was that they wanted him to have a normal life. How Ryan’s adoption came about, Bill and Heather had just lost their one-year-old son due to drowning. Bill, who worked at the hospital at the time, found out that Ryan’s parents just died in the car crash. He inquired about the infant and his extended family. He found out that the infant didn’t have any immediate family to take care of him. He contacted his wife immediately and told her about Ryan. They didn’t think twice and decided to adopt him. Ryan became a comfort for them after the passing of their firstborn son. A year after they adopted Ryan, Heather became pregnant and gave birth to another son named Brian. Then two years later, she gave birth to a daughter named Anna. Bill and Heather knew this time would come, so, they kept some of Ryan’s parents’ belonging in a safe for him, they explained. After Ryan looked into his parent’s belongings, like their Identification, and death certificates, he was even more shocked that his biological father, Samuel Pierre was Haitian. His mother, Emma Bergeron was Canadian. Even he couldn’t believe his father was a black man because he didn’t look mixed. It was a lot for him to take in after learning the truth. Sometime later, he searched for his mother’s family. He had a chance to meet her family members and his grandparents. They, however, were shocked to know Emma had a son and were happy to meet him. But he felt that half of his life was still missing. He was eager to meet the other side of his father’s family. Ryan has been looking for an opportunity to go to Haiti to search for them. Therefore, when Ryan found out that he was going to be deployed to Haiti, it was a dream come true. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as he planned. Since Ryan stepped foot on the island soil, it was nothing but a nightmare. Nothing prepared him for what was coming next as more unfortunate events keep unfolding in his life.  After he and his crew were ambushed, he ran for his life and pass out at Nicole’s doorstep. Hadn’t it been for her quick action, Ryan would have died due to his injuries, and the guys he ran from would have found him and kill if he wasn’t already dead. When he awoke from his slight coma, the same guys came back to the house he sought refuge a second time. Both he and Nicole had to flee as they chased after them to kill them. When the group caught up with them, they were beaten, and when they were getting ready to burn Nicole alive, luckily for them, the locals intervene and saved their lives. Seeing how close he came to losing his life, he was grateful to Nicole and the locals who intervene. He fell in love with Nicole, and they slept together. After he found out that she was pregnant, he talked to his superior to seek asylum for Nicole. The next thing Ryan knew, he was indicted on rape charges and misconduct. As things weren’t bad enough for him, when his mother found out about Nicole, she disapproved of her causing their relationship to be broken. After his parents kicked Nicole and his newborn son out to the street, Mr. and Mrs. Myers took them in and became part of their family. Ryan retired from the army and went back home to fix what was broken, and then the unthinkable happened after meeting someone from his past. He had to fight and do whatever it takes to keep Nicole and his son safe.

Ryan didn’t waiver after more unfortunate circumstances kept happening in his life. He never stops fighting for his wife and son. Had he given up, he wouldn’t have seen his happy ending.

What readers will learn in the story is, no matter what you are going through in life, never give up hope. You have to keep fighting with every ounce of strength in you. As the saying, it is not over until the fat lady sing.