On September 21, 1999, after her late-night shift at the Giorgio Hotel, Love returned to find Gray waiting outside her apartment. Their evening unfolded peacefully on her 19th-floor balcony, observing Taiwan's vibrant nightlife below. "Even though it was nearly midnight, the city was still well awake, as was the norm for Taiwan. Many people went out to the karaoke or KTV that ran until three to five in the morning. The street food vendors followed this schedule too and were as crowded at night as they were during the day."

Under starlit skies, they shared drinks and conversation before retiring to bed. However, their peaceful night was suddenly interrupted by violent tremors. "Sometime in the middle of the night, we were both startled awake by a powerful, sudden jolt, swiftly followed by intense trembling," Love recalls. Despite her familiarity with Taiwan's seasonal earthquakes, this one felt ominously different.

Gray's reaction was particularly intense, having never experienced an earthquake before. "While I could stay calm and lie in bed, waiting for the quake to pass as I did in the past, he was too scared to stay in bed. Instead, he jumped up and had to hold onto the bed to stabilize himself," Love shares. Her attempts to reassure him proved futile.

The true severity of the situation became apparent when Love ventured to her balcony. "As I looked at the huge building across from mine, my jaw dropped. This massive Sogo department store building was swaying back and forth as if it were going to face plant in the street. It looked like it could tumble down at any second."

Trapped on the 19th floor with disabled elevators and no electricity, Love chose not to share her growing concerns with Gray, who was "sitting on my small couch, nervously drinking his scotch whisky and trying to calm himself down." Instead, she found solace in her Buddhist beliefs: "whatever will be, will be." She even found a strange peace in the thought that "even if I were to die tonight, I would be with the man of my dreams, which should count as a blessing."

When the tremors finally subsided, they sought comfort in each other's arms. "In that moment, I felt so safe being held by him—something I had never felt from a man in my life. I wished time could just stop right at that moment," Love reflects. The next morning brought the arduous task of descending nineteen flights of stairs to reach work.

The earthquake's magnitude soon became clear through international news. "Later that evening, he told me that his mom called to ensure he was okay. She had heard about the earthquake from Scotland and was very worried, informing him that it was, in fact, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake," Love writes. "It was listed as the most famous and most catastrophic earthquake in Taiwan up until that point."

The natural disaster also forced their relationship into the open. When Ted, Gray's colleague, questioned his whereabouts during the evacuation, Gray had to reveal he was with Love. This disclosure prompted her to confide in colleagues and close friends about their affair. "One of my best friends was very upset with me for being with a married man, and her harsh words made me think that I should do what was right instead of what I wanted and desired."

This moment of truth, sparked by nature's fury, led Love to a difficult realization. "After contemplating her words, I realized that deep down I totally agreed with her. I decided to do what was right and detach myself emotionally from the relationship with him, advising him to go back home and fix whatever he needed to fix in his unhappy marriage."

The earthquake had shaken more than just buildings—it had disrupted the careful secrecy of their relationship and forced Love to confront the moral implications of their affair, proving that indeed, as Luke 12:2-3 states, "Everything in the dark will be brought to the light."

Discover more stories of revelation and moral awakening in "Grow in the Dark" by Amy Love. Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google,  iTunes & Kobo.