Chapter 1
Chapter One
Five years later…
Ally stood on the deck and watched the snow falling slowly over the Pacific Ocean.
She could get used to this view. Even though living at her brother’s place was only temporary, she was going to enjoy every single minute of it while she was there.
For the next four months, while Max and Juliette were in South America on a project, she had the place all to herself. Well, her and Charlotte.
She glanced back inside the glass doors to where her five-year-old was watching Bluey on the television.
This move, even though it was risky, was very much needed. In Portland, Ted had too much reach. Too much power. Too much money to make things difficult.
On their drive out of the city, the snow had started falling. The snowflakes had swirled in lazy spirals, never seeming to land, just dancing in the air like they couldn’t make up their minds.
By the time Ally had turned down the narrow lane that led toward the old lighthouse her brother and his new wife called home, it had started sticking to the ground.
Charlotte had pressed her face to the window, fogging the glass with her breath. “Mommy, look! Lights!”
Ally slowed as they rounded the bend on the long drive that led up to her brother’s property.
The old two-story home sat directly on the Pacific coastline at the base of a historic white lighthouse, which looked like something straight out of a Christmas card.
Twinkling lights framed the outline of the house, tracing the roofline and wrapping around the railing of the porch in neat, glowing loops.
Bigger white lights wrapped around the lighthouse, and she wondered how her brother had accomplished such a feat.
A green wreath hung on the front door, tied with a red velvet bow that fluttered gently in the cold breeze.
“Did Santa decorate Uncle Max’s house?” Charlotte whispered as Ally parked by the garage.
Ally smiled faintly, blinking back sudden tears. “Maybe one of his helpers,” she had answered softly.
When she got out of the car, the air smelled of salt water and pine. The rhythmic hush of the waves rolled in from the shoreline below the property, the sound steady and familiar.
She and Charlotte had stayed at Max’s place several times over the years. Weekends here and there, a couple nights when they could get away.
She reached for her daughter’s hand as they made it up the powdered pathway. She would come back for their boxes and suitcases later.
Inside, the warmth wrapped around them immediately.
The faint scent of cinnamon and pine needles hung in the air.
A massive ten-foot Christmas tree stood in the corner of the living room, draped in white lights and old-fashioned ornaments—tiny wooden sleds, painted stars, little red mittens, and tons of silver and white angels.
Underneath, a few wrapped boxes sat waiting, each one labeled in neat handwriting that she recognized instantly as Juliette’s.
She moved slowly through the rooms, taking it all in—the stockings that hung on the fireplace mantel, the plaid holiday blanket draped over the back of the sofa, the candles and decorations throughout each room.
Charlotte darted toward the tree, crouching to read the tags. “This one says my name, mama! Can I open one?”
“Not yet,” Ally said gently, her voice catching as she brushed her hand across the mantel. “Let’s wait until Christmas, okay?”
It felt like a gift, arriving almost a month before the holiday and instantly being immersed in the season.
After years of living in cheap rentals with empty walls, this place felt… safe. Like someone had thought about them. They had. Max and Juliette.
Even though they wouldn’t be there for the holidays, they had seen to it that she and Charlotte would enjoy themselves during their stay.
Charlotte tugged at her sleeve. “Can we make hot chocolate?”
Ally smiled and knelt beside her. “I think that’s a perfect idea.”
While her daughter sipped her hot chocolate and watched cartoons on the television in the living room, she’d headed outside and had dragged in their things. She still couldn’t shake the memories of what she’d escaped. What she’d almost ended up in.
Five years ago, she’d spent two weeks in the hospital, where she’d been on suicide watch, thanks to the lies Ted had told the police. There was talk about putting her in an institution. After all, according to her husband, she’d tried to take her and her daughter’s lives.
It wasn’t until after an interview Ted had done that her neighbor had stepped forward with her Ring camera footage of what had really happened that night.
Because of Ted’s powerful position in the city government, he hadn’t been charged with anything. But she’d been released from the hospital and had gotten a lawyer.
Unbeknownst to her, the entire time she was in the hospital, her daughter had been living with a nanny. Not someone who had come to the house to watch her. Ted had dropped their now ten-month-old off at a stranger’s house and abandoned her until Ally had woken up from the medically induced coma.
When she’d asked the nurse to call her mother, the woman had been shocked to find out that she had any family. Ted had lied to the staff and said he was her only family.
She’d called her mother, who had rushed to the hospital, then demanded to know where Charlotte was. Let’s just say that the scene her mother made in the hallway of the hospital was… impressive.
Finally, Max had stepped in with his expensive lawyers, and they had found out where Ted had abandoned Charlotte. The nanny had been paid enough that she hadn’t questioned why he had never come back for his daughter.
It was thanks to her brother’s expensive lawyers, again, that she’d gotten full custody of Charlotte. For the first few months, living with her mother and healing, things had seemed… better.
Then, everything changed.
One day, almost six months after she’d divorced him, Ted started fighting for custody of Charlotte out of the blue.
Over the course of the next five years, he’s sued her more than a dozen times.
He fought not only for full custody of their daughter but for millions of dollars for one reason or another, even though Ally hadn’t gotten a dime out of the divorce.
She’d been focused on keeping Charlotte away from him, not on taking his money.
Ted had put everything they had during their marriage, even their cars, into a trust that his registered business owned. Even his monthly paychecks went into that trust accounts.
He’d also kept a tight rein on their finances. She was given a strict allowance to spend on groceries and necessities each week. She’d even had to fight him for money for diapers and baby clothes.
Her name hadn’t been on anything they owned, and he’d convinced her to stop working the moment they’d gotten together, so she had nothing of her own. Not even a dime when she’d left him.
Thankfully, she had still been on his health insurance, which had paid for the nearly monthlong stay in the hospital.
Shortly after the divorce, however, she and Charlotte had been kicked off the policy. That first year on her own, she’d relied on WIC, SNAP , and other benefits she’d never even heard of. They were the only thing that kept her and Charlotte fed and healthy.
Now, as she stood on the deck and remembered all this, she wrapped her arms around herself as the salty breeze tugged at the hem of her sweater.
She didn’t mind the cold. It reminded her that she was alive.
No matter how many courtrooms she sat in, how many lies Ted spewed, or how many nights she lay awake wondering if she’d ever be free of him, here, looking at the endless ocean, she almost believed she could breathe again.
Almost.
Behind her, Charlotte’s laughter filled the room as Bluey did something silly on the television.
The sound of her daughter’s laughter was pure, bright, untouched by the nightmares of her first year of life.
It grounded Ally, reminded her why she kept fighting.
Every legal paper she had filed, every hearing endured, every lawyer bill that drained her to the bone, it was all for her little girl.
The sound of the doorbell chiming made her jump slightly.
Her pulse spiked, as it always did when the unexpected happened. Rationally, she knew Ted couldn’t possibly know where she was, not yet.
She had no doubt that he’d find her sooner or later, though. She would never be rid of him for as long as she lived. He’d promised to make her life hell and, well, he’d kept that promise.
Still, fear had its own rhythm, and it was a drumbeat that she couldn’t silence. She forced a steady breath as she squared her shoulders, went back inside, and walked through the house to open the front door.
A man with dark hair and kind eyes held up a bag of food. “Welcome to Pride,” he cheered happily. Ally smiled.
“Uncle Nate!” Charlotte rushed past her and clung to her brother-in-law’s leg.
Nate Elliott laughed as he reached down and hugged her daughter.
“Hey, squirt,” he said to Charlotte. “Faye’s just getting the rest from the car.
” He motioned behind him, where her sister was walking up the pathway holding a container of drinks.
She waved with her free hand and smiled so brightly it warmed Ally’s heart.
In the past year, her little sister had blossomed, and it was all thanks to this man, who happened to be Juliette’s little brother.
So, basically, her sister had married their brother-in-law. It was almost too funny to think about.
“Come on in.” She stood back as they both walked in. Charlotte was still clinging to Nate’s leg, causing him to walk awkwardly.
“How was the drive from the city?” Faye asked as she set the drinks down.