There was a knock on the door a couple of days after the letter appeared. Opening the front door to a familiar face, she smiled, embracing an old friend. “Libby.” As they released each other, Libby emitted an appreciative sigh at the sight of the person standing in front of her.

“Fallon, oh, I’m happy to see you.” Without Fallon, she wouldn’t have ever gotten through the first year of Mikayla’s disappearance. If Fallon was anything in her life, she symbolized hope. Even after Fallon’s superior told her to drop the case due to inactivity, Fallon stayed on it, using her own time and sometimes vacation.

“I was out of town when everything happened with the case. I have my name and number marked on Mikayla’s file to be contacted immediately.” Fallon hugged her again tenderly.

Somehow, it didn’t surprise her that Fallon got her way. “That’s a relief, Fallon,” she said, happy with the prospect of a top-notch detective with connections; having access to her daughter’s case.

Fallon continued to stare at her, drawing her mouth into a straight line and biting her lip. “Lib,” she’d started, “could she have been hurt by someone close to you, someone she feared?”

At that moment, she knew what Fallon was trying to ask. “You can’t mean Adam?”

“Oh, Lib, this is where it gets hard when I’m already emotionally involved. These are the questions I hate to ask, and of course, you know how I feel about Adam. He’s great. It’s just that …”

“No, never Adam. If I had to stake my life on one thing in this world, my husband would never hurt our child.” With a stiff posture, she waved Fallon off, dismissively.

“Okay, I’m just trying to rack my brain. With her leaving on her own will, I’ve got to look at all angles. Think about it, though, Libby. Maybe a neighbor, a weird relative, a friend’s dad? We are looking for a reason she would leave willingly after she was kidnapped. I still think she was taken initially. Call it a gut instinct, but it’s there.”

“You mean that someone kidnapped her and turned her?” Again, the idea went beyond her wildest fears.

“It’s just a working theory,” Fallon added, but she knew the statement was more for her own sanity. Through the years, she had realized Fallon was always spot-on with her theories.

* * *

Whenever Libby needed to be closer to Mikayla, she’d often run upstairs to Mikayla’s room. It was the same as the day Mikayla left for school. As others planted seeds of doubt in her mind as to why and how Mikayla went missing years ago, the childhood room that still smelled of her daughter had become her sanctuary.

Lying on the bed, she could recall Mikayla begging her mother to read to her. It was always the same book, The Velveteen Rabbit. Though Mikayla wasn’t a big reader, she’d taken that book to college.

The doubts lingered in her mind, and she wanted to smack Fallon for making her question the man she’d wager her entire life on. Could someone have harmed her? She kept on going back to her original answer—never Adam.

With her mind searching for something other than the horrid idea of Mikayla being hurt at the hands of someone she loved, she sat up, breathing in her daughter’s aroma. For such a young girl, she had an old spirit at times. With all the choices of fragrances, her daughter chose to wear tea rose, and from the minute Libby feared that Mikayla wouldn’t return, she’d bought the scented fragrances that were plugged into an outlet. This practice of hers ensured that Mikayla’s room would forever be a reminder of the piece of Libby’s heart that was still missing.

* * *

Colette

It was spring, and she remembered her mother’s old adage, “Out with the old, in with the new.” It was how she felt. But the old was too hard to let go because that would be giving up all likelihood of ever seeing or touching her mother again. She tried to forget her old life, though the one thing that would never fade from memory were her parents. Not that she had been close to her father growing up, not like her mom, but he was still her dad, and he was a good one.

When Elizabeth was born, Colette sat in the hospital room holding a nine-pound baby, who symbolized love to the very core. From the minute Elizabeth Rebekah was born, that sweet baby held everything good in this world in her little body. She now understood the fuss her mother made in every aspect of her own life.

Five years later when Liam entered the world, she felt the same way. And in all of that, she missed sharing it with her mom. She accepted her mother was a grandma at this point, but still, never seeing her mom as a grandma to her own kids damaged her.

After Liam was born, she toyed with the idea of reaching out to her mother. She knew David would never stop her, though he’d discouraged her because his own fears of her leaving plagued him.

In the farmhouse, he’d been so dominating, invading her every thought, but as David, he gave her all she wanted to compensate for leaving her old life behind. It was as though he was the divorced parent buying her love so she’d stay with him. She never needed anything, just his affection, which she had; there was no doubt about that.

He encouraged her to go home before she became Colette, but her mother would never give up searching for the reason she left in the first place, let alone believe she fell in love with the man who separated her from her family.

In her own world, she didn’t hear the car keys hitting the kitchen counter. “Cole,” as David called her, “what are you thinking so deeply about, sweetness?”

This one nickname had been what he’d called her from the beginning, and it stuck, just like the suggestion of her new name from the first couple of days they met.

Placing her hot mug down, she curved her mouth to the slightest of smiles when her eyes met his. “Hey, babe. You are off early.”

“It really is one of the benefits of being the boss. Miranda cleared my schedule; nothing that couldn’t wait or Michael couldn’t take on.” She grinned, appreciative of her husband’s nurse and the other doctor who assisted him in the day-to-day activities of his practice. David stood behind her, as she was still seated, and wrapped his arms around her chest. Kissing her neck, it was no secret as to which buttons to push to turn on his wife.

“You came home for this?” She laughed, now turning to meet his gaze.

“No, this, I’m hoping, is a bonus. I came home to spend time with my wife, minus the invasion of privacy from our two adoring angels.”

She stood a good foot shy of her husband’s slim but tall stature. Forcing herself onto her tiptoes to reach her small arms around her husband’s neck, she let his mouth find hers, transporting them to a time and place where it was just them without the worries of being caught in their tangled web.

Placing her small body on the table, he wasted no time unbuttoning her jeans and working them off her slender waist. Laughing, she started, “I can’t imagine this is very sanitary.” Though she remembered a time when they’d made love where ever and whenever they damn well pleased. This brought back that spark, especially when his finger found her core, and she only gasped at the sensations with this naughty mid-afternoon quickie.

Staring into her eyes, he moved in and out of her with her back on the table. Leaning down, he took one of her nipples in his mouth, biting just enough to elicit pleasure while she moaned. Leaning back, their connection strengthened when his plea turned heady and needy. “Tell me, Cole, say it to me.”

It was all he needed to hear, and she reaffirmed that he was and would always be her choice.

“I choose you, I choose you—always.” Whenever he was inside her, she would emphasize that her choice would always be and still was him.

Making love to David was something she never tired of and though it began as something much darker in the beginning, the brokenness he’d healed inside her revealed a side of her man, one she understood she could never live without.

* * *

She stood in the doorway that led to Elizabeth’s room and watched her sleep peacefully. The rise and fall of her beautiful daughter’s chest made her realize that the most Elizabeth worried about was if Liam would destroy her perfectly manicured bedroom within ten minutes or wake up the whole house at five a.m., which was when he started his day.

While she watched her daughter sleep, she remembered a time when her name was not Colette Dubroise

She loved David with all she had. She was a goner from the beginning, though she’d fought it at first. The chemistry, the sexual tension was always between them. It was in his look, his words, and how his body turned her on with a single touch; he was her future from the start.

“Honey,” she said as she quickly walked over to the table where she took her nightly coffee and he took his nightly tea.

Slumping over in the chair rather than sitting up straight, he wouldn’t meet his wife’s eyes when he began. “We should have done this years ago. I was never fair to you, Cole.”

She reached over to take his hand. “Hey, we are a partnership, babe. We decided this together. I love you, you are my family, and now we have more people to consider. We will take this slowly. Now with Elizabeth and Liam, I can’t imagine my life without them.” The look on his face told her all she needed to know.

“You’ve given me more than I could imagine, Cole. I guess, I will never be able to truly pay you back for all you’ve given up for me.”

“It was never a question, David. My love for you completes who I am. I’m a mom and a wife. I gave up being a daughter years ago for that reason.”

At times, sex with David was tender and loving. At times, it was rushed because they couldn’t get enough of each other. At times, it was rough and urgent. In his eyes, they both knew what was needed. He led her to the room, and she stood a foot from the bed, grabbing David tightly to her small frame. Of course, with his height and against her tiny body, he went willingly. He ripped her shirt, and buttons flew everywhere. She hopped up, and he grabbed her as she wrapped her legs around his muscular waist. “I want to fuck you, David,” she whispered, digging her fingers into his back. Leaning her head to his ear, she whispered, “I choose you, I choose you—always.”

“I want to fuck you too, sweetness.” He pushed her against the wall, and she pulled at his pants, releasing his cock. He positioned her in a way that when he pushed inside, she screamed his name. “Cole, I love you.”

“Fuck me, I love you too.”

With a small smirk, the arrogance he’d displayed years ago was evident. “I love your filthy mouth when we fuck.”

“Fuck me anytime!” she said as he released her, setting her on shaky feet. Cupping his face, she assured him, “I will never regret my life with you.”

* * *

Taylor

Dexter was a ray of sunshine wrapped up as the Tasmanian devil, but he made a smile appear on her sweet mother-in-law’s face. One day, she dropped by to see Libby with the pile of pictures placed in front of her, but it wasn’t just Mikayla’s pictures. They were mostly of Jenna and Blake. She looked up at Taylor through tears and said, “Losing Mikayla was hard on us all. I never realized how much harder it was for Jenna and Blake.” Her mother-in-law’s words baffled Taylor.

Three months after she and Blake were dating and it was obvious this was serious, he decided to introduce her to his parents.

“I’ve got something to tell you,” Blake stammered in a shaky voice on their way to his childhood house. “I’m surprised you have never asked, but you know our last name, Miller. I don’t know if you remember, but the Mikayla Miller case from early in the year, it’s my family. Mikayla is my sister.”

Before she could say a word of comfort, Blake began, “I barely talk about it. I literally can’t, so please don’t expect some emotional breakdown on my part. I’m only telling you because my mother can’t get through an hour without bringing up Mikayla. She talks about her just like she does my sister Jenna or myself. But it kicks me in the gut each time she mentions her name as if she’s going to walk right through that door.”

In the first year of marriage, Blake was a tender lover, understanding and passionate. As they finished their education and navigated through their first year of marriage, her entire life seemed as if it was always destined for the world she’d dreamed. She had a man who loved her, exceeding any fairy tale.

Her first year as a teacher was demanding but Blake seemed even more needy of her time. “It’s not forever,” she began. “I have lesson plans I can follow the next year, but I have to come up with everything this first year. I will make it up to you.” She leaned down and kissed him. He grabbed her by the arm and jerked her back down to him.

“No, you are going to spend time with me. I will be in bed soon, and you can do your work then. Marriage is about spending time together.”

She thought he was teasing at first, but when she searched his eyes, she knew he was serious. For the next year, she’d spend the evenings with him until they made love, then wake up at four a.m. to work on her lesson plans, and leave for work at six a.m.

Housework was the same. He expected her to do it all after working sixty to eighty hours a week. She was exhausted and was sick more times than not, working through nausea and fatigue.

She loved Libby and Adam. Jenna wasn’t bad either, but she was closed off. How could someone so closed off like Jenna and someone as demanding as her husband come from Libby and Adam? As she continued to navigate her life as a Miller, she wondered if maybe Mikayla’s disappearance affected the kids more than the parents.