CHAPTER ONE
Daniella
I smile to myself, my eyes still closed. I can hear the little pitter patter of tiny feet, the sound of my daughter Annie walking to my bedroom like she does every morning to ask for breakfast.
I open my eyes just a sliver so I can see her sneaking into my room, the blanket covering my mouth, so she doesn’t see me smile.
She slowly eases her way over, her little bunny rabbit under her arm while wearing her little mermaid nightgown.
Her face is right in front of mine at this point. My eyes are closed and she can’t see that I am peeking.
“Mommy,” she whispers so cutely. I open my eyes, her little eyes are shining bright, and her little hair is mussed up from her sleeping.
God, I love her so much, I don’t even think I can take it sometimes. “Hi, baby girl.” I reach out and touch her hair trying not to laugh at how crazy it looks.
“I’m hungry,” she says.
“Alright, want me to fix you something or get McDonald’s on the way to River’s?” I ask her.
Her eyes light up. “McDonald’s!” she screams and claps her hands. “I’m going to get dressed.” She runs out of the room to her bedroom.
I smile, sliding to the edge of the bed trying not to think that at one time, I thought my sweet baby girl was gone. The aching pain hurts so much at times that I feel the need to place my hand over my heart to dull the ache.
The memories win and I close my eyes sinking into them. I was engaged at the age of thirteen, married at fourteen, and had my daughter at fifteen. I was raised in a cult and I didn’t know that life could be different. I would see people out in town and they were so different. God, I wanted that life, to be that carefree.
To live a life where I was free, a life where I didn’t have to worry about getting hurt because I didn’t do my wifely duties correctly.
I was never one to completely do as I was told, I was known to be a rebel. I was married into one of the main families in the cult and they tried to control me.
I was sick with pneumonia when I was fifteen, turning almost sixteen. I was so deathly ill, I didn’t think I was going to make it through.
My mother-in-law took her from me to care for her while I was sick, or so I thought that was what she was doing.
When I finally came to after a week of being so sick, they told me my baby girl had fallen ill with the same illness, but she had succumbed to it.
I just remember being so numb. I don’t think I left the bed for weeks and my husband had to force-feed me every meal.
I had nothing to live for.
They thought with her gone that they could control me better, but she was the only thing I cared about, cared enough to behave so I could protect her.
But no, she was it.
Anything they did to me, to make me bend was nothing compared to the death of my baby girl.
But she wasn’t dead, they lied to me. They did it to cause me pain. They thought that I was going to be a bad influence on my daughter and she wouldn’t have been raised right.
They gave her to my parents.
My sister Bell came years later and saved me, took me from the cult. I thought she was dead too. That’s what they told me, but everything was a lie.
My sister told me she had found my daughter, she had her and she was safe.
I couldn’t believe she wasn’t dead.
I left that place; I left the cabin where I was forced to spend the last three months as punishment.
I never looked back. I got my GED and got a job, but my ex-husband Arthur was spotted a few days ago. He was walking around showing my picture to people and going to schools in the area trying to find my daughter.
A member of the MC club that my brother-in-law is in rushed over to the house and told us.
God, the fear I felt was unreal. It wasn’t fear for me, but it was the fear of something happening to my daughter.
I went into hiding, but it hit me that I just needed to go somewhere else and start over where no one knows me, and he can’t find me.
That’s why I’m moving an hour away to a small town where my niece lives with her husband, who’s also the president of an MC there.
I stare at the wall, fear sending shivers down my spine. I want to forget that part of my life, but I need to protect her above all else.
I force myself to my feet, walk to my closet and put on a pair of leggings along with a sweatshirt since the air is chilly outside. My eyes wander to the suitcases on the floor, my heart aching because this has been my first home since I left that life.
But I will have my niece River, so I won’t be completely alone.
The girls are worth more than anything in cult life. I know the lengths they would go to just to keep them.
“Mommy, I’m ready!” Annie yells from her bedroom and I hurry to slip on my clothes that I had set out.
“I’m coming, baby.” I brush my teeth and pack my toothbrush, looking around the bathroom one last time to make sure that I haven’t forgotten anything.
I grab my last suitcase that isn’t already in my SUV. Annie is sitting in the hallway playing with her dolls. She looks up at me smiling, showing her missing front tooth.
My heart jumps at how beautiful she is. I made her and she’s the best thing I have ever done in my life. At night I find myself staring at her sleeping safely in her bed. It’s hard to believe that she is here.
The front door opens, and I peek over the stairs. My sister Bell and her husband Maverick walk inside the house.
Bell looks up at me and smiles, but I can see she is saddened by my leaving. I smile back at her. “Annie, Bell is here.” Her head snaps up looking over the railing. She screams and runs down the stairs like she hasn’t seen them in months, not just yesterday.
I laugh and follow her down the stairs, pulling my suitcase along with me. Maverick meets me halfway up the stairs taking it from me.
Bell hugs me. “Come visit me all the time?” I whisper to her, hugging her a little tighter.
She changed my life; she gave me a life and helped me through the darkest time of my life. Without her I am not sure where I would be.
She pulls back touching my cheeks. “You couldn’t keep me away.”
She may be my sister, but she has taken on the role of my mother, with her being so much older than me.
I laugh and turn to Maverick who is watching my sister. He’s so in love with her and it makes me so happy that she has him.
Annie walks up to Maverick and lifts her arms for him to pick her up. He laughs and hugs her tightly. “You better be good for your mom, okay?”
She giggles and tugs on the ends of his hair picking on him, and in turn he tickles her sides as she reels into laughter.
“Are you ready my girl?” I ask her. We have an hour drive there.
She hugs Maverick a little tighter before he leans her over so she can hug Bell. “We will be over to see you next week.” Annie nods and tucks her doll under her arm.
Maverick carries my bag out to the garage and I follow behind him with my purse on my shoulder, holding Annie’s hand.
I open the back door and help Annie into her seat, making sure that she’s buckled in correctly.
Maverick shuts the back, huffing. “I don’t like this shit, you could move back in with us,” he points out.