Chapter 13
The next few months were the happiest of my life.
I moved in with David and Emma.
We fixed up the house. We planted a garden. We painted Emma's room pink, just like she'd always wanted.
Emma called me "Mom" now. Not all the time, but sometimes. When she was tired. Or happy. Or just because.
And every time she did, my heart felt like it would burst.
Linda was doing well.
She'd accepted the money from our mother's trust. She used part of it to hire the best lawyers to appeal her sentence. Not to get out of prison—she knew she deserved to be there—but to get it reduced, to have a chance at parole someday.
She used the rest to set up a foundation for children who'd been through the foster system. Children like her. Children who'd never known love or family.
Margaret visited her every week. They talked. They cried. They built a fragile, beautiful relationship.
I visited her too. Sometimes with Emma. Sometimes alone.
We were becoming sisters.
Really sisters.
It wasn't easy. There were hard days. Days when the past came back to haunt us. Days when Linda would get angry or depressed. Days when I would remember everything she'd done and feel that old anger rise up.
But we worked through it.
Together.
One sunny Saturday in June, we had a party.
A housewarming party. A celebration of everything we'd been through and everything we'd become.
All our friends were there.
Sarah, my best friend, had moved to town. She'd opened her own law practice, specializing in family law and helping victims of domestic abuse.
Clara was there, of course. She'd decided not to move away. She'd bought a house nearby. She was Emma's favorite aunt, and she spoiled her rotten.
Officer Hale came. He'd become a friend. He brought his wife and kids.
Even Mrs. Jenkins, Emma's principal, came. She'd become a mentor to Emma, helping her with school and with healing from everything she'd been through.
And Margaret came. She'd moved to town too, to be close to Linda and to all of us.
We ate hamburgers and hot dogs. We played games in the backyard. Emma ran around with her friends, laughing and screaming, happy and carefree.
She was a completely different child from the scared little girl I'd seen that day in the living room.
She was confident. Outgoing. Full of life.
She was healing.
We all were.
David pulled me aside as the party was going on.
He took my hand and led me to the garden we'd planted together.
"Remember when we first met?" he said. "You were standing on my porch, covered in cookie crumbs, scared out of your mind."
I laughed. "I remember. I thought you were going to throw me in jail for trespassing."
"I thought you were a crazy neighbor," he said, smiling. "But then I saw how you cared about Emma. How you fought for her. And I knew... I knew you were special."
He knelt down on one knee.
My heart stopped.
He pulled out a small ring box.
"Maya Bennett," he said. "You've saved my daughter. You've saved me. You've given us a family and a future we never thought we'd have. I love you more than words can say. And Emma loves you too. We both want you to be part of our family forever."
He opened the box.
Inside was a simple, beautiful diamond ring.
"Will you marry me?" he said.
Tears rolled down my cheeks.
"Yes," I whispered. "Yes, I will."
He slipped the ring on my finger.
He stood up and kissed me.
From the house, we heard cheering.
Everyone had been watching.
Emma ran out and threw her arms around both of us.
"Does this mean you're really my mom now?" she said.
I knelt down and looked her in the eyes.
"I've always been your mom, baby," I said. "In my heart. But now... now it's official."
She hugged me tight.
"I love you, Mom," she said.
"I love you too, Emma."
That night, after everyone had left, we sat together on the porch swing. David on one side of me, Emma on the other, fast asleep with her head on my shoulder.
"Can you believe it?" David said quietly. "All that we've been through. And here we are."
I looked at the ring on my finger. At the sleeping girl in my arms. At the man I loved beside me.
"I can believe it," I said. "Because we fought for it. We didn't give up. Even when things were darkest."
David kissed the top of my head.
We sat there in silence, watching the stars.
And then David's phone rang.
He answered it.
Listened.
His face went pale.
"What is it?" I said when he hung up.
"It's Linda," he said.
My heart stopped.
"Is she okay?"
"She's fine," David said. "But Maya... the police just called. They found something. In Linda's old things. In a storage unit she rented under a different name."
"What did they find?"
David looked at me, his eyes wide with shock.
"Another locket," he said. "Just like yours. Just like Emma's. And inside it... there's a letter. And another photo."
"Of who?"
May you like
David took a deep breath.
"Of another little girl," he said. "And a letter addressed to you."
