Chapter 1
They said it again.
“We’ll be in touch.”
I knew exactly what that meant.
It meant I could spend the rest of my life waiting for their call, but my phone would never ring.
I had been unemployed for months. With only a few dollars left in my wallet, I dragged myself toward the daycare, every step heavier than the last.
Whenever my life felt this hopeless, my mind always found its way back to the worst decision I had ever made.
Will.
One night with too much alcohol in my system and not enough sense left in my head. Weeks later, when I found out I was pregnant, I went to tell him.
Will didn’t look shocked. He didn’t ask if I was okay. He simply placed a stack of bills in front of me and told me to get rid of the babies because he didn’t want the responsibility.
I threw the money away.
And I kept my babies.
Jessie and Lucy were the only good thing Will had ever given me.
The moment I stepped inside the daycare, I put on the smile I used whenever I needed my daughters to believe everything was fine.
Then I saw Ms. Davis waiting near the front desk.
Her mouth was pressed into a thin line, and the pity in her eyes made my stomach drop.
“Ella,” she said, her voice stiff. “This isn’t easy for me to say, but—”
She didn’t need to finish.
“I know.” I glanced around and lowered my voice. “I just need a few more weeks. Please.”
Ms. Davis shook her head.
“You haven’t made a payment in four months. Our policy is very clear, Ella. I’m sorry, but we won’t be able to accept the girls starting tomorrow.”
My shoulders sagged before I could stop them.
Behind me, several mothers had gathered near the cubbies. Their hair was perfectly styled, their handbags probably worth more than everything I owned, and they weren’t speaking nearly as quietly as they thought they were.
“Look at the poor thing. Their father abandoned them.”
“This isn’t a charity. Why have children if you can’t afford them?”
My fingernails dug into my palms as I forced the tears back.
I didn’t have the luxury of falling apart.
Not here.
Not where anyone could see me.
“I understand,” I said, lifting my chin. “I’ll get my daughters.”
I walked toward the playroom and immediately found them.
My two little miracles in the middle of a life that had become almost entirely dark.
Jessie held Lucy’s hand tightly as she guided her around a pile of toy blocks. Lucy’s beautiful blue eyes were turned toward her sister’s voice, even though they had never seen Jessie’s face.
They had never seen anything.
“Take a step now, Lucy,” Jessie said in her sweet three-year-old voice. “Careful. There’s a really big red block right there.”
“I’m scared, Jess,” Lucy whispered.
Her free hand searched the empty space in front of her, and she pulled her foot back.
Jessie stopped. She placed both of her tiny hands on Lucy’s cheeks.
“Don’t be scared. I’ll be your eyes, okay? You just have to keep holding my hand.”
Pain tightened around my chest.
Jessie shouldn’t have needed to understand that kind of responsibility at three years old. But the way she protected her sister filled me with so much pride that I almost couldn’t breathe.
I dropped to my knees and opened my arms.
“There are my angels.”
The moment Lucy heard my voice, her entire face lit up.
“Mommy!”
She stretched her arms toward me and tried to run. Jessie quickly tightened her grip and carefully guided her across the room.
When they reached me, I pulled them both against my chest and breathed them in.
Strawberry shampoo and baby powder.
The sweetest smell in the world.
I would have traded anything for my daughters.
Anything except them.
“Come on, ladies,” I said, praying they wouldn’t hear the strain in my voice. “We’re going home.”
“Are we coming back tomorrow?” Jessie asked, tugging excitedly on the strap of my purse.
The answer caught in my throat.
“No, baby.” I smoothed her hair away from her face. “Tomorrow, you’re staying home with me. I’m planning a surprise day for us.”
Her eyes brightened.
“A surprise?”
“The best kind.”
I carried them out of the daycare with my head held high, even as the other mothers watched us leave.
Will might have disappeared and left us with nothing.
My job applications might keep ending in polite rejection.
Our entire life might be collapsing around us.
But I would do whatever it took to protect my girls.
I would beg. I would crawl. I would work until my hands bled.
I wasn’t giving up.
I carried Lucy for most of the walk home while Jessie stayed close beside me, one little hand wrapped tightly around my skirt.
As we approached our neighborhood, my steps slowed.
Our house was a tiny, single-story box on the edge of town. The paint was peeling from the wooden siding, one of the porch steps sagged in the middle, and the windows rattled whenever the wind blew too hard.
It wasn’t much.
But it was ours.
Or at least, it had been.
Two men stood on the porch.
One was our landlord, Mr. Miller, his stomach hanging over his belt as he stood with his arms folded across his chest.
The other was a uniformed sheriff’s deputy.
His badge caught the sunlight.
So did the gun at his hip.
The familiar fear in my stomach rose so fast it nearly knocked the breath out of me.
“Ella,” Mr. Miller said with an expression that was supposed to resemble sympathy. “You knew this was coming. You haven’t paid rent in three months.”
The deputy held out a yellow sheet of paper.
“Ma’am, I have a court-ordered eviction notice. I can give you fifteen minutes to collect your essential belongings. After that, I’m required to secure the property.”
For a moment, I couldn’t move.
My arms tightened around Lucy.
This couldn’t be happening.
Not today.
Not after the daycare.
Not with my daughters standing beside me.
Lucy had been completely blind since birth. She couldn’t see light, shadows, or even the outlines of the people around her.
But she noticed everything else.
The smallest change in my breathing. The slightest break in my voice. A pause that lasted half a second too long.
“Mommy?” she whispered, shifting in my arms.
Her small hands moved over my face until her fingertips found my cheeks.
“Why did we stop? Who are you talking to? Why is your voice shaking?”
I pressed my lips together so hard I tasted blood.
“It’s nothing, sweetheart,” I managed, but my voice came out rough.
Jessie stared at the deputy with wide, frightened eyes.
She tugged on my skirt.
“Mommy, why is the policeman here?” Her bottom lip trembled. “Are we not going to have a house anymore? Where are we going to sleep?”
I opened my mouth.
Nothing came out.
What was I supposed to tell them?
That we were homeless?
That everything they owned was about to be locked behind a door I could no longer open?
That I had failed them so badly I didn’t even know where I was going to put them to bed tonight?
“Oh no.”
A familiar voice came from the yard next door.
Anne stood behind the fence, garden shears still in one hand. Her eyes moved from Mr. Miller to the deputy, then to the paper he was holding.
She understood immediately.
She hurried toward us, her sixteen-year-old daughter, Jade, following close behind.
“Jade,” Anne said quickly, glancing at my daughters. “Take the girls inside, honey. I just made cookies. Give them some with a glass of milk.”
Jade nodded and approached us with a gentle smile.
“Come on, little ladies. I have chocolate chip cookies waiting for you.”
Jessie immediately reached for her hand.
I carefully lowered Lucy to the ground, and Jade took her other hand.
“Cookies?” Lucy asked.
“The biggest ones in the kitchen,” Jade promised.
The fear eased from their faces as Jade led them toward the house.
The second they stepped inside and the front door closed behind them, I broke.
My knees gave out.
Anne caught me before I hit the ground, and I collapsed against her as the sobs tore out of me.
“What am I going to do?” I cried, clutching the front of her cardigan. “We don’t have anywhere to go. I have no money. No one will hire me. How am I supposed to take care of them?”
Anne wrapped both arms around me and rubbed my back.
“Shh. Breathe, Ella. Just breathe.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
She held me until I managed to drag air into my lungs.
Then she gently pulled back and looked into my eyes.
Something changed in her expression.
“Wait,” she said.
I wiped my face with the back of my hand.
“What?”
“My cousin Katy quit her job today.”
I blinked at her through my tears.
“Katy?”
“Yes. She’s been struggling since she got pregnant.” Anne took both of my hands. “She worked as a live-in housekeeper for a billionaire family on the other side of the city.”
I frowned.
“Anne, what does that have to do with—”
“Listen to me.” Her fingers tightened around mine. “They need someone extremely reliable to replace her. You know how rich families are. They don’t want a stranger walking into their home. They prefer someone who comes with a personal recommendation.”
I stared at her.
“I can recommend you,” she continued. “Right now.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you.”
“But I don’t have experience working in a mansion.”
“You’ve raised twins alone for three years. You’ve kept a house running while working every job you could find. You’re responsible, you’re honest, and Katy trusts you.”
My lips parted, but I had no idea what to say.
“You would have somewhere beautiful to live,” Anne said, her words coming faster now. “The salary is excellent, and the position is secure. The estate is enormous. They might even give the girls their own room.”
A live-in job.
A steady paycheck.
A roof over my daughters’ heads.
I looked past Anne toward my porch.
Mr. Miller was still standing there.
So was the sheriff’s deputy.
One man wanted me out of my home. The other was there to make sure I left.
Did I really have another choice?
“Call them,” I whispered, wiping the tears from my cheeks. “Please. Call them now.”
Anne squeezed my hands once before hurrying inside.
I turned back toward the two men waiting on my porch.
It was time to swallow whatever pride I had left.
“Please,” I said, unable to keep my voice steady. “Mr. Miller, I’m begging you. Give me one day. Just twenty-four more hours.”
He sighed and crossed his arms more tightly.
“Ella, you know the rules.”
“I have two little girls,” I said, cutting him off. My throat burned as I forced the words out. “Lucy is blind. She doesn’t know this neighborhood well enough to walk through it safely, and I have nowhere to take her in the middle of the night. We don’t have another house. We don’t even have another bed.”
His mouth tightened.
“Please,” I repeated. “Just until tomorrow morning.”
Mr. Miller glanced at the deputy.
The deputy didn’t say anything, but the disapproval in his expression was clear.
Mr. Miller let out another long breath.
“Fine.” He waved one hand as though granting me an enormous favor. “You always use those children to get your way.”
My fingernails pressed into my palms again.
I wanted to scream at him.
Instead, I stayed silent.
“You have until eight tomorrow morning,” he continued. “When we come back, you’d better be ready to leave. Otherwise, I’ll have you dragged out.”
“Thank you,” I whispered.
The words tasted bitter.
Half an hour later, I sat in Anne’s warm kitchen, surrounded by the smell of cinnamon and freshly baked cookies.
Both of my hands were wrapped around the mug of coffee she had placed in front of me. I held it so tightly that my knuckles had turned white.
Laughter drifted in from the living room.
Jade was singing the theme song from the girls’ favorite cartoon while Jessie held Lucy’s hands and helped her dance without bumping into the furniture.
“Okay, Lucy,” Jessie called out. “Now we’re doing a really big spin!”
Lucy’s laughter filled the house.
I closed my eyes.
They had no idea that everything we owned needed to be packed by morning.
They didn’t know their beds would soon belong to someone else.
They were simply dancing.
The kitchen door suddenly swung open.
Anne rushed inside with her phone in her hand. She was slightly out of breath, and her eyes were wide.
I shot to my feet so quickly that the chair scraped loudly across the floor.
“Anne?” My heart pounded against my ribs. “Did you talk to Katy? What did she say?”
Anne placed the phone on the counter and took a deep breath.
Then a huge smile spread across her face.
She hurried toward me and caught both of my hands in hers.
“I didn’t speak to Katy,” she said, her voice trembling with excitement. “I spoke directly to the estate manager. I explained how urgent your situation is. I told them about the girls.”
I forgot to breathe.
“What did they say?”
Anne looked straight into my eyes.
“Find something nice to wear, sweetheart.”
I gripped her hands tighter.
“Because that billionaire family wants to interview you tomorrow morning.”
