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CHAPTER 1

WILLA

“Hasn’t changed ot et you registered for school,” Nonna said as the pinched frown on her face that had been there since she picked rew o nowhere You hear et back”

I ed a nod I hadn’t been able to say more than “thanks” to her since I’d seen her The last tio when she’d saved up enough e part of my life There had been tiht no one else loved me, I knew she did Nonna never let me down

Seeing the obvious disappointaze noas hard to s But I hadn’t expected anything different It was a look I had gotten used to I saw it in everyone’s eyes these days when they looked at me

No one believed me Not my mother, certainly not my stepfather, or the police officer who’d arrested oing to believe reed to take s and left them for me on the front porch the day I was released from the correctional center I’d spent the last sixI knew to do I’d lived with Nonna until the summer I turned eleven Her home was the only real home I’d ever known

My mother had finally decided she could take care of me, the child she’d had at fifteen and left with her h school three years later When ht, his father had finallyer brother was adored by his father, and I seemed to always be in the way I kept to e

“Answer hts

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied quickly I didn’t want to upset her She was all I had left

Nonna’s expression softened; then she nodded “Good I’ll be back soon ashouse is done,” she added, then turned and walked away, leaving me in the bedroom that had been mine for the first eleven years of my life I had been happy here I had felt wanted here

But I’dup If there was a wrong decision to be ed to et back the girl I had been once The girl whose grandirl who didn’t act out for attention The attention I had gotten from my mother hadn’t been the kind of attention I wanted In the end I’d lost her She wanted nothing to do with me I’d killed any love she had for me

Once the door closed behind Nonna, I sank down onto the twin bed that was covered in a quilt I knewin her free time Which wasn’t very often She worked six days a week for the Lawtons They let her off on Sunday so she could go to church and clean her own house Which happened to be a cottage on the edge of their property She’d been the Lawtons’ housecleaner and cook for as long as I could rerown up in this house This room I was in had been hers once too

Even though I’d been the product of a mistake my mother had iven e ive And then there were the boys Gunner Lawton and Brady Higgens had beenhouse with his parents and older brother, Rhett Frohtwith his army men ere four, we had been inseparable I had been watching the boys for weeks go up into that tree house froe I’d wanted to knoas up there My curiosity had given me my first real friends

When I had left with e with all three of us I wasn’t just one of the guys anyet aard Back then I had thought I was in love with Brady He’d been popular and had a smile that once ht then he’d be the only boy I’d ever love I’d left soon after ro I could hardly remember what either boy looked like There had been other boys in my life since them Only one made a mark on ht he’d be irls was acceptable when I wouldn’t give hiinity in the back of his car

He had proven to etting hurt My mother and Carl had both shown me how vulnerable love could ain

It seemed like another lifetime now Gunner and Brady were the safe-and-happy part of ht when I needed to escape my reality

My life here would be very different from the way it had once been I had uilt and regret would berejected by your own mother wasn’t easy to accept It was a wound that went so deep I doubted I’d ever get over it

I stood up and walked over to the mirror and studied myself My ht blond hair that hit just below ot my hair color from my father A man I didn’t know She would never even tell me his first name She never even told my nonna Once she had said it was because he couldn’t be a father tome and him with her silence I never understood that I still didn’t