Book 5: A Lone Struggle

Two Years Later

Iris returned to her little cottage and gasped to see her brothers waiting for her. “When did you come down? You could have called me from the farm kitchen.”

It had been almost two years since she had escaped that fateful night to the Alpine Farms. Nestled in the hills of Portola Valley, approximately 30 miles south of San Francisco, it had been her home for the last two years. She had given birth to her daughter, Esme, here and struggled alone to bring her up. This place had given her everything that her loved one hadn’t.

Maddox might be happily married to Lucille already. He might not even remember her. She had no news of him after the night she had escaped death.

“You were busy, Iris. We visited Esme at the daycare. It was her lunchtime, so we came here to wait for you,” said Isaac, easing the bag from h