Note from the Author

A short story exploring the power of love over abuse.

Three years after graduating high school, twenty- two year old Daniel Carver leaves his small town in rural Ohio to start his adult life in Cincinnati. Filled with grief from his sister's recent suicide, he decides to start over. The last thing he expects is to run into a blast from the past a few days after moving.

Madison Blue was at one time a bubbly and driven girl. Halfway through her senior year of high school, she disappeared. Around the same time, the local news was blown up with stories of a horrific kidnapping and rape of a local teenage girl. It was never verified, but rumors spread that the girl was Madison.

Three years later, a twenty- one year old Maddy has run away from her family and hometown. She finds herself unable to keep a job, eventually leading to living out of her car and stealing food from dumpsters. She's emotionally and physically damaged beyond what she believes can be repaired.

When Daniel finds Maddy in the aisle of a Walmart having a panic attack, he recognizes the girl he once knew. Fueled by the grief he feels for his sister, his heart shatters upon seeing someone he once knew so broken.

With Daniel's help, Madison is forced to begin to heal. Daniel can see past the walls she has built up over her broken soul, and piece by piece he begins the painstaking task of putting her together again. In the process, he is able to come to terms with his own grief, and maybe even fall in love deeper than he knew was humanly possible.

RATED M FOR MATURE!