Page 2 of This Christmas

Chapter One

Five years later…

Ally stood on the deck and watched the snow falling slowly over the Pacific Ocean. She could get used to this view. Even though living at her brother’s place was only temporary, she was going to enjoy every single minute of it while she was there. For the next four months, while Max and Juliette were in South America on a project, she had the place all to herself. Well, her and Charlotte.

She glanced back inside the glass doors to where her five-year-old was watching Bluey on the television.

This move, even though it was risky, was very much needed. In Portland, Ted had too much reach. Too much power. Too much money to make things difficult.

On their drive out of the city, the snow had started falling. The snowflakes had swirled in lazy spirals, never seeming to land, just dancing in the air like they couldn’t make up their minds.

By the time Ally had turned down the narrow lane that led toward the old lighthouse her brother and his new wife called home, it had started sticking to the ground.

Charlotte had pressed her face to the window, fogging the glass with her breath. “Mommy, look! Lights!”

Ally slowed as they rounded the bend on the long drive that led up to her brother’s property.

The old two-story home sat directly on the Pacific coastline at the base of a historic white lighthouse, which looked like something straight out of a Christmas card. Twinkling lights framed the outline of the house, tracing the roofline and wrapping around the railing of the porch in neat, glowing loops.

Bigger white lights wrapped around the lighthouse, and she wondered how her brother had accomplished such a feat.

A green wreath hung on the front door, tied with a red velvet bow that fluttered gently in the cold breeze.

“Did Santa decorate Uncle Max’s house?” Charlotte whispered as Ally parked by the garage.

Ally smiled faintly, blinking back sudden tears. “Maybe one of his helpers,” she had answered softly.

When she got out of the car, the air smelled of salt water and pine. The rhythmic hush of the waves rolled in from the shoreline below the property, the sound steady and familiar.

She and Charlotte had stayed at Max’s place several times over the years. Weekends here and there, a couple nights when they could get away.

She reached for her daughter’s hand as they made it up the powdered pathway. She would come back for their boxes and suitcases later.

Inside, the warmth wrapped around them immediately. The faint scent of cinnamon and pine needles hung in the air. A massive ten-foot Christmas tree stood in the corner of the living room, draped in white lights and old-fashioned ornaments—tiny wooden sleds, painted stars, little red mittens, and tons of silver and white angels. Underneath, a few wrapped boxes sat waiting, each one labeled in neat handwriting that she recognized instantly as Juliette’s.

She moved slowly through the rooms, taking it all in—the stockings that hung on the fireplace mantel, the plaid holiday blanket draped over the back of the sofa, the candles and decorations throughout each room.

Charlotte darted toward the tree, crouching to read the tags. “This one says my name, mama! Can I open one?”

“Not yet,” Ally said gently, her voice catching as she brushed her hand across the mantel. “Let’s wait until Christmas, okay?”

It felt like a gift, arriving almost a month before the holiday and instantly being immersed in the season.

After years of living in cheap rentals with empty walls, this place felt… safe. Like someone had thought about them. They had. Max and Juliette.

Even though they wouldn’t be there for the holidays, they had seen to it that she and Charlotte would enjoy themselves during their stay.

Charlotte tugged at her sleeve. “Can we make hot chocolate?”

Ally smiled and knelt beside her. “I think that’s a perfect idea.”

While her daughter sipped her hot chocolate and watched cartoons on the television in the living room, she’d headed outside and had dragged in their things. She still couldn’t shake the memories of what she’d escaped. What she’d almost ended up in.

Five years ago, she’d spent two weeks in the hospital, where she’d been on suicide watch, thanks to the lies Ted had told the police. There was talk about putting her in an institution. After all, according to her husband, she’d tried to take her and her daughter’s lives.

It wasn’t until after an interview Ted had done that her neighbor had stepped forward with her Ring camera footage of what had really happened that night.

Because of Ted’s powerful position in the city government, he hadn’t been charged with anything. But she’d been released from the hospital and had gotten a lawyer.