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ANNIE

All her life, Annie Townsend had felt alone.

When their parents died young, she and Tommy went to live with their failing grandmother, Betty. Annie was only twelve, but she became a parent overnight. She cooked, cleaned, walked Tommy to school and back, did the grocery shopping, made dinner, helped with homework, and tucked her little brother into bed each night. It was relentless. By the time they graduated high school, Annie was already supporting both Tommy and Grandma Betty, whose mind had started to slip badly.

She took whatever jobs she could find.

When she started working at the bar in her early twenties, it was all she could do to keep the lights on and food on the table. After Grandma Betty passed and the social security checks stopped, Annie had to move them out of the old house and into a cramped studio apartment. Tommy thought it was an adventure. Annie smiled through the fear and tried her best to shield him from how bad things really were.

When money got too tight, she began turning tricks at the bar just to make ends meet. Slowly, she grew numb to it — to the hands, the shame, the way her body stopped feeling like her own. Her old dreams of becoming a lawyer, of helping kids who had it as rough as she once did, faded quietly along with her youth and what little beauty she thought she’d had left.

Then came the day at the lake.

The rape had nearly killed her. She still remembered the four roughnecks who had lured her out with them. The cold terror. The crushing weight pinning her down. Hands wrapped around her throat. The moment she thought she was going to die.

Bear had saved her — the enormous, terrifying boy from high school who had once stood up for Tommy. Bear went to prison for what he had done. And Annie… Annie suddenly found herself under the sharp, protective scrutiny of Mary Sue Ellen.

That first night home from the hospital, discharged early because there was no one else to look after Tommy, Annie sat gingerly at the shabby kitchen table, teeth clenched so she wouldn’t cry. Her stitches still burned raw, and the pain medication barely took the edge off. Across from her, Tommy hummed happily while he drew, completely unaware of how close his big sister had come to leaving him forever.

When the knock came at the door, she almost didn’t answer. But she forced herself up, wincing, and opened it to find Mary Sue Ellen — the no-nonsense woman from the town diner — standing on the worn welcome mat.

Mary Sue’s sharp eyes swept over her from head to toe, taking in the bruises, the exhaustion, the threadbare apartment, and Tommy peeking out from behind the table. Annie wanted to sink into the floor from shame.

Without a word, Mary Sue stepped inside, looked around once, and said simply, “Come by the diner tomorrow. Bring your brother.”

She left a folded stack of bills on the table and walked out.

The next day Annie had a job. A few years later, she had a friend. And somewhere along the way, she found the mother she’d never had.

For a long time, though, Annie still felt like charity — something Mary Sue tolerated out of pity or guilt over what her son had sacrificed. She never quite believed she deserved the kindness.

Then Sage Thompson came to Blackthorn Ridge, and everything started to shift.

Over the last few weeks, Annie had begun to wonder if maybe, just maybe, she had a real family after all. They’d invited her to the spa day for Sage. They’d asked her to the Christmas party. She’d smiled and tried to play it cool, but doubt still lingered in the corners of her heart.

Until this morning.

Isabelle had barged into their little apartment like a whirlwind, laughing and declaring it a kidnapping. She’d loaded Annie, Tommy, and the kids into the car and had driven them straight to Bear’s sprawling estate to celebrate Christmas Day — as part of the family, no arguments allowed.

And now, standing in this impossibly luxurious two-story living room with its soaring windows framing snow-covered mountains and a fourteen-foot tree dripping with magic, Annie was desperately trying to hold herself together.

She watched Lily’s wide-eyed wonder at the mountain of presents, heard Ethan and Michael’s stunned laughter, felt Sage’s warm arm brush hers. Breakfast had been made for them. Laughter had wrapped around them like a blanket. They had been welcomed, accepted, and celebrated.

For the first time, it didn’t feel like pity.

Annie blinked hard against the sting in her eyes as the truth settled deep in her chest. She had sisters in Sage and Isabelle. She had a brother in Bear — the quiet giant who had once gone to jail for her. And finally, she had a mama in Mary Sue Ellen. This wasn’t charity anymore.

This was family.

And Annie Townsend, who had spent her whole life feeling alone, was starting to believe she might actually belong.

“Annie?”

Bear’s deep voice pulled her gently from her thoughts. She startled, blinking up at him.

He was still sitting on the massive couch with Sage curled against his side, the two of them so different and yet so perfectly matched — like pieces of a puzzle that had been waiting their whole lives to click together. Cal shifted, stood, and brought Sage up with him. At seven-foot-four he towered over everyone, but the smile he gave Annie was soft, almost shy, a little twinkle in those steady eyes.

The living room went suddenly quiet. Every face turned toward him.