THE STEPDAUGHTER

It began with Dylan. It was the way he had of charming everyone, drawing them into another world where anything was possible. When you felt the walls that held you prisoner fall away, glimpsed the glittering horizons of his world, you couldn’t go back. Not ever.

Hollie didn’t have a chance. She was too fragile, too easily mesmerized by his promises. There was so much people never knew about Hollie. How her mind had found a way to twist her past, until she’d turned it into something that made sense to her. The blameless mother who screwed her up, then killed herself; the father who didn’t have time for her; the stepmother who wanted to love her, but couldn’t.

It seemed inevitable that Hollie and Dylan would fall in love. For a while, it was glorious. They were a common sight around the village—hand in hand, his dark head towering above hers, dressed in the same ripped jeans and oversized coats. But when love consumed you the way theirs did, everything else was irrelevant.

For months, they ran wild; then a new urgency seemed to fill them, as if time was running out and they had to make the most of every second. Run faster, speak louder, cram more into each day, while they still could...

Until on a day of yellow sky and wild winds, it all stopped.