“My dad said I need to stay close to you until my mom comes back. He’s afraid a bad person will hurt me.”
While my mom zips the back of my white gown, I stare at the little girl before me.
So innocent.
So loved.
So beautiful.
Her dad is right. There are bad people who do bad things to children.
However, we are at a private venue surrounded by family and close friends. Whether it’s right or not, this is the perfect example of allowing kids to roam freely until corralled at the last possible minute—there’s an assumption that someone is watching them.
Her dad is feeling extra protective today because Winston Jeffries preyed on little girls running around at family events, like weddings, between 1892 and 1901. Nearly a decade of kidnapping. Nearly a decade of long hair hanging from trees in churchyards. Just the hair.
The bodies were never found.
Jeffries was convicted of thirty-seven counts of first-degree murder and hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky, on February 10, 1902 without a single body discovered.
He took the location of the bodies to his grave.
“A bad person, huh?”
The young girl nods, her long, dark curls and pink ribbons bouncing with each tip of her chin.
Her father’s not worried about a mysterious “bad person.” He’s worried his bride might flee at the last second.
This girl has been sent here to keep an eye on me.
But why scare her? Why not just tell her I need help getting dressed? Why send her to deliver the one message that would make me want to kick off my heels, toss aside my veil, and run until my heart gives out?
“Mom, will you give us a minute?” I ask.
She straightens the skirt of my gown. “Sure. I need to check on your dad anyway.”
When it’s just the young girl and me, I bend down so we’re at eye level. “Do you trust me?”
She nods slowly, eyes wide.
“I think your dad is scared. Will you help him not to be so scared?”
Another slow nod.
“It means you have to be brave too. You have to do something really brave and trust me that it’s for the best. Can you do that?”
“I think so,” she whispers.
I riffle through my mom’s bag. She packed everything we could possibly need for any hiccup. My fingers curl around the orange-handled scissors, and I turn back to the girl. “Are you sure you’re brave?”
She stares at the scissors and nods.
WARNING: Due to the nature of the story line premise including descriptions of murder and death, there may be triggers fo...
WARNING: Due to the nature of the story line premise including descriptions of murder and death, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.
Told from dual first person perspectives (Josie and Colten) using present day and memories from the past PIECES OF A LIFE follows the rebuilding friendship and relationship between thirty-five year olds, Detective Colten Mosley, and forensic pathologist Josie Watts. Josie and Colten have been best friends since fourth grade but days before their high school graduation, Colten rejected Josie’s promise of forever and their own happily ever after, destroying our story line heroine in the process. Fast forward seventeen years, wherein Chicago PD Detective Colten Mosley is now working closely with forensic pathologist Dr. Josie Watts, on a series of murders that may or may not be connected to a serial killer but Josie struggles with ghosts from the past, ghosts that have haunted our heroine since the day Colten walked away with what was left of her broken heart. What ensues is the second chance romance and relationship between Josie and Colten, and the potential fall-out as Josie continues to struggle with Colten’s reappearance in her life, a life that is now affected by a shooting that leaves our heroine, once again struggling to move on from the past.
Josie Watts heart was destroyed when Colten pushed her out of his life, opting for the Marines instead of a future together. For seventeen years, Josie held a deep-seated, hate-filled, raging grudge against our story line hero, blaming him for everything that has gone wrong in her life but Josie never knew the circumstances surrounding Colten’s decision to move on without her, a decision that affected Josie’s personal, private and business life to the present day. Colten Mosley has never stopped loving the girl next door but life went on, and he is no longer the man he was when he walked away.
The relationship between Josie and Colten is a second chance romance; a rekindling friendship that struggles in the face of secrets and lies, life and death, family and relationships, fractured hearts and broken love. Colten wants desperately to reconnect with our story line heroine but Josie continues to battle between head and heart, having had her heart broken by the boy she refuses to love. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.
We are introduced to Josie’s parents, Colten’s mother, as well as the local ME and some members of the Chicago PD.
PIECES OF A LIFE is well-written, thought provoking story of lost love. The premise is captivating-the world building is detailed, twisted, haunting and tragic; the romance is sensual; the characters are determined, charismatic and strong. PIECES OF A LIFE ends on a cliff hanger-you have been warned.
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