Chapter ONE

Violet Martinez had just finished cleaning her work station at Hair and There, the beauty salon in Maccon City where she worked when her boss, Sherry Morgan McAllister interrupted her.

The woman had a wonderfully lilting accented voice that Violet wished she had. It made her seem so mysterious and alluring. That and the fact she was like crazy beautiful. Though Violet did not understand her crazy penchant for colored contact lenses or her multi-faceted locks. One minute her eyes were blue the next they were yellow or purple. Same with her reddish, goldish, pinkish, silverish hair.

LOL.

Violet didn’t have the kind of looks that could carry such extravagance. She was just the average woman. Short, chubby, brown-haired, brown-eyed, and skin a permanent olive-tan color.

She was a nail technician who had aspirations for becoming a full-time author someday. As it was, she’d self-published a few short stories over the past year in between work and volunteering at the local senior center.

She’d sort of made a family for herself there by borrowing other people’s often ignored and neglected grandparents. She’d been raised by her grandmother after her own parents had split and decided raising a kid wasn’t in the cards for either of them. She’d have gone into foster care if her abuela hadn’t stepped up and taken her in.

The old woman had been kindness itself, but when her Alzheimer’s had advanced, Violet found she’d needed help. Placing her in the Maccon City Senior Center had been a lifesaver.

She missed her so much, especially this time of year. This was her second Christmas alone since her abuela had passed on. Violet still visited the other seniors at least once a month to give manicures and pedicures to the tenants who wanted them free of charge.

In fact, she was just there yesterday and had already treated the dozen or so seniors who’d wanted her services to a holiday palette of mani-pedi’s. This was her night off and she couldn’t wait.

Tonight was Christmas Eve, and all she wanted was to go home to some spiked hot chocolate and a marathon of old movies that she had already carefully picked out. The salon would be closed tomorrow, and since she had no family or close friends to share Christmas Day with, Violet planned on editing her current work in progress.

Unlike her other lighthearted comedies, this one was a romance. The only problem was the ending. Typical love stories were supposed to end happily, but how could someone who had her history with men even know what a happy ending was?

Sigh.

It was frustrating, but that was what it meant to be a writer, she supposed. Anyway, she could rest tonight and work on it tomorrow.

“Violet?” Sherry interrupted her train of thought.

“Sorry, Sherry, my brain went off on a tangent. What is it?” she asked.

“I am sorry to ask this of you, but I need you to go to the Leeds’ Mansion for an emergency situation,” she began and Violet’s stomach dropped.

Oh no. Not tonight.

“Yes, I am sorry, it seems Margot, or Grandmother Leeds, you know how she prefers everyone to call her that, has come home unexpectedly and chipped two nails on her flight down from visiting her grandson in Canada. She will pay you in cash, and because it is Christmas Eve, you can keep it all, Violet. You see, I would go myself, but Seff would prefer I did not,” she patted her burgeoning belly and Violet nodded.

She couldn’t ask the heavily pregnant woman to drive all the way out to the Pine Barrens on Christmas Eve. Besides, Margot Leeds was a very important client. She and her granddaughter-in-law spent thousands of dollars a year on hair and nails at the salon, and they were good tippers.

Violet wasn’t exactly thrilled about it, but there was also no way in hell she could afford to turn down that kind of money. She mustered up a smile for her worried looking boss and stood up nodding.

“Of course, I can do it. I am almost finished packing up for the day anyway. It’s no problem.”

“Are you sure?” asked Sherry.

“Of course, I am. Now, you go home to your husband and family and I will lock up tonight. I’ll head straight over to the Leeds’ Mansion when I am done.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” Sherry sighed and hiccuped, covering her mouth while her cheeks turned bright pink which oddly enough seemed to match her colored contacts, even though Violet could’ve sworn they were brown a moment ago, “don’t dawdle the weather might kick up a notch, but Mrs. Leeds said you were welcome to stay if anything happened.”

She was still stuck on Sherry’s eyes when the woman spoke, but it was probably a mistake. Violet was the one with boring brown eyes and brown hair. They went perfectly with her boring lifestyle she supposed. Sherry must’ve had the pink contacts on.

“What? Oh no, I’ll be on my way home before the weather gets bad,” she said.

Hours later.

“I want to thank you for coming out at such late notice,” Margot Leeds, walked Violet to the door and smiled at the sounds of laughter coming from the South parlor.

“My granddaughter,” she said and Violet smiled.

The older woman had definitely mellowed out, she thought with a tight smile. There was something odd about the Leeds’ family though they were kindness itself. Stephanie, her grandson’s wife, had been so happy to see her, she’d even given her a gift in the form of a red cashmere scarf.

It was so luxurious and soft, Violet had put it on over her ugly Christmas sweater that was the theme of the day at the salon.

“Are you sure you won’t stay?” Mrs. Leeds asked, but Violet shook her head.

The sounds of the older woman’s family from inside were tempting, but this wasn’t her place. Violet couldn’t bear the thought of intruding and having everyone feel sorry for her.

She had accepted the fact that she might spend her whole life alone, however hard that might be. Of course, she hoped that someday she would have her own family, but as the years went by the likelihood grew less and less.

Sigh.

“I appreciate it, Mrs. Leeds, but I must get back to my apartment. I have a manuscript waiting for me,” she smiled.

“Ah, yes. I enjoyed your last two stories, my dear, and I am looking forward to this one. Thank you again and have a wonderful holiday,” Mrs. Leeds smiled as she watched Violet walk out to her small car.

“Thank you. Merry Christmas!” she waved back.

Violet shook off her morose train of thought. Not everyone was cut out for a family, she told herself. She had her work after all. And maybe this time she would get noticed, having queried half a dozen agents and another half dozen publishing houses with her new and unpublished manuscript.

The full-length novel was a sci-fi fantasy romance that took place on another planet. It was her real baby. The short stories were a means to get her words out there faster, but the book, well, that was everything.

Someday, she’d make it, but for now it was nails and paying the bills on time that mattered. The extra hundred dollar tip Mrs. Leeds had given her on top of the regular fee for the repair done to her nails, plus a little manicure for her granddaughter, would definitely be helpful.

“Oh, darn it,” she shivered inside her fleece-lined jacket and opened the trunk to place her manicurists’ tools inside. The dented, faded gray Toyota Camry was old but reliable. Even so, she hated driving in the snow and thick, fat flakes had just begun to fall from the sky.

It was just her luck that it would begin now as she headed out for the minimum thirty-minute drive back home. The Leeds’ Mansion was deep in the Pine Barrens and far away from civilization.

She’d never understood why anyone would build a place like that out in the middle of nowhere, but maybe it was for that reason alone. After all, it was plenty quiet up there. Perfect for writing, she thought and put the car in drive.

Damn it. She tried getting her GPS app to start, but her phone was dying and the cell reception was crap. She tugged on her belt to make sure it was firmly in place, and drove down the long, winding road that crept through the forest. She only hoped she could get back home before things got bad.

“It’ll be fine,” she talked to herself as she tuned in to a staticky station that played Christmas carols.

With her wipers going full speed, Violet’s car drove through the dark road until she could hardly see more than a few feet in front of her.

Everything was either black or whited out by the snow, and to her consternation, it had already begun to accumulate on the ground.

“Really? Just my damn luck,” she sighed again, trying her best not to curse as she hurried along the path, hoping to make it home before it got too bad.

If she got stuck out here, well, she could sleep in her car for a little bit. At least it would be someplace warm. Of course, even as she thought it the heat stopped blowing and Violet tapped dials of the car’s faulty temperature control button.

“Not now,” she groaned.

The old Toyota was the last thing she had of her grandmother’s. It had been a reliable little car, but the thing was older than she was, and Violet couldn’t keep up with the repairs.

Soon, it would have to be junked, and she’d need to start taking public transportation again. Something she was so not looking forward to.

“Oh!” she screamed as something furry and dark ran out past the car and back into the woods before she could see what it was clearly.

Violet gripped the steering wheel painfully and closed her eyes as the vehicle began spinning out of control down the slick road. Her stomach lurched and icy cold fear zipped up her spine as the world blurred before her eyes.

Suddenly, the car hit something and Violet was thrust forward, slamming her head against the hard dashboard. The sound the wreck made was loud, but to her it felt distant, as if she was removed from it all.

The car made another sound or was that the tree? It was like something snapping a twig, or in this case, the trunk of the tree she was looking at through the cracked windshield. Her whole body seemed to be tilting forward and the sounds of rushing water filled her throbbing head.

Violet blinked, but she couldn’t focus. Somewhere in the back of her mind she recalled a creek running through the woods out there, but she couldn’t be sure where it was.

Black smoke billowed up from the hood. At least if the car caught fire it was soon going to fall into the creek.

Good, she didn’t relish the idea of burning to a crisp. Not that drowning sounded like much fun either.

If only she’d known this was going to be her last Christmas maybe she would’ve done things differently, opened her heart and mind to new possibilities. She’d been hiding behind her own fear and loneliness for too long.

If only she’d taken the chance and put herself out there, maybe she could’ve found her soulmate. Someone to love and be loved by. Maybe she could’ve had a family of her own.

Too late now, she thought sadly just before her vision began to darken, and the blackness took her.