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“…And the mama bear and the baby bear curled up safe and snug in their cave and lived happily ever after.” Anna smiled sleepily at her mother as she kissed her on the forehead and tucked her in. “Good night, Anna.”

Anna closed her eyes and curled up under the blanket. “Good night, Mama.” She went to sleep, safe and secure in the knowledge that her mother would always be there.

Anna wiped away the tears as she put flowers on her mother’s grave. Her mother hadn’t always been there. It had only been a few months after Anna’s sixth birthday that someone had broken into the house, murdered her mother, and kidnapped her. That had started eight years of horror that she had eventually been rescued from, only to be treated like shit by her father’s second wife.

She’d gone to live with her Aunt Selene, her mother’s younger sister, when her father had done nothing to curtail his new wife’s treatment of his formerly missing daughter. Selene had become a second mom to Anna, and had battled in court for full custody of her. When the judge heard the torment that Anna had gone through in the few months she’d been home, and how her father had turned a blind eye to it, he’d awarded full custody to Selene.

Now Selene was gone as well, carried off by cancer. Anna was on her own again. She put her hand on her stomach. She was pregnant, and her boyfriend had dropped her like a bad habit when he found out. Single, unwed, working two jobs to make ends meet, Anna was in a tight spot. “Mom, you and Aunt Selene were the only ones who ever cared about me. Now you’re both gone and I don’t know what to do.” She put flowers on Selene’s grave as well, and then turned and left the graveyard.

She returned to the house she’d inherited when Selene had died and curled up on her bed. She cried herself to sleep. Her mother’s voice came to her in her dream, telling her the same childhood stories over and over again. As Anna woke up, she wandered into the kitchen and stared out the glass door.

A ghostly voice whispered in her ear. Remember my stories, Anna.

She looked around and for a moment, she swore she saw her mother standing behind her. She blinked, and her mother was gone. She thought about the stories then, retelling them to herself over and over again. She heard her mother’s voice in her head, encouraging her to listen to the stories.

She glanced out at the backyard again. In the moonlight, she swore she saw her mother and her Aunt Selene standing under an oak tree. “An oak tree?” She frowned. All of the animals in her mother’s story took shelter under an old oak tree. They always found what they needed there.

Her mother and Selene beckoned to her. Anna, in spite of the chill of fear running up her spine, opened the sliding glass door and walked out to where they stood. They smiled at her and pointed. Anna looked down. “What do you want me to do?”

Dig, Anna. This came from Selene. We hid something from your father here.

We knew he couldn’t be trusted. This from her mother. Your grandparents knew he couldn’t be trusted.

Anna went and got a shovel and began to dig. It took quite some time but she found a small slightly rusty steel box. She carried it inside. “It’s locked.”

You have the key. I left it to you in my will. Again, this was Selene’s voice.

“The key? Oh, that key on the keychain that no one knew what to do with. I put it in my jewelry box.” Anna went to her jewelry box and pulled out the old safe key that no one had known what it went to, but Anna had felt was too precious to discard.

She went back into the kitchen and opened the box. Inside were legal documents with her name on them, giving her access to a bank account with more money in it than she could hope to spend in a lifetime. There were deeds to property she now owned that people rented so she could have an income. There was even a share in an active garnet mine. It didn’t bring in much, but it was still an income. She didn’t have to work. She could devote her time to her child as her mother had to her.

“Thank you,” she breathed. She was safe. Her baby would be taken care of. She could live again.

Love our grandchild and find someone to love you in return as we did not, Selene told her.

Your father married me for my money, and when I didn’t let him have it, he arranged to get rid of the both of us, her mother told her. You were never supposed to come home.

“I will never let him see his grandchild, never let him have a penny of any of this,” Anna promised.

That’s our girl. Selene sounded proud of her. Never reveal how wealthy you are to your potential dates either. Let that come out AFTER the wedding.

“Agreed.” Anna decided to go to the bank and get everything settled so she could start arranging her nursery. There was a lot to do and she needed to be ready. She smiled. She already knew all sorts of interesting bedtime stories to tell her little one when they were born.