Thank you to everyone who has reviewed: jenniea, lilmonkeygirl31, NaleyBop, xSmile, krizue, spikesilla, Valencia Charmaine, angel.devil.me, bluchampaegne, Nataliegirl1214, NaLeYBaBiixo, and hybridwolf10. I really appreciate your comments, and I'm sorry about all the suspense!
If it helps, the mystery is starting to emerge, and this chapter should clear up a few things.
I hope you enjoy.
Haley's phone started ringing. She frowned and dug it out, squinting at it, trying to decipher the number. It wasn't one she recognised, but, unlike some of her friends', her number had never been widely disseminated.
"Hello?"
"Haley James?"
"Who is this?"
"I apologise, Ms James. This is Agent Streiker from the FBI. We may have some information about your daughter."
Five years earlier: November 27, 2006
Haley buckled Faith into her stroller, carefully covering her with the soft woollen blanket, and sliding the hat onto her small head.
Faith giggled, pushing at the blanket.
"No, baby. You need to keep warm. Mommy and Faith are going for a walk!"
Faith's eyes lit up.
As Haley meandered along the busy New York street with Faith in her stroller, she smiled, her face clear and her eyes bright.
It had taken more than a year, but it looked as if everything was going to work out. She had stopped touring after the confrontation with Nathan in the sixth month of her pregnancy, but Chris had helped her find a job as an assistant with Michelle Branch's record label. He had also promised that in a year or two, when things were more settled, they'd meet up again and start touring.
And Haley was ready. More than ready, in fact. If she couldn't have Nathan, she needed the music.
And Faith. She couldn't survive without Faith.
Alone in her hospital room fourteen months earlier, day fading into night, Haley had come to a decision.
She loved Nathan. She would always love Nathan, no matter how much of an idiot he actually was. But it was time to let him go. She'd told him about his daughter, she'd asked him to be a part of her life, even if he couldn't be part of Haley's. And he had clearly decided not to be.
So she would raise her daughter on her own, and she would do it in the only way she knew how: with lots of love, and understanding, and compassion, and truth. And that would have to be enough.
She would make it be enough.
And now, Faith was fourteen months old, and the most beautiful child Haley had ever seen. In fact, she looked very like her mother, but it was her eyes that Haley could not get over. They were a deep, intense blue.
The blue of her father's eyes.
Haley's attention was caught by a shop across the road – a new children's clothing store. She looked down at her daughter.
"What do you say, babe? Should we take a little shopping diversion?"
Faith gurgled and smiled up at her mother.
"I thought you might say that."
And with that, Haley swung around to the nearest pedestrian crossing, heading over to the shop.
It was great, with the cutest little outfits and the most adorable shoes, and Faith and Haley were having a blast choosing the perfect rock star outfits for Faith to wear on the tour Haley had agreed to go on with Chris. It was due to start in a month, and Haley had arranged for Taylor to come with her. They weren't close, even now, but Taylor had agreed to help out with Faith, who adored her aunt, in exchange for the coolness of, as Taylor phrased it, 'travelling with the band'.
Turning to the check-out, Haley smiled at the sales assistant and placed her purchases on the counter. Signing her name to the credit print-out, she smiled.
"Thank you!"
Haley turned and reached for the handle of Faith's stroller, only to grasp thin air.
Present Time (November 27, 2011)
They had never found Faith.
The search had been public, and wide-ranging, but there were no clues, and nobody who was in the store could remember seeing anything suspicious, or, indeed, anything at all. So after three months, most of the police working on the case had been pulled off, and reassigned to other, more solvable cases.
Haley had not gone on that tour, although, a year later, Chris had pulled her away to join him on another.
By then, her music had changed. It was still about love, and loss, and life, but it was so much deeper now. Haley had lost everything in the world that mattered to her, and she no longer cared enough to try to hide her feelings.
She had been an instant and long-standing success, winning Grammys, and American Music Awards, and being named one of People's 50 Most Beautiful People three years running.
Faith had remained lost.
And, after a while, it was as if she had never existed.
But Haley had never forgotten.
And nor had Nathan.
I hope that helped to clear up a few things.
Please Review.