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She read the book, and her musical voice settled Ulla. Upon saying the last words, Melia closed it, but continued, “If you were to run away to the moon, then I would become a shooting star to land there with you.” Melia tucked Ulla’s hair behind her ears, retrieved Beskyddaren from the nightstand, and nestled him onto the pillow with Ulla.

Ulla clutched him securely under her chin. She saw Shorty leaning against the doorway with a sad smile. His crinkled eyelids drooped at the corners.

Melia placed a light kiss on her hair. “Rest now.”

“Melia?” Ulla whispered.

“Yes?”

Ulla touched the diamonds on Beskyddaren. “Will I ever see her again?”

Melia focused her sapphire eyes onto Ulla’s. Eyes that could take all the bad stuff and devour it. She closed her hand over the one holding Beskyddaren. “Tell me about Beskyddaren. Tell me again why he is so special.”

Her mother’s beautiful face filled Ulla’s memory. “She said he can bring us back to the person we love most.”

Melia touched Ulla’s heart. “Then you already know the answer to your question, liebchen.” She gazed at Shorty, who walked in and knelt at the bedside. He patted Ulla’s cheek. “Do you remember when I told you I was looking for someone to fix the Porsche, and it couldn’t be just anyone?”

Ulla nodded.

Melia said, “We were looking for your mother. We came all the way from Germany to find her. But we had no idea about you.” Her face broke into a tearful smile. “Shorty and I, we never could have our own babies. But then God gave us your mother. Now you. We’re family. Think of me like the fairy godmother from Ashenputtel.”

Ulla tightened her hands around Beskyddaren. “But Mamma said we had no family. She said they died in a fire. It’s just us.” And Peter.

“She was afraid for our safety,” explained Melia. “Sometimes people lie to protect the ones they love. You mustn’t tell your mother we told you this. You can’t tell anyone that we’re family.”

Ulla squinted at them. “Why not?”

Shorty ruffled Ulla’s hair. “You’ll understand one day. But when we’re separated again, you know where to find us if you run into trouble.”

Separated? Ulla hated this feeling. The way her chest filled with love—for her mother, Peter—and now Melia and Shorty. Only to have it stabbed when they were taken from her, bursting her open, the sadness spilling out all over. Ulla thought of Melia’s last lines from the Runaway Bunny. “If you could turn into a shooting star,” she asked, “then it means you could find me anywhere in the world?”

Melia kissed the crown on Ulla’s head and then Beskyddaren. “Ja, liebchen. Anywhere.”

Chapter Fifteen

August 1977

Seventeen Months Later

Ulla

Ulla awoke from what she thought was a dream about Tina. One that stung her eyes and socked her in the gut. Just a dream? But it grew louder: the unmistakable thrum of Tina’s six-cylinder T-bird engine.

The sound she’d been praying to hear for over an entire year!

Tina ground to a halt. If the car was still alive, it could only mean one thing! Ulla grabbed Beskyddaren from the nightstand, certain her heart was going to explode from happiness. “Melia, Melia!” she shouted, giggling. Ulla burst into the summer sunshine.

A woman stepped from the car.

Of all the ways Ulla imagined hugging her perfect mother, it wasn’t this woman in red clogs walking toward her with a slight drag of her left foot. The mother Ulla knew had gold waves piled on her head, high cheekbones, and eyes like water reflecting the sky. This woman, in enormous jeans and a black Rolling Stones t-shirt beneath a man’s heavy coat, looked skinny. Her face hid behind dark sunglasses, and a cap covered her chin-length, colorless hair. The thrill that sprung Ulla onto the front porch slammed to a stop.

As this woman approached, Ulla backed into Melia and Shorty behind her. Melia crouched next to Ulla and held her shoulders securely. “Priceless treasures often hide in battered boxes, liebchen.”

Ulla pressed Beskyddaren to her heart.

The woman before Ulla broke into a barely constrained run when she saw her, and she dropped to her knees at Ulla’s unicorn slippers. Tears ran from underneath the sunglasses, and when she licked them from her lips, only one corner of her mouth moved, the other half of her face seemed paralyzed.

This wasn’t her mamma. The world began to break. She clenched the Dalahäst.