Right. So the whole thing starts in 2004. Tristan Diah and Julie Campbell are freshman in college. Julie is assigned to an internship for her criminal justice studies, that allows her to work in the Rachel Police Department. Around this same time Andi Hyreh gets clean. Her father, Jahan Hyreh, is the best cop in town, and highly respected by his peers and his community. Because of this, he is able to get his daughter a job around the station, despite her criminal background. This takes away several opportunities away from Julie, in order to give them to Andi. Julie is resentful.
A young girl, Ally Stratten, goes missing. The department is very busy, and it is easy for Jahan’s partner, Nate Louis, to accidentally lose the file. The girl is not found, until her body turns up. Nate Louis is assigned to the case, and he brings along intern Julie. Andi is not allowed to help, because the body was found in an area she used to frequent. Jonathan Stratten, the girl’s father, blames the department. He makes threats.They are directly related to Nate Louis and his mishandling of the case. The name Jahan Hyreh is mentioned, despite never having been given the case file. Julie does not correct them. His anger grows. The girl is dead, and Julie is determined to find out how it happened. No leads turn up. No one wants to talk.
2005. The murders start. Drug dealers, but not just drug dealers. Family men with hidden secrets that are not uncovered. Jahan Hyreh and Nate Louis are assigned to the case, which takes priority over the case of the missing girl. That is left for Julie and Julie alone. It’s a cold case now. No leads. No one is searching for the girl anymore. Julie wants in on the murder case. It is refused of both her and Andi. Andi gets to know more anyway, her father tells her in the private of their own home. Julie’s resentment grows. Nate Louis is murdered, by the same killer as the others. In the investigation, it becomes clear that he has intentionally lost files relating to the other victims in the past. He is corrupt, and the police do not make that fact known outside their walls. Andi has gone to the academy, and is now a cop. She is still not on the case. The murders continue. Julie was attached to Nate, even though he wasn’t a good guy. She feels ashamed. She feels resentful. She’s determined to find the killer.
Jahan Hyreh is murdered, by the same killer. The whole town is in mourning. Julie is not. She’s made it her mission to track down the killer, but her school work gets in the way. Her internship is over and she doesn’t have a choice about leaving. They are too busy to supervise an intern anymore. Andi is a cop, and Julie is out of the picture, angry and resentful about not being given the opportunity to prove herself. She blames Andi. She blames Jahan. She investigates on her own. In the meantime, Jahan’s middle daughter, Alex Hyreh, is determined to find the man who killed her father. She searches. She steals case files from Andi, and she does her research.
2006. Jahan Hyreh’s wife commits suicide, leaving Andi with custody of the two younger daughters, Alex and Mini. A new teacher, Lee Lexington, takes her place in the staff of the local high school. Evan Hemming, Jahan’s new partner, is assigned to protect his family. Evan and Andi grow closer, eventually entering into a relationship and adopting a child, Rosie. Alex becomes more determined to find out who killed her parents. The murders have stopped. Julie has nothing more to go on. She meets Lee Lexington, and together, they find the killer. Alex has a plan to catch him, but the plan doesn’t go as expected, even though it ends the same way. Andi is furious and relieved. Julie is embarrassed and ashamed and angry. A 13 year old has beaten her to her goal. A 13 year old has done better than the whole police department together. No one knows about the involvement of Lee Lexington, and it is meant to stay that way. Jonathan Stratten goes to trial. Those who worked on Ally Stratten’s case are revealed, including Julie. That does not improve her mood. Jonathan is sentenced to a life sentence in prison. Alex Hyreh is allowed to visit him. Julie sees this as her getting extra privileges she does not deserve. Again.
Tristan and Julie graduate college. Julie with a paralegal certificate and plans of law school, and Tristan with an undergrad degree in genetics.
Paulo Smythe is killed in the line of duty. His daughter, Cippie Smythe, is devastated. She goes on a walk to try to calm herself, going to see her friend, Jaci Diah, Tristan’s younger sister. She is attacked by a man with bright blue eyes, who is later revealed to be Alonzo Lance. She is traumatized but refuses to go to the cops. When she comes to Jaci and Tristan, they don’t insist. Instead, they take matters into their own hands. Tristan no longer trusts the cops, and care a great deal for Julie. He takes a rape kit and saves the samples, in case she changes her mind in the future. This is against protocol and could risk his newly secured job. He doesn’t care.
Alex Hyreh begins high school, and enters an abusive relationship with her Global History teacher, William E. Birtch. Her sister, Andi, is too swamped to notice what is going wrong with her sister. Work is busy. Hemming has moved and does not get along with Alex. Rosie is growing older and needs more attention to recover from her early life experiences. Mini is out of control. Things fall through the cracks. Mini is angry at her sister, for her defense of Jonathan Stratten and refuses to hear the details of the case.
In New Jersey, a 13 year old girl named Taevynne Keevers gets pregnant by an older boy. Her mother is angry. Her uncle, a neighbor of the Hyreh family, realizes the lack of appropriate sex ed in the school system.
The baby is born. Taevynne drops out of school to care for her, and moves in with the father of the baby. She doesn’t realize the kind of abusive relationship she is in. She is scared, and the boy drinks more and more.
Alex finally finds the courage to tell someone about the relationship she is being forced in. William Birtch is fired, and sent to jail, following a confession. Alex is traumatized. Her Global History grades are not salvageable and she will have to take the class again. Throughout the rest of the year, she is haunted by thoughts and dreams of him.
Julie begins to law school.
Cippie is still obsessed with finding her attacker, to the point where her grades start to suffer. She is in 8th grade, and without her best friend. Jaci Diah has skipped 8th grade and starts high school.
Terry Hassan moves himself and his family back to his hometown, from where they lived in Germany, in order to replace William Birtch as the Global History teacher. His mother has refused to pay for the care of his mentally ill younger sister, and the care has now fallen to him. He teaches Alex Hyreh in both Global History I and Global History II. He is impressed by her knowledge and intrigued by the small details of mystery about her. His wife, Aleit Kneller, is upset that she has been pulled away from her home country to a country she has never seen before. She senses something in his relationship with Alex, and does not like it. In November, she kills herself due to her general instability, unhappiness and her jealousy of her husband’s relationships. It was not a happy marriage.
Mini Hyreh begins dating Ian Diah. Andi does not approve.
The baby dies. Taevynne left her with her father, Derek DeSoto, while she went to work, and he killed her in a drunken rage. He is charged with murder, and with the abuse of Taevynne and sentenced to jail. Taevynne is sent to live with her uncle, where she meets Mini Hyreh (Alex’s sister), and Ian Diah (Tristan and Jaci’s brother). She goes to the local high school for three months before dropping out in order to pursue a GED. Classes are going too slow for her, and she is determined to make a positive change in the world.
Cippie Smythe begins high school, noticing Terry Hassan in the halls. She sees his eyes and they remind her of her attacker. She becomes obsessed. She is reunited with her best friend.
Alex and Terry continue their relationship, much to the disapproval of Andi.
Julie continues law school. Andi advances as a cop.
Taevynne gets a job at a cafe and gets her GED, before beginning to apply for colleges. In the fall, she starts community college.
Cippie is enrolled in Terry’s Global History II class and her obsession worsens. Her friends are concerned and annoyed at her accusations. Most of them know and like him. She starts planning different ways to get him in trouble, even though on some level she knows he wasn’t her attacker. He has a solid alibi, as he still lived in Germany at the time.
Alex begins her senior year of high school, and Lee Lexington reappears. This throws some confusion into Alex’s relationship with Terry, as he is both jealous and unsure of his morals in dating someone so young. He breaks off the relationship, which leaves Alex devastated. Her flashbacks of her relationship with Birtch return, prompting Lexi to try something extreme to get them back together. She communicates with Jonathan Stratten, and plans for a fake escape and a kidnapping. Alex is brought in to solve the case, much to the annoyance of Julie, who is now working at the district attorney’s office. She disapproves of Alex’s involvement. The case reunites Alex and Terry, and Jonathan is returned to safely behind bars, where is more than willing to be. Lexi leaves town after a fight with Alex. The relationship between Alex and Terry is both rockier and stronger than it was before, and growing more intense.
Mini and Ian discuss their feelings for Taevynne, and the potentials of adding her to their relationship. The three of them attend the Valentine’s Christmas Ball together, but do not commit to a full relationship.
Andi becomes pregnant with Hemming’s baby and the two decide to get married.
Cippie becomes more and more obsessed with proving Terry’s guilt, and Jaci brings it to Alex’s attention. When she finds out that Cippie has a DNA sample of her attacker, Alex offers to provide a sample from Terry in order to prove that it was not him. Tristan agrees to help. Alex gets a sample from a used condom, and does not tell Terry what she is doing. The sample proves that Terry is innocent, but that the attacker was a male relative. As Terry has no living male relatives that he is aware of, this stumps Alex for awhile. She does not tell him, instead doing her own research. Cippie is frustrated and regrets not telling the police about her attack. The evidence that Tristan collected years early would no longer be allowed in court, Julie tells them. Therefore, the three of them come up with a plan to fake a new attack and get the evidence to the police. Julie has no part in this process. Alex is able to help stage the crime. Tristan is supposed to use the attacker’s DNA to impregnate Cippie with a fake baby, who will suffer a miscarriage after a paternity test is done. There is not enough good DNA and it is not a fresh sample, so Tristan is unable to do this. After talking it over with Julie, who still dislikes the Hyreh family, he decides that he will use Terry’s DNA instead. He is uncomfortable with Terry’s relationship with Alex, given that she is so young even though it is clear that she cares a lot about him and is willing to be in the relationship. He is also aware of how bitter Julie is towards the fact that the Hyreh’s manage to get away with a lot of things. The goal is to give Alex a problem she can’t get out of, an older cheating boyfriend. He does not tell either Alex or Cippie about this switch.
Ian and Mini begin to fight more often, about their feelings for Taevynne. It causes stress on the relationship, which ends in them breaking up for a few days. In that time, Cippie comes to Ian while spending the night with Jaci, and the two have an awkward sexual encounter. Ian immediately tells Mini, who is not upset about it.
Cippie calls the police with a report that she has been attacked. A week later, a pregnancy test is run, and it is determined that she is pregnant. The baby does not miscarry. Tristan runs tests in secret, and determines that she is really pregnant. A paternity test along with several others reveal an anomaly. Two fathers. Terry Hassan and Ian Diah. An investigation into Terry is launched prompting Alex to reveal the truth about what happened to both Terry and the police. There is a huge scandal. Tristan’s job is in trouble. Cippie carries the baby. Terry is allowed to keep his job, and after a discussion with Alex, ends up helping search for this brother who had attacked Cippie years earlier.
Ian’s encounter with Cippie opens his eyes to problems in his relationship with Mini, and the two decide to officially add Taevynne to their relationship. In June, Taevynne takes a pregnancy test and discovers that she is also pregnant with Ian’s baby. The three of them are happy about it. Ian is stressed.
Alex graduates from high school.
In June, Andi and Hemming officially get married. Alex moves out to live with Terry. Mini still lives with them, although she spends most of her time with Ian and Taevynne. In August, Mara Hemming is born.
Ian and Mini continue to go to school. Taevynne stays at the local community college for the fall semester, despite her pregnancy.
During the pregnancy, Taevynne and Cippie bond because Taevynne knows what it’s like to be a teen mom, and is about to be again. Alex knows that Cippie feels trapped in this situation.
Jaci is mad at Tristan for what he did to Cippie, and agreeing to this plan given that he is old enough to know better.
In November, Ally-Cassandra Lauren Sofia Hyreh-Hassan-Smythe-Diah is born. Her name is shortened to Ace.
A week later, Cippie disappears, leaving Ace with Alex and Terry. A custody agreement is reached between Terry, Alex, Ian and Cippie’s mother, Blythe. Terry and Alex have primary custody with visitations any time from the other two. Ian gets her for a day each weekend, until he graduates from school, and is welcome to see her whenever. Blythe gets her for the other weekend day, and babysits throughout the week.
Jaci is upset about the disappearance of her best friend, and upset about the fact that no one else seems as upset.
After her disappearance, Taevynne makes contact with Cippie, who is now in New Jersey and making plans to join the military.
And honestly, all that is the core of this story. How Ace came into existence. That’s the story I set out to tell, and I think I finally have all the pieces. Which is not to say that this is all the story is, but this is the main part of it, I think.
