those lost years.
It ends with what happens afterward.
A person can lose time without losing the possibility of a future.
That becomes the central idea of Riley’s story.
One mile at a time
Eventually, Riley returned to driving.
Not because anyone demanded it.
Not because she needed to prove that she was completely recovered.
She simply wanted to decide for herself what came next.
She started with short trips.
Then longer ones.
Eventually, she found herself watching a sunset through the windshield again.
The road looked different.
She was different.
But she was still moving forward.
Her fictional journey had begun with a teenager painting golden stars onto an old van.
It had continued through a disappearance that left investigators with almost no answers.
It lasted through years of uncertainty.
And it eventually led to the moment police opened a door and discovered that the person everyone had been
