Chasing Shelter

The novel opens with a prologue depicting six-year-old Ellie Pierce's life in a Manhattan penthouse with her older brother, Linc, and their parents. When an expensive designer redecorates Ellie's bedroom in pale pink, she wishes for rainbows instead. Her mother, Gwyn, and Linc propose painting a rainbow mural, but their father, Philip Pierce, overhears and erupts with cold fury. Philip never uses physical punishment; instead, he strips away whatever his children love most, replacing their chosen activities and friendships with pursuits he deems appropriate. That night, police arrive, and Philip informs the children, without comfort, that their mother is dead. Months later, when Philip discovers Ellie chose the saxophone at school rather than an instrument he approved, he revokes her weekly phone calls with Linc. Ellie capitulates, choosing the flute and learning to bury her true self so deeply that she loses access to it entirely.

Trace Colson is the sheriff of Sparrow Falls, Oregon, raising his six-year-old daughter, Keely, on his own. His compulsion for order stems from a neglectful childhood before he was placed with the Colson foster family at age 12. His foster siblings, including tattoo artist and gym owner Kye, social worker Fallon, and artist Arden, who is engaged to Linc, form a tight-knit family. At the station, Trace's best friend and second-in-command, Gabriel Rivera, delivers devastating news: Trace's birth father, Jasper Killington, has been released from prison after 24 years. The sentence began when 12-year-old Trace reported Jasper for killing his mother. Jasper had vowed revenge.

Ellie arrives in Sparrow Falls determined to start over after ending her engagement to Bradley Newbury and leaving New York. She drives a Ruby Flare Pearl SUV, her first rebellion after a lifetime of choices dictated by Philip and Bradley. Linc and Arden help her move into a rented bungalow on Lavender Lane, and Ellie discovers Linc engineered the rental so she would live next door to Trace. That evening, her oven catches fire while she attempts a frozen pizza, and Trace rushes in to extinguish the blaze. He notices her evasiveness, recalling that when she first arrived in town, she had a black eye poorly concealed beneath makeup. After leaving, Trace orders pizza delivered to her house, a kindness that moves her deeply.

Ellie takes a part-time job at The Mix Up, a local bakery, but faces hostility from townspeople who blame her for Philip's crimes. Someone in a speeding car pelts her with an egg, and Trace witnesses the attack and brings her to the station. Meanwhile, Bradley's texts cycle between apologies, guilt trips, and insults, a pattern Ellie recognizes as longstanding manipulation.

As Ellie and Trace spend more time together through cooking lessons, braiding tutorials for Keely's hair, and shared dinners, their bond deepens. Ellie rescues a stray dog she names Gremlin, and at a pet supply store, Trace spots Jasper watching them from the parking lot. On the drive home, Ellie demands honesty, and they exchange painful truths. Trace reveals that Jasper got his mother addicted to drugs; one night she climbed onto their cabin roof, believing she could fly, and jumped to her death. Jasper buried the body and threatened 12-year-old Trace into silence, but Trace told his principal everything, sending Jasper to prison. Ellie shares that her mother's death was no accident: After years of Philip's psychological torment, Gwyn drove off a bridge with no skid marks on the road.

While struggling to wrangle a goat she impulsively rescued from a farmer's market, Ellie breaks down and reveals that Bradley hit her the night she ended the engagement, leaving the black eye she arrived with. She never reported it, believing his family's connections would shield him. Trace shows her his mountain property, where he is building a house for himself and Keely, and offers to shelter the goat in the barn.

Jasper escalates his campaign, confronting Trace outside the station and threatening Keely and Ellie by name. Ellie begins self-defense training with Kye at his gym. When Trace sees her hit the mat during a session and loses control, shoving Kye, Ellie confronts him and insists she needs to feel strong. She paints a rainbow mural on her living room wall, fulfilling the childhood dream her father denied, with Keely helping. In a phone call with Philip in prison, Ellie tells him for the first time that he was a terrible father and that she plans to change her last name. Philip demands she return to New York and to Bradley, revealing that Bradley's father, Henrick Newbury, has been in contact, but Ellie refuses.

The threats intensify. Ellie receives texts from unknown numbers containing long-lens surveillance photos of her daily life, accompanied by warnings to leave town. Trace calls in Dex, a former hacker, to trace the messages and has Holt Hartley of Anchor Security install an alarm system at her house. Gabriel discovers that Bradley was arrested for drug possession in the South of France and remains in foreign custody, apparently eliminating him as the person stalking Ellie. Then a car attempts to run Ellie down in broad daylight. Trace tackles her clear of the vehicle, and a fingerprint on the abandoned car belongs to Jasper.

Surrounded by the Colson family, Ellie gives a recorded statement to Gabriel revealing Bradley's pattern of manipulation and the night he struck her. Linc, devastated by guilt over leaving Ellie alone with Philip as a teenager, storms out. That night, Trace tries to push Ellie away, believing Jasper's violence proves a darkness in his own blood. He reveals the full horror of his childhood: Jasper forced 12-year-old Trace to dig his mother's grave and bury her, beating him when he cried. Ellie refuses to leave, and they exchange declarations of love.

At a community fall carnival, Jasper ambushes Ellie and Keely as they exit a roller coaster, pressing a gun into Ellie's back. Keely escapes and runs to Trace. Jasper drives Ellie to a remote hunting cabin, where he reveals he orchestrated the harassment to cause Trace pain and intends to kill Ellie in front of Trace. Ellie provokes him, smashes her bound fists into his nose, and flees into the forest. As Jasper catches up and aims his gun, a shot rings out: Helen Newbury, Bradley's mother, kills him. Helen forces Ellie at gunpoint up the mountainside, revealing herself as the true mastermind. She hired a private investigator and recruited Jasper to terrorize Ellie, hoping to scare her into returning to Bradley, whose life spiraled after the breakup. Now Helen intends to kill Ellie and frame the death as a double-cross.

Trace and his team converge on the mountain after finding Jasper's body. They locate Helen holding Ellie at gunpoint, and Dex takes a precise shot that kills Helen and frees Ellie.

An epilogue set nine months later resolves the remaining threads. Bradley is serving a lengthy sentence in France after being connected to a trafficking operation, and Philip has lost all outside contact privileges in prison. Ellie has built a mural-based interior design business in Sparrow Falls. Trace brings her to their completed farmhouse, revealing a herd of goats, horses for Keely, and a butterfly garden. He proposes with a rainbow gemstone ring, and Ellie says yes. The entire Colson family celebrates, including Linc and Arden with newborn twins. Ellie reflects that she has finally found what she was always chasing: shelter, belonging, and the freedom to be entirely herself.