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less until she had got used to not having her father around. She had become accustomed to having that huge gaping hole in her heart.
    “We were trying for another baby when he disappeared,” Rose said.
    “Really?”
    Rose wiped away a runaway tear with her fingertips and nodded.
    Wow. We’re actually talking about Dad without Mom running away from me.
    There was a question she wanted to ask. It was burning in the back of her throat, begging to be released. She almost didn’t ask for fear of her mother reverting back to her old ways and shutting her out once more, but Bianca decided to take a chance. It was now or never.
    “Does Lenore have anything to do with Daddy’s disappearance?”
    Rose nodded once more.
    “What happened?”
    Rose got a faraway look in her eyes, as though she were someplace else, in another time altogether. “Lenore turned your father into a bear right before my very eyes,” she whispered.
    Bianca’s jaw literally dropped. She couldn’t believe what she heard. “When did this happen?”
    “You don’t remember?” Rose asked in surprise.
    “I remember coming home from school, and you sat me down on the couch and told me that Daddy was missing. But what I meant to ask was when , as in was it during the day? At night? Was it here at home or at the museum? Details, Mom. You’ve never given me the details behind Daddy’s disappearance.”
    Rose ran her fingers through her hair and looked around the room, desperate for an answer. “How could I possibly tell you? How on earth was I supposed to explain to a seven-year-old that a witch turned her father into a bear? I couldn’t tell you then, sweetheart. And I’m sorry I kept so much from you.”
    “I guess that makes sense,” Bianca replied as she nibbled on her thumbnail.
    “Anyway David was working late at the museum. He had some paperwork he wanted to take care of, some tax forms or something like that. At that time we were sharing the car, so I told him to stay and wait for me to come pick him up. I needed to come home to take care of you and get dinner started. I knew he would be safe as long as he stayed inside the museum because of the wards I placed on the building.
    “I left you at Ming’s house because you were spending the weekend. Then I drove up to the museum to get your dad. David came out of the museum, locked the doors behind him, and walked toward me. He smiled and winked at me like he always did every time I picked him up. That was when Lenore stepped out of the shadows and cast her spell on him, right before my very eyes. I froze. Before I could mutter a single spell, he was gone. I can still hear her laughter as she took him from me…from us.”
    There was a sudden hush that fell between them. Bianca was at a loss for words.
    “What a horrible thing to do to a person,” Bianca said finally.
    “She said she wanted to help turn my life into a real-life fairy tale.”
    “I don’t understand. Why would she want to do that?”
    “You know my full name is Rose Red Frost,” she said.
    “Yeah, I know. Still not getting it, Mom.” Bianca tapped on the side of her head.
    “Haven’t you ever read the story of Snow White and Rose Red?”
    Bianca frowned as she searched her memory for the story and vaguely remembered having read a fairy tale with those names at some point in her life. It made sense because most of the women in the family were named after a fairy tale character. “Did Grandma name you after the story?”
    “Yeah.” Rose smiled. “It was her favorite story.”
    “Is that why you named me Bianca?” she asked, wondering about the story behind her name, Bianca Silver Frost. Sure, it took some twisting and turning, but it was almost like being named Snow White.
    “Yes. I didn’t want to go so far as to name you Snow White, I thought people might make fun of you, and I didn’t want you to go through that,” she admitted. “Anyway, Lenore thought that since our names were so similar to the ones in