Custody Down Under Bound by Loss and Saved by Love

A child alone. Two grandfathers worlds apart. One chance to become a family. Six-year-old Maddison Taylor has already learned how to survive. Raised on a remote cattle and sheep station in Western Australia, she cooks her own meals, dresses herself, and cares for the one creature who never leaves her—her loyal Kelpie, Tag. Under the quiet kindness of Mrs. Donovan, the station manager's wife, Maddison found something she rarely had before: safety. Then everything changes. After her father moves them to South Australia's Yorke Peninsula, a tragic accident leaves Maddison injured, orphaned, and trapped inside a child protection system that sees a case file instead of a little girl who has already lived too much life. With her future uncertain and the adults around her strangers, Maddison holds tightly to the only stability she has left—her independence, her instincts, and her dog. Half a world away, two men receive the same unexpected message. Ben Taylor, a retired veterinarian from South Carolina, carries the lifelong regret of a son he could never save. Nigel Buckby, a retired New Zealand professor haunted by his own family failures, believes his chance at redemption has long passed. They have never met. They also never knew they had a granddaughter. Now both men must travel across oceans to a country neither calls home, navigate unfamiliar laws, and confront their own painful pasts in order to protect a child who desperately needs them. Neither feels ready to be a parent again. Yet together they may be Maddison's only hope. As legal battles unfold and old wounds surface, the three strangers slowly become something none of them expected—a family. Guided by Maddison's fierce resilience and Tag's unwavering devotion, love grows where grief once lived. Set against the windswept beauty of South Australia's Yorke Peninsula—golden farmland, rugged coastline, and tight-knit rural communities—Custody Down Under is a moving story of second chances, healing across generations, and the powerful bond between children and the adults willing to fight for them. Warm, heartfelt, and often humorous, this unforgettable novel celebrates resilience, redemption, and the truth that family is sometimes found, not born. Because sometimes saving a child … also saves the adults who love her.