Month: December 2025

CHAPTER 23: MATT Mom was having a bad morning. I knew it the moment I came downstairs and saw Dad’s face. He was at the stove, scrambling eggs with the kind of focused intensity that meant he was trying not to think about something else. “Morning,” I said. “Morning.” He didn’t look up. “Your mother’s

CHAPTER 22: MATT Caleb’s truck pulled up at noon on Saturday, exactly on time. I’d changed my shirt twice. Put on earrings, then took them off. Daisy had watched the whole thing from the couch, head tilted like she was trying to understand what the problem was. I grabbed my jacket and headed out before

CHAPTER 21: ELENA Isaw Caleb’s truck pull into the parking lot through the window of my office. Tuesday afternoon, no appointment scheduled. That made it three times in two weeks. He was already at the desk when I came through, Scout sitting calmly at his feet. The puppy had grown, still the quiet one, still

CHAPTER 20: MATT The speed trap on Route 12 was exactly where it had always been. I sat in the patrol car with the radar gun pointed at the empty road and tried not to think about how different this was from detective work. No homicides, no interrogations, no late nights chasing suspects through alleys

CHAPTER 19: ELENA Ididn’t usually bring Daisy to the diner, but it was Sunday and she’d been cooped up in the truck for two hours while Lucy and I dealt with Mrs. Patterson’s mare. The foal had come early—two weeks early—and we’d spent the morning making sure both mother and baby were stable. Now Daisy

CHAPTER 18: MATT The suspect ran and I gave chase. Down the alley behind the pawn shop, vaulting over a dumpster, boots hitting wet pavement. My partner, Detective Lopez, was somewhere behind me, shouting something I didn’t catch over the sound of my own breathing. The guy was fast, but I was faster. Three years

CHAPTER 17: ELENA THREE YEARS LATER Iwas good at building things now. The sun wasn’t up yet when I unlocked the front door of Millbrook Veterinary Care, but that had been my routine for three years. First one in, last one out. I flipped on the lights and the clinic came to life around me.

CHAPTER 16: MATT Idrove without thinking, without planning, just following the roads I’d known my whole life until I found myself turning onto Maple Street. My parents’ house sat three blocks from the center of town, same white ranch they’d lived in since before I was born. The porch light was on. That was Mom’s

CHAPTER 15: ELENA Ilocked the door behind me. The house was warm after the cold outside, the smell of chili still hanging in the air. My hands were steady as I crossed to the back door and leaned the shotgun against the wall. No shaking, no adrenaline crash, no surge of emotion threatening to pull

CHAPTER 14: MATT The porch light was on. I let the car idle for a beat, then shut it off and stayed there anyway, too rung-out to move. The house looked the same as it always had with its white clapboard and green shutters, the old oak tree in the front yard that Elena used