The property disappeared at night. Trees pressed close, the woods swallowing the edges of everything until the house felt like a lone island of light. During the day, it looked safe. Thoughtful. Intentional.
At night, it felt exposed.
Her thoughts circled back to the same place they always did.
Garrick.
What if she’d made a mistake? What if logging into his account—just for a minute—had left something behind? A trace she didn’t know how to see. An alert. A breadcrumb.
She couldn’t stop asking herself those questions.
Because they were important.
They were life-changing.
If Garrick found her . . .
If he followed that trail here . . .
Her chest tightened.
It wouldn’t just be her who paid the price. There were other women here. Other dogs. People who hadn’t chosen her past or her fear.
How would she live with herself if she’d put them in danger?
Maybe she’d been foolish to think she could ever really be safe. Foolish to believe distance alone could fix what Garrick had broken.
Refuge Cove was a pause, not an ending. She knew that. She couldn’t stay forever.
Eventually, she’d have to move again. Start over somewhere new. Somewhere people didn’t know her name or her history.
But what was the plan after that?
She didn’t have one. Not yet.
Her gaze drifted back to the window, to the place where the darkness seemed thickest.
Another thought surfaced, quieter but harder to shake.
Caleb.
He was another thought that continually resurfaced.
Why him? Of all the places she could have gone, all the shelters and safe houses scattered across the country, why this one? Why had her path crossed his again after all this time?
Unless it wasn’t chance.
She wasn’t sure what she believed anymore, not in the neat, certain way she once had. But she couldn’t ignore the timing. The way this place had opened its doors just when she needed it. The way Caleb—of all people—stood at the center of it.
Maybe there was a purpose she couldn’t see yet.
Forgiveness, the thought whispered.
She frowned, pushing it away. She’d carried bitterness toward Caleb for years, letting the feeling settle deep, convincing herself the emotion offered her protection.
He’d been the one good thing in her life back then. The one person she’d trusted completely.
Then he’d walked away without explanation, leaving a hollowness she’d never quite filled.
