He dragged a hand over the back of his neck, his gaze drifting toward the open kennel door. The light outside hadn’t changed, but it felt different now—harsher somehow, less welcoming.
He stood to lose everything.
Not just his place here, but the fragile trust he’d managed to build. Most people didn’t look beyond a prison record. They didn’t care about context or reasons. They saw the label and stopped there, filling in the rest with whatever assumptions fit best.
His thoughts shifted to Hadley before he could stop them.
Would she do the same?
Max swallowed, the question settling heavily in his chest. He wanted to believe she wouldn’t, that she’d look deeper and see who he was now instead of who he’d been then. But wanting something didn’t make it true, and certainty was something he’d learned not to rely on.
A bad feeling settled in his gut, slow and steady.
This wasn’t random.
And whoever had sent that message wasn’t finished.
Hadley spent another hour at Refuge Cove. Then she gathered her bag, said her good nights, and drove away.
The road back to Blue Ridge Hollow wound through a darkness unknown in Atlanta. This darkness was deep and total, broken only by her headlights and the occasional farmhouse set far back from the road.
She hadn’t realized how much noise she’d been living inside until she moved here.
She didn’t miss the chaos.
That had surprised her at first. She’d assumed the adjustment would be harder—the slower pace, the smaller scale, the way everyone seemed to know everyone else’s business. But Blue Ridge Hollow was full of people who showed up for each other.
And the land itself was something else entirely.
The Blue Ridge Mountains felt steady and ancient. On clear days she could see the ridgeline from her bedroom window, and on weekends—the ones with nicer weather, at least—she’d started exploring the trails. Her favorites were the ones that pushed up into the Shenandoah or wound deeper into the George Washington National Forest.
Atlanta felt like another life when she thought about it now. Not a bad one. Just not this one.
She thought she’d spend her future there. That she’d grow old with Ethan and their children and a thriving vet practice. But that had all crumbled around her.
She turned onto Main Street and slowed as the road narrowed. She studied the storefronts as she passed. The bookstore on the left. The hardware store on the right, its window display the same as it had been for the past three weeks. A few cars parked along the curb.
Her foot hit the brakes when she saw the old brick building housing her clinic.
The large front window—the one that still had the ghost of antique shop lettering pressed into the glass—had been shattered.
CHAPTER 13
Max had just finished takinga shower and changing when he walked back into the kitchen at Refuge Cove and heard Sheriff Sutherland on the phone. The conversation sounded serious.
Max paused near the breakfast bar.
“Where on Main Street? I’m on my way.” Sheriff Sutherland ended the call and looked at Naomi, then Max. “I just got a vandalism report.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Max said.
Sheriff Sutherland’s gaze met his. “It’s at the vet clinic.”
Max went still. The vet clinic?
Images of Hadley instantly filled his mind.
“Is anyone hurt?” he rushed.
