Part One: The Promise Made Over Veal Prologue: The Weight of Overheard Words Before I tell you how the night unraveled, understand this. Some threats are so ugly they don’t...
PART ONE: THE WOMAN IN EMERALD VELVET The locket dangled between them like a gallows rope. Silas Montgomery’s scarred fingers held the gold chain steady, but inside his chest, something...
PART ONE: THE WEIGHT OF SEEING The hallway outside Marcus Caldwell’s corner office smelled like fresh roses and expensive ambition. Two things that had absolutely nothing to do with Elena...
Chapter 1: The Last Bell Wednesday, 2:18 p.m. Oakwood Elementary School, Benton County, Arkansas The hallway smelled like floor wax and forgotten lunchboxes. Hazel Marie Brennan pressed her spine against...
Chapter 1: 6:47 PM The text came through at 6:47 p.m. Just like clockwork. Marcus stared at his phone screen, the glow casting sharp shadows across the bones of his...
PART ONE: THE VOICE IN THE DARKNESS The First Shift The first night I took the shift at Room 417, the hospital corridor was bathed in the sickly white glow...
Part One: The Woman Who Flinched at Shadows Caleb Montgomery was not a man built for gentle things. Standing six-foot-three with a beard thick as a bear’s pelt and hands...
Chapter 1: The View from Forty-Two Floors Victoria Harmon did not believe in second chances. She believed in quarterly reports, performance metrics, and the kind of efficiency that left no...
Part One: The Girl and the Ghost The man’s name was Jax Reynolds. He’d been coming to this grave every day for six months, ever since the closed-casket funeral where...
Part One: The View from the Sidewalk Scene One — Thursday Evening, 7:42 PM Daniel Owens had a habit of arriving early to things. Not compulsively, not anxiously, just naturally....