CHAPTER 1 — The Girls Waiting For A Dead Woman's Husband
The Blue Ridge Mountains had always been Olivia's sanctuary.
Mine had become a cemetery.
For three years, I avoided the cabin because every piece of it still belonged to her.
The rocking chair she loved.
The lavender soap beside the kitchen sink.
Her favorite mug with the tiny chip on the handle.
Even the wind sounded like her laughter if I listened long enough.
People said grief became easier.
They lied.
It simply learned new ways to hurt.
When my therapist finally convinced me to return, I planned to spend one night cleaning the place before selling it forever.
That was the plan.
Until I saw them.
Two little girls stood silently on the porch.
Barefoot.
Starving.
Watching me as if they'd been expecting me for years.
They looked almost identical.
Same pale blond hair.
Same enormous blue eyes.
Same frightened expression.
Each held a dry crust of bread so tightly their tiny fingers had turned white.
Neither moved.
Neither blinked.
For a terrifying second, I wondered whether they were even real.
I slowly approached.
"I'm Ethan."
No answer.
"My wife used to live here."
Still nothing.
Then one finally whispered.
"We know."
A strange pressure settled in my chest.
How could they know?
No one lived within miles of this cabin.
I gently offered them bottled water from my truck.
They grabbed it with desperate hands, drinking so quickly that water spilled down their dirty faces.
The sight nearly broke me.
Who leaves children like this?
I searched the property.
No footprints except theirs.
No abandoned vehicle.
No campsite.
Nothing.
It was as if the mountain itself had delivered them onto my porch.
Inside the cabin, I found something even stranger.
The front door had been locked exactly as I'd left it three years earlier.
No broken windows.
No forced entry.
Nothing missing.
Yet the fireplace had fresh ashes.
Someone had been inside recently.
Someone who somehow possessed a key that didn't exist anymore.
Emma suddenly walked straight to Olivia's old bookshelf.
Without hesitation, she pulled out a faded leather journal hidden behind several dusty novels.
I froze.
Even I had forgotten it was there.
She placed the journal into my hands.
"She said you'd need this."
Every hair on my arms stood up.
There was only one problem.
Olivia had hidden that journal before either of us even talked about having children.
No one...
No one could possibly know where it was.
When I opened the journal, a folded letter slipped onto the floor.
Across the front, written in Olivia's unmistakable handwriting, were five words.
For Ethan... If They Find You.
My hands started shaking.
Because Olivia had written those words nearly six months before she died.
...
I unfolded the paper.
Before I could read the first sentence...
A loud crash exploded outside.
Someone had kicked over the porch railing.
The twins instantly ran behind me.
Their faces turned white.
Emma whispered only one sentence.
"They found us."
May you like
And outside...
Heavy footsteps circled the cabin.
