Chapter 10 - Fox LakeOne year later, Sophie stood on her grandmother's porch.
The blue shutters had been restored.
The windows were open.
Pine trees whispered above the roof.
The lake reflected the afternoon sunlight like broken glass.
Evelyn sat in a rocking chair.
Claire stood near the railing.
The three women had transformed the cabin.
It became a retreat for women escaping dangerous homes.
A place where survivors could sleep behind locked doors.
Where lawyers' numbers were posted beside the refrigerator.
Where coffee was always waiting before sunrise.
The necklace remained in a sealed glass case above the kitchen sink.
A warning.
A reminder.
A lesson.
Danger didn't always arrive screaming.
Sometimes it arrived clean-shaven.
Wearing expensive cologne.
Holding a velvet box.
Calling itself love.
Sophie believed the nightmare was over.
She was wrong.
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Because sometimes the past doesn't disappear.
Sometimes it simply waits.
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