The Cabin in the Pines
The cabin lay buried in fog and pine shadows, hidden far from curious eyes.
Grant arrived with Kade’s team, law enforcement now forced to respond with the city watching closely.
The door came down without delay.
Miles was inside, shoving clothes into a bag, shaking so violently he could barely stay upright.
The moment he saw Grant, he collapsed to the floor.
“Please,” Miles begged. “I didn’t want this. I didn’t—”
“Where is she?” Grant demanded, the words crashing like thunder.
Miles broke into sobs. “She’s not here anymore! They moved her!”
“Who is ‘they’?” Grant asked, stepping closer.
Miles squeezed his eyes shut, like a frightened child.
“Tessa,” he blurted. “Tessa Carroway.”
The room seemed to tilt around Grant.
Tessa—Serena’s former business partner, her college friend, the woman who had smiled at their wedding and raised a glass to their happiness. Their boutique venture had failed years earlier, and Tessa had blamed Serena ever since, insisting Serena “didn’t have to take anything seriously because she married rich.”
Grant had written it off as resentment.
Now that resentment had teeth.
On the cabin table, Kade discovered a notebook.
It was Serena’s journal.
Grant opened it with trembling hands, reading words written in darkness—words that still carried her voice.
Day 45. She tells me you’ve already replaced me. She says the world moved on. But I saw a bird on the ledge today. If it can still fly, then I can still hold on. I won’t let her make me small.
Grant’s vision blurred.
His wife had been fighting—quietly, stubbornly, bravely—even when no one knew to look.
Miles confessed that after the casket incident, Tessa panicked and moved Serena again—somewhere “in plain sight,” believing no one would think to search there.
Grant no longer cared about clever plans.
He cared about bringing Serena home.
