Danielle sat stiffly in the passenger seat, her hands resting tensely in her lap as the car hummed steadily along the winding road. Seth drove with quiet focus, eyes sharp on the path ahead, but every so often his hand brushed against hers. A small, grounding gesture that reminded her she wasn’t alone.
Behind them, the backseat was heavy with its own kind of tension.
Connor sat rigidly beside Christina, both staring out the window but neither speaking. The silence between them felt thick, like an unspoken wall neither dared to scale.
Danielle stole a glance in the rearview mirror, catching the flicker of something unreadable in their faces. The usual easy camaraderie was gone, replaced by something fragile, uncertain.
She swallowed hard and looked forward again. The forest stretched a
