(Hailey Miller POV )
The ride back was a silence heavy with aftershocks. Parker gripped the wheel with white knuckles, scanning mirrors and alleys as if the city might unmask itself at any moment. The crumpled note burned in my fist: STOP LOOKING. HE'S STILL ALIVE.
Ethan? Alive.
Logic shouted that it was impossible. I had identified the body. I had signed papers. I had watched what passed for closure be carried out. Still, my heart — traitorous and stubborn — fluttered with a foolish, aching hope. What if the identification was wrong? What if the funeral and the evidence were pieces of a lie so carefully staged I had been made to believe it?
Parker cut through the fog. “It’s a scare tactic, Hailey. They want to paralyze you with doubt. Don’t hand them that power.”
I nodded because my
