After breakfast, I tried to focus on the book in my hands, but the words blurred together. My mind wouldn’t stay still. The shower hadn’t helped either—the steam had cleared my skin, not my thoughts.
That’s when my phone rang.
Matthew.
“Rae,” his voice came out low and tight, laced with anger. “I just saw Emma’s mother in our neighborhood.”
For a moment, I froze. The woman’s face flashed across my mind like a warning.
Before I could even process what that meant, he went on, voice growing sharper. “At first I thought I was imagining it, but then I saw her go into the house across the street. You know, the one under renovation.”
My entire body went rigid. The air left my lungs.
Lucy’s voice exploded in my mind, a furious snarl. “They’re provoking you, Rae! Setting up camp right across
