Scarlett’s POV
At first, I thought it was nothing, just a tangle of broken branches or an old planting crate. But something made me stop. It wasn’t the box’s size, or its shape, but rather the way it was placed. Half-tucked beneath a twisted section of wire fencing. Half-buried in disturbed soil, like someone wanted it found… and didn’t.
My chest tightened. A strange chill moved down my spine.
Because I remembered. God, I remembered.
The last time I’d seen a box like this was the day I returned to Charles’s main house after his death. The accident. The panic. The way someone had moved that box the moment I had that accident. I’d never forgotten it, not really. I had told myself I was grieving, that I had imagined the creeping sense of threat that lingered around it.
But now, here it w
