SOPHIA’S POV
The way Mrs. Montez looked at me sent a chill down my spine.
She wasn’t surprised.
She had been expecting this.
I swallowed, steadying my voice. “You knew someone would come?”
She exhaled and glanced past me again as if making sure no one had followed. Then, with a quiet nod, she stepped back and held the door open.
“Come inside.”
Hesitation flickered through me. Every instinct told me I was stepping into something far bigger than I had anticipated. But I had come this far.
I stepped through the threshold, my senses on high alert.
The house was small, and worn but well-maintained. The furniture was old-fashioned, the kind that had been in the family for decades. A faint scent of lavender clung to the air, but underneath it, something else lingered—some
