Chapter 1 - The Eviction Notice
The hum of the diner's neon sign faded into the background as I dropped my coffee mug back onto its saucer and walked out into the cool morning air. Sarah’s desperate shouting was still ringing through the double-paned glass behind me, but for the first time in five years of widowhood, I didn't turn around to fix the mess she had made.
I slid into the driver’s seat of my sedan, my fingers resting lightly on the steering wheel as I let out a long, shuddering breath. The grocery store gift card left on that sticky table was the absolute final boundary I would ever draw.
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When I pulled up to my mother’s cottage twenty minutes later, the peace of the tree-lined street was a welcome balm. The gray sectional and moving boxes were completely gone, hauled away by Greg and Sarah after the police had intervened the previous afternoon. But as I walked up the freshly painted front steps, I noticed something that made my blood run cold.
A heavy iron padlock had been looped through the primary deadbolt of my front door—a padlock that I certainly hadn't put there.
