CHAPTER 19
Cabin
I blink.
For a moment the world feels strangely quiet and then everything rushes back at once.
Standing this close to Lucien again sends something sharp through my chest. Feelings I tried so hard to bury suddenly rise to the surface like they’ve been waiting for this moment.
He smells the same, he carries a warm, sweet scent, soft and addictive, the kind that lingers longer than it should with something deeper underneath it, something like spice and cedar, grounding and dangerous all at the same time.
My heart stumbles against my ribs. And the way he’s looking at me, like he’d burn the whole world down if something happened to me.
“Are you okay?” he asks again softly.
I nod quickly.
“Yes,” I say, though my voice trembles slightly. “I’m okay.”
Then the words start spilling out.
“Lucien… I think Dominic might have something to do with Sophie’s disappearance.”
His expression tightens immediately.
“Sophie?”
“His mistress,” I say quietly.
Lucien’s jaw clenches slightly but he stays silent, letting me keep talking.
“I spoke to her sister today,” I explain. “Nadia. She works with us in the office.”
Lucien nods slowly.
“She says Sophie’s missing and it’s not like her. She was supposed to meet Nadia two nights ago but she never showed up.”
Lucien’s eyes narrow slightly as he processes everything.
“Does Sophie have a partner?” he asks. “Boyfriend? Husband?”
“Yes,” I say quickly. “But Nadia said he’s in Australia.” I shake my head slightly, trying to recall everything Nadia told me. “He’s hiking somewhere in the woods with his friends. She FaceTimed him so she knows he has nothing to do with this.”
I stop mid-sentence.
Woods.
My breath catches.
Lucien notices immediately.
“What?” he asks.
“The woods,” I whisper. My mind races. Dominic took me there. The cabin. The one his parents left him. My heart begins pounding again. “She might be there.”
Lucien’s eyes sharpen.
“What are you saying?”
“I know where to find her.” The words come out before I can stop them. I quickly pull out my phone and show him the address. Lucien looks at it for half a second before nodding.
“I’ll drive,” he says immediately.
I hesitate. Something about sitting in a closed car with him right now makes my chest tighten. Not because I’m afraid of him but because I’m afraid of myself.
“It’s probably best if I drive my car,” I say quietly. “And you drive yours.”
For a moment he just looks at me. Then Lucien steps back without saying anything. He walks toward his car and my heart sinks slightly.
But then he opens the passenger door.
“Get in the car, Sera.”
His voice is calm and firm. Not requesting but commanding.
He moves around the front of the car and slides into the driver’s seat like the decision has already been made.
I stand there for a second. My heart flutters low in my stomach in a way I don’t want to acknowledge.
I force myself to push the feeling down.
This isn’t about him.
This is about Sophie.
I lock my car and walk toward the Mercedes, then I climb into the passenger seat. The drive is quiet, but not the kind that eases anything. Words sit heavy in your throat, waiting, neither of you daring to let them out.
I glance at Lucien. He’s focused on the road, his hands steady on the steering wheel, his jaw tight. He looks upset, angry. Not at me, at the situation. Because we both know something else too. Once we start saying what we really feel… things between us might never be the same again.
The road stretches into darkness ahead of us, the headlights cutting through the night. Time passes faster than I realize. When I glance down at my watch, it’s already 9:00 p.m.
“We’re close,” I whisper.
A few minutes later the road narrows into the familiar dirt path leading into the woods. The cabin appears slowly through the trees. The last time I saw it, it looked charming, almost magical. A quiet little place hidden deep in the woods, surrounded by tall trees and soft lantern light.
Beautiful.
Peaceful.
But tonight…
Something about it feels different. The beauty is still there. The warm wooden structure. The small porch. The quiet clearing around it. But now it feels like beauty is hiding something. Something darker. Something sinister.
The fog curls low around the trees, drifting slowly across the ground like the forest itself is breathing. And suddenly I’m scared to know what happened here. Lucien parks the car, neither of us moves for a moment. Then we both step out.
The night air is cold and damp. The quiet of the night is almost deafening, the kind of quiet that presses against your ears.
We walk slowly toward the cabin. Every step crunches softly against the gravel beneath our feet.
I reach the front door first. Lucien stands just behind me.
My hands tremble slightly as I grab the handle.
I try to open it.
Locked.
I knock lightly.
“Sophie?” I call.
My voice echoes softly through the trees.
Nothing.
I move to the window beside the door and press my face closer to the glass, trying to see inside. The cabin looks exactly the same as the last time I was here, the lanterns, the couch, the small wooden table. Everything untouched, empty.
“Sophie?” I call again.
No answer.
I try lifting the window but It doesn’t move. Locked. I walk around the side of the house, Lucien following close behind me. The fog thickens near the back of the cabin. I reach the back door and grab the handle. Locked. I pull harder, still nothing. My heart begins beating faster.
“Sophie!” I call out louder this time.
Still nothing.
I start to turn—
And then we hear it.
Movement somewhere behind us.
Leaves crunch, a sudden rustling in the trees.
Lucien’s hand lifts immediately, signaling me to move behind him. I step back without hesitation.
My heart pounds violently in my chest, so loud it feels like it’s echoing through the trees, like something out there can hear it.
The night suddenly feels too still. Like the world is holding its breath. The sound grows louder. Fast footsteps, running. Too heavy, too uneven. Branches snap somewhere ahead of us, sharp and sudden, and my entire body locks.
My breath catches in my throat, shallow, trembling.
I can feel it, something is there.
Watching, waiting.
A cold wave of dread crawls up my spine, settling at the base of my skull, making my skin prickle. I grip the back of Lucien’s jacket without realizing it, fingers tightening, grounding myself to something real as my mind spirals into everything it could be.
Someone, something.
God, what if it’s Dominic?
What if he followed us into the woods—
The footsteps get closer, faster, louder.
Charging.
My pulse spikes, vision narrowing, every instinct screaming at me to run but my legs won’t move.
I can’t move, can’t breathe. My chest tightens so hard it hurts, like the air has been ripped out of me.
“Lucien,” I whisper, but my voice barely comes out.
And suddenly, something bursts out of the bushes.
Both of us jump.
A fucking deer.
It darts across the clearing and disappears back into the woods.
Lucien exhales slowly.
“Jesus,” he mutters under his breath.
I press a hand against my chest, trying to steady my breathing.
But even as the silence returns…
The fear doesn’t fully leave. We circle the house again. I call Sophie’s name two more times. The forest gives us nothing back. No movement, no voice, no sign that anyone has been here. After a few minutes I stop walking.
My shoulders sag slightly.
“She’s not here,” I whisper.
The words feel fragile and Lucien doesn’t answer right away. His eyes scan the dark one last time, jaw tight, shoulders still tense like he’s not ready to let his guard down just yet.
Then he slowly exhales. “She’s not here,” he repeats, quieter this time like he’s accepting it, not just hearing it. There’s something in his voice. Relief. But not the kind that brings comfort, the kind that leaves more questions behind.
I swallow hard. “Then where is she?” He doesn’t look at me immediately. And that, more than anything, makes my stomach twist. A cold weight settles in my chest. “Lucien…” My voice wavers. “This isn’t—this isn’t just someone running off, is it?”
He finally turns to me. The look in his eyes is heavy, serious. Like he’s already ten steps ahead, already piecing something together he doesn’t want to say out loud. “No,” he says quietly. My breath hitches. “No, I don’t think it is.”
The thick silence falls between us again. He steps closer, not touching me but close enough that I can feel him there. “If she was here…” he adds, more to himself than to me, “we would’ve found something.” I shake my head slightly. “But we didn’t.”
“No,” he agrees. “We didn’t.” That lands harder than I expect because it means whatever happened, didn’t happen here.
Or worse…
It didn’t leave anything behind.
Lucien glances back toward the trees one last time, then back at me.
“We shouldn’t stay,” he says.
I nod immediately. I don’t argue. I don’t want to be here anymore, not with the eerie quiet, not with the unknown pressing in from every direction.
We walk back to the car, my steps feel heavier now like I’m carrying something I can’t name.
Lucien opens the passenger door for me, his movements automatic but I can see it in the way his hand lingers on the frame for just a second too long.
He’s thinking hard. I slide into the seat and he closes the door gently.
When he gets in, neither of us speak at first. The engine starts, headlights cut through the darkness and we pull away.
The drive back begins in silence but it’s not empty.
It’s filled with everything we didn’t say.
Everything we’re both thinking, everything that’s starting to feel wrong.
If she’s not here…
Maybe Sophie is still alive. Maybe she’s somewhere else. Maybe we’re not too late. The road winds through the trees again until the forest finally gives way to city lights. Lucien keeps driving, past the office building, past the park where I first called him.
I glance at him.
“Why aren’t you stopping?” I ask quietly. “Where are we going?”
Lucien doesn’t answer.
His hands tighten slightly around the steering wheel.
And he keeps driving.