Little Bitter Truths (Georgiana Germaine #14)

Chapter 1

Wren Mayfair dried the last of the evening’s dishes and set the dish towel to the side as she leaned forward, staring out the window at the full moon. It had been a good day. A quiet day. And now she was looking forward to winding down.

Three days had passed since Wren had arrived at her sister Mia’s house to stay with Coco, Mia’s Labrador retriever, while Mia attended a work conference in Las Vegas.

Wren welcomed the change of scenery, seeing it as an opportunity to escape a reality she wasn’t ready to deal with yet—the end of her marriage.

Wren wasn’t sure where everything had gone wrong in her marriage with Cooper, just that it had.

Over the past year they’d become more like roommates than lovers, spending less and less time with each other as the months dragged on.

Two weeks earlier, she’d sat Cooper down to express her feelings, surprised to learn he’d been feeling the same way.

Rather than stick it out and fight for the relationship, they came to the decision that they were better the way they’d started, as friends.

Ending the relationship was the right decision.

Of this, Wren was sure.

But it had been far more painful than she imagined it would be.

Wren squeezed her eyes shut and opened them, her thoughts turning away from the past to the present, and she reached down, giving Coco a loving pat. “What do you say, girl? Should we watch some television in the living room?”

Coco circled around her and then trotted in that direction as if she comprehended Wren’s suggestion.

Wren lowered herself onto the couch, her knees tucked beneath her as she pulled a throw blanket over her lap. She clicked on the remote, and the television lit up with a glow, casting shadows along the wall. A late-night true crime show was playing, the kind of show she loved.

Coco hopped up onto the sofa beside Wren, nuzzling her head against Wren’s thigh.

As the show progressed, the wind kicked up outside, stirring leaves and branches, and rattling the windows. Coco shot up, eyes narrowing, as she glanced out the window, then back at Wren.

“It’s all right, girl,” Wren reassured. “It’s just a bit of wind. You’re okay.”

Before settling in on the sofa, Wren had checked the locks, more out of habit than fear. Mia lived in a quiet neighborhood, and according to one of Mia’s neighbors, nothing bad ever happened here.

Wren’s cell phone buzzed on the coffee table, and she reached for it. Glancing at the screen, she saw a text message from Mia.

Oh, I forgot to tell you. I sat next to the same guy I met this morning at breakfast, and he asked if I was single. Can you believe it?

Wren smiled and typed back:

Well? What did you say? Don’t leave me hanging! Ha!

They exchanged a few more messages, ending with Mia saying she’d check in with her again later.

Wren set the phone to the side and increased the volume on the television remote.

An interviewer was asking a female detective questions about a homicide she’d solved.

Wren half-listened as her eyelids fell heavy, and she nodded off.

Waking several minutes later, the wind had died down, but a faint sound drifted down the hallway.

It wasn’t loud.

Still …

Wren muted the television and listened.

One minute passed, then two, and she breathed a sigh of relief and shook her head. Being alone had always made her jumpy. Before they’d separated, Cooper had almost always been around at night, offering her a sense of safety and security.

She reached for the remote to turn the sound back on and heard something else, something a lot clearer this time, a soft thud followed by the faint creak of wood.

Coco lifted her head, scanning the dark hallway behind them, and this time, Wren felt a twitch of unease.

Then she heard footsteps, slow and deliberate. Her intuition screamed at her to move, to get up, to run, but her muscles refused to cooperate. Coco jumped off the couch as if determined to investigate, a low growl building in her chest.

“Coco,” Wren whispered. “Come here, girl. Stay with me, okay?”

As soon as she said the words, the footsteps stopped, and Wren turned.

A figure stood at the edge of the living room, half hidden in shadow. A mask covered the face, and black clothing blended into the darkness around it.

The figure didn’t rush or hesitate.

It stepped forward.

Wren’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. She scrambled off the couch, her bare feet sliding against the hardwood as she attempted to back away.

“Please,” she said. “I don’t know who you are or why you’re here, but I want you to leave.”

The words hung in the air, fragile and useless.

The figure raised an arm, aiming a gun at Wren’s head.

For a moment time slowed, stretching thin as Wren’s life flashed before her. She thought of her sister and of Cooper and the life she thought she had ahead of her. A life she wasn’t sure she’d live to see now.

As a gunshot rang through the air, Coco lunged forward with a sharp bark.

Wren collapsed to the floor, the room tilting as her consciousness began to fade.

In the background, the television screen flickered, still muted, the images sliding in and out of focus.

Coco’s bark turned frantic as she stood at Wren’s side.

The figure approached, smacking Coco to the side before leaning down, lifting Wren up to look at her. Wren squinted, desperate to identify the person standing before her, but the room, along with everything else, was fading.

A moment later, the attacker stood. Footsteps retreated, quick and rushed, fading into the night the same way they had come in. From somewhere in the house, Wren heard a window creak as if being opened or closed, then all was silent.

As Wren’s breathing went shallow, Coco began to whine, returning to Wren and nudging her shoulder. Wren’s eyes stared past her, unseeing, fixed on nothing at all. In her final moment, her phone buzzed with a message—a message she would never read.