Chapter Two
Morning sunlight finally broke through the fog drifting across Hope Island, its light muting the twinkle of the Christmas decorations still up around the island’s shops.
Maya Callahan wiped down the counter of the Tide I’m here because you’re the only one who saw what happened that night.”
Maya’s pulse pounded in her ears. She felt as if she were being sucked under water and drowning.
She wanted to tell him he was wrong, that her life hadn’t begun in blood and death.
Even as denial formed, behind her eyes, visions appeared.
The image of a rain-soaked world, the echo of a sob that might have been her own.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she managed, forcing the words past her cold lips.
Asa’s jaw tightened. For a moment she thought he might press harder, demand the truth she didn’t have. He nodded once, slowly, as if filing away the answer for later.
“Here’s my number if you want to talk. I’m staying at the Windswept cabin along the shore.
It’s the last one at the end of Ocean View.
” He handed her a business card with his number on it.
“I know this is all strange for you. Maybe I shouldn’t have come here like this, but our pasts are connected.
” His hand gestured between himself and her.
“I think what happened to my father is the cause of your memory loss. Maybe we can help each other find the answers we both need.”
His gaze held hers for a long moment, shaking her to her core. Then he turned and strode out the door, the bell jingling behind him.
Maya sagged against the counter, her trembling hands clutching its edge.
Customers went on sipping coffee and reading newspapers, oblivious to the storm that had just broken open inside her chest.
As she went to retrieve the rag, her eyes caught on the front window.
A figure stood across the street. Not Asa but someone else. Still. Watching.
The moment Maya’s gaze touched the shadowy figure, he turned away, melting into the fog.
A shiver ran through her, colder than the draft slipping through the door.
She told herself it was nothing. Just a passerby. Just her imagination.
But deep down, something whispered otherwise. Something long buried that told her the past she’d never wanted to remember in the first place had just found her.