Page 1 of The Dark Stranger
Prologue
Silence in the country wasn’t the same as silence in the city.
City silence meant something was about to happen. A fight brewing. Sirens in the distance. A door about to slam. Five voices talking over each other until someone cried or someone left.
Out here, silence just… stayed.
Rebecca had chased this kind of quiet when she left. Traded concrete and noise for trees and long stretches of road where headlights were rare and no one knocked unless invited.
Youngest of five.
You learned early how to disappear.
She sat on the hardwood floor in front of the fireplace, back resting against the couch, journal open on her thigh. The fire cracked and shifted, gold light sliding across the walls, catching the ink winding up her arms — roses and thorns wrapping around old scars like they’d always belonged there.
Her body told stories people paid to wear.
Her own, she kept to herself.
The pen rested between her fingers, unmoving.
Her mind felt loud tonight.
It drifted the way it always did when she let it — back through years of being the one who stayed.
Some people learned to leave when things got hard.
Rebecca learned to stay.
Stay understanding.
Stay loyal.
Stay quiet about what hurt.
She’d been there for everyone. Family. Friends. Men who swore they loved her. Long after they’d stopped being there for her.
She forgave things people didn’t deserve forgiveness for. Made excuses she didn’t believe. Took blame that didn’t belong to her.
Because somehow, when things went wrong, she always felt like it had to be her.
Maybe she wasn’t soft enough.
Maybe she was too strong.
Too distant.
Too much.
So, she adjusted. Bent. Endured.
She didn’t go down easy — she hardened. Each betrayal another layer. Another wall. Another reason not to show how much she still hoped people would stay.
But she knew how stories like hers went.
You trust.
You open up.
