Page 20 of Tangled Past
Once the door closed, she stared at her reflection in the window. She didn’t look like someone who had survived violence. She didn’t look like a four-year-old child who had watched a man die. She didn’t look like someone who was about to walk into the place where everything had gone wrong.
But her eyes . . . they knew.
Asa climbed into the seat beside her. JT and Rachel got in up front and pulled away from the bistro.
Maya clasped her hands in her lap, surprised to see them shaking. “Does it always feel this heavy? Going back to where something bad happened?”
Asa turned. “The first time? Yes.”
She waited.
He glanced at her. “When I stepped foot on the island after twenty-five years, it felt like a weight I couldn’t breathe under. I wasn’t ready, but being here today? I’m glad I am, and I’m grateful you’re here with me.”
Her eyes stung with unshed tears.
“What is it?” he asked when she struggled to find words.
“Thank you for coming back.”
He looked at her for a long moment, something unspoken flickering just beneath the surface. “Maya, coming back was the easiest decision I’ve ever made.”
Heat rushed through her chest, unexpected and unsettling. She turned away without responding because she couldn’t trust her voice to say what she didn’t understand.
The drive through Hope Island felt different today, charged with electric energy. The snow-covered pines blurred past while the SUV climbed the narrow roads leading toward the Hardesty property. The closer they came, the heavier Maya’s heartbeat sounded.
Asa kept one hand resting near the armrest, fingers tapping in a slow, thoughtful pattern. He looked more contemplative than anxious.
The road twisted sharply, revealing two other vehicles parked on the side. Eli leaned against the hood of one. Declan was talking with a man near a police cruiser.
Once JT stopped, Asa exited the vehicle, then came around to Maya’s side.
Eli approached with a brief nod. “We’re still working on the cameras. We thought it was possible they went down due to the storm. But the wiring was cut clean.”
Declan stopped beside them with another man. He introduced Maya to the chief.
“Nice to meet you, Maya. You’re very brave to do this.”
She didn’t feel brave.
“If anything feels off, we’ll get you out of there immediately,” Declan told her.
Maya straightened her shoulders. Everyone seemed to think she might break into pieces, but she was done falling apart. She wanted answers.
Asa studied her for a long moment. “If you want to turn back—”
“I don’t,” she said firmly.
He exhaled, a mixture of pride and worry in his expression.
JT gestured toward the barn. “Let’s go. Maya, stay close to Asa.”
Maya nodded.
The walk toward the barn began in a heavy, purposeful silence, the kind that squeezed the air from Maya’s lungs with every step. Snow crunched beneath their boots, each sound sharp and hollow in the winter stillness. The trail curved gently, revealing more of the old Hardesty property with each turn.
Maya hadn’t seen the barn since she was a child, yet its silhouette lived in the deepest corners of her mind like a shadow that never moved.
Now that shadow grew clearer, larger, heavier. The closer they came, the harder it was for her to breathe.
