Page 6 of Tangled Past
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 & Thyme, a cozy farm-to-table bistro, the same way she had every morning since she’d taken over managing the place a few months back. The owner, Evelyn Corbett, had decided it was high time she saw something more than snow in the wintertime. She’d headed down to Florida and planned to spend the next few months touring the South.
Maya would miss her. Evelyn had been a good friend of her parents and had looked in on her all the time since their deaths.
Maya had wanted to repay Evelyn’s kindness in taking over the place, and managing the bistro gave her a sense of purpose. The small restaurant featured locally grown produce and herbs—perfect for Maya who found comfort in making fresh food. The business had a steady clientele of locals who stopped by every morning for breakfast. Many had bragged about how they couldn’t even tell Evelyn was gone—news Maya refused to pass along to her boss.
The brightly lit Christmas tree—still in the corner because Maya didn’t have the heart to take it down yet—helped to raise her spirits. The pain from losing her adoptive parents a few years back was always close—not to mention a past before them that she couldn’t even remember.
The bell above the door chimed each time early risers shuffled in. Fishermen heading to the docks, locals looking for their first cup of caffeine. The occasional tourist seeking something warm to drink when caught by surprise at Maine’s stubborn winter onset.
Routine. Predictable. Safe.
Maya clung to safety. For someone without a past, it was her lifeline. The small restaurant always felt like a haven—a place where the past couldn’t reach her.
Even so, the safety of these walls couldn’t quiet the questions that came. Her entire life had started at the age of four. She had no memory of the people who found her or the hospital staff. She had no understanding of how she had arrived there. She was told she hadn’t spoken a single word during her stay.
Maya was twenty-nine now. Twenty-five years removed from the night that split her life in two. Everything before that storm existed only as a void.
The Callahans became her foster parents and eventually adopted her. Samuel and Ruth had given her a home. A name. A life. They were kind, patient, and protective, but there were many things they couldn’t explain. Like how she ended up at the hospital. Maya hadn’t been able to speak for days. She’d finally remembered her name, but nothing else about her past had returned.
The questions had always been there, buried beneath the routines of life.
Who had she been before the Callahans adopted her? Was she a daughter or a mistake someone wanted erased?
She wanted to know the truth, yet none of those questions had been answered.
Maya swallowed the tightness in her throat. She’d grown up safe in the arms of kind people, but the truth had always hovered just beyond her reach.
Ruth had homeschooled Maya through high school. After that, Maya went to college online. When she was in her sophomore year, her parents had been killed in a car accident on the mainland. She’d left the island for a while and stayed with a family friend in Rockland, who convinced her to finish her college courses and graduate, which she did. But Hope Island kept calling her back, and she’d returned. Evelyn offered Maya a job at the bistro and many years later, the managing position.
As grateful as she was for the time she had with her parents, there were nights when shadows pressed against her chest until she woke up gasping. Nights when her dreams filled with broken flashes she couldn’t piece together.
First, a scream followed by a man’s voice. Then a badge glinted in the dark.
Maya shook her head and set the rag aside, forcing herself back into the present. Dreams were just dreams. Her parents would have told her if something sinister lay in her past. They believed her biological parents hadn’t been able to care for her, so they’d abandoned Maya. She tried not to be resentful of her adoptive parents. After all, they’d done her a favor.
The bell above the door chimed again like it did dozens of times a day. Only this time was different. She glanced up and froze.
A man stepped inside. Her heartbeat stuttered as the sound echoed through the café—not just a bell but somethingdeeper. She wasn’t seeing the bistro anymore. The floor beneath her felt uneven. Cold. Packed dirt instead of tile.
Rain slashed through an open doorway. A flashlight beam cast shadows like broken glass across the walls. Smoke curled through the air, and then she was running for her life, her pulse raced, and her vision blurred at the edges.
The sound of a chime. Not from the bistro. Not from now. From somewhere deep inside her hidden memories.
Her breath left her in a single, violent rush as the present came crashing back into focus.
The man responsible for these flashes was tall. Broad-shouldered. A face carved with edges, eyes the color of storm clouds. Dark blond hair swept back from a wide forehead. He scanned the room like a soldier walking into hostile ground, his gaze sharp and calculating.
When his eyes landed on her, Maya felt the breath catch in her chest.
He didn’t look away.
For a moment, the sounds of the bistro faded. The hiss of the espresso machine, the murmur of voices, the scrape of chairs all muffled under the weight of his stare. She picked up the rag again as if it were a safety net.
He moved toward her, and she froze in place, pinned by the storm in his eyes.
