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“The car was stopped!” he argued, looking up at me with large, innocent eyes. “I just wanted to look closer.”

“No. We are leaving.”

He turned his head, staring through the iron bars at the quiet front doors of the estate.

“Can we go inside?”

A cold chill raced down my spine, sinking deep into my bones. “Absolutely not.”

“Grandma took me up to the porch before.”

“That was Grandma. We are not going in there.”

“Not today,” he negotiated, tilting his chin with Caspian’s exact stubborn tilt. “But maybe one day?”

Thunder rumbled low and heavy across the sky, vibrating in the soles of my shoes.

A cold drop of rain hit my forehead, followed by another on my cheek.

I let my attention travel beyond the iron gates and up the long stone steps until it settled on the heavy mahogany front doors. They were closed, the entire property was so quiet that it almost felt like it was waiting for something.

When you’re ready, come home to me. I’ll be there… always.

The memory of Caspian’s promise came back so clearly that my chest tightened.

Six years ago, I hadn’t been ready to give up my own space, move into his house, and build my entire life around a man whose world still frightened me more than I wanted to admit. Now, standing there after everything that happened, I realized I still wasn’t ready… just for completely different reasons.

“Maybe one day,” I murmured softly, finally responding to Kaidence.

Kaidence beamed. “Promise?”

“I said maybe. That means get your little butt back inside the car before we both get soaked.”

He giggled and scrambled back toward the Range Rover, climbing into the backseat.

I lingered on the pavement for one more second, even though every part of me knew I should keep moving. Something I couldn’t explain pulled my attention back toward the house, drawing my eyes to that second-floor window again.

The glass was dark, and from where I stood, the room behind it looked empty. A gust of wind swept across the lawn and sent the heavy oak branches swaying, but just before I turned away, the velvet curtain on the right shifted.

It wasn’t much, just a small twitch before it settled back into place.

Still, I knew what I had seen.

The window was closed, and that movement hadn’t come from the wind. The motion was deliberate and controlled, as if someone had just stepped back into the shadows.

Every hair on my arms stood on end.

“Mommy!” Kaidence called out from the open car door. “It’s pouring!”

I broke from the trance and sprinted back to the driver’s seat.

I slammed the door shut, hit the central locks, and threw the truck into drive just as the sky opened up in a blinding torrent of rain.

The wipers struggled across the glass against the storm.

I kept my eyes locked straight ahead, refusing to look in the rearview mirror as the heavy iron gates disappeared into the gray wash behind us.

Because deep down, I knew that if I looked back, that window wouldn’t be empty.