The house didn't feel abandoned.
That was the wrong thing. That was what stopped her in the doorway.
Arianne stepped inside. The air wasn't stale. It smelled clean. Wiped down. She forced her hand off the doorframe.
Four months. It shouldn't have felt like this.
Lily didn't hesitate. She slipped past Arianne like she'd been here yesterday. Her hand caught Leo's wrist and pulled him forward.
"Come on." Already halfway to the hallway. "Let's check."
Leo followed. Steps quick. Familiar.
Their footsteps carried through the house. Lily's voice rising somewhere down the hall—she'd found something she hadn't expected. Leo's tablet chiming. The sounds of two children moving through a space that knew them.
This was where they had learned to walk. Where they had eaten breakfast and watched rain on the window and fallen asleep on the couch while Alex and Layla watched something on television too loud. This was the house where everything had been ordinary before it wasn't.
