Younger. Smiling.
Standing in front of a house Cleo didn't recognize.
And beside her—half in shadow—was a man Cleo had never seen before.
Or maybe she had.
There was something in his posture. In the shape of his eyes. In the crooked way his smile twisted at the corner, like it didn't quite belong on his face.
Her chest tightened.
She turned the photo over.
One word was scrawled in black ink.
"Remember."
A floorboard creaked behind her.
She spun.
No one was there.
But the hairs on the back of her neck rose like she was being watched.
Moments Later...
Cleo held the photograph like it might catch fire in her hands.
The ink on the back—Remember—seemed to pulse under the lamplight. Her mother's smile on the front didn't match the unease curling through Cleo's gut. The man beside her, half-hidden in the shadows, wasn't just unknown.
He felt wrong.
Cleo's pulse drummed louder in her ears with every breath. She looked toward the window again, expecting something—or someone—to still be there.
But the street was empty.
The wind had gone still.
And yet... her skin prickled like she wasn't alone.
She moved back to her bed slowly, sitting at the edge and placing the photo face-down beside her. Her hands were trembling, but her voice came out steady.
"What do you want from me?" she asked the room.
Nothing answered.
Not the wind. Not the silence. Not the shadows gathering near the corners of the walls.
She stared at the photo again.
"What are you trying to tell me?"
The question was louder this time, angry now.
"Why now? What didn't she tell me?!"
The lights flickered.
Cleo froze.
The air turned colder, just slightly. A chill traced up her spine like a fingertip made of ice. The lamp beside her buzzed softly. Faintly.
Her phone buzzed again.
Another message.
No number.
No contact.
Just two words.
"Ask him."
Her throat tightened.
"Ask who?" she whispered.
But she already knew.
She could feel it settling into her bones.
This wasn't about her mother anymore.
This was about blood.
About the past.
About the man who had vanished from their lives when she was ten years old.
YOU ARE READING
When It All Came Crashing
RomanceBook One of the 'When' book trilogy. After getting dumped and fired in the same breath, Cleo Parker has no choice but to crawl back to the one place she swore she'd never return-her hometown. Broke, bruised, and burdened by a past she can't outrun...
CHAPTER THREE: When silence whispers back
Start from the beginning
