Chapter 2 The Shadow on the Pier

For a second—one long, cold second—I couldn’t breathe. The fog pressed against my skin like ice, and the ring box trembled in my hands.

The shadow was gone now, swallowed whole by the white haze rolling across the harbor. But I knew what I saw. I knew that wasn’t my imagination or grief playing tricks.

Someone had been watching me.

Someone who didn’t want to be seen.

My fingers tightened around the velvet box as I stepped backward, boots scraping against damp wood. “Hello?” My voice shook, and I hated that it did. “Who’s there?”

Nothing.

Only the dull clang of a buoy and the restless hush of the tide.

I turned toward the harbor entrance, heart pounding harder with each step. Whoever that silhouette was, they hadn’t moved toward me. They’d moved away, slipping off the pier—almost like they’d been waiting. Or hiding. Or both.

By the time I reached the main road, my hands were ice and my chest felt like it had swallowed a storm.

I looked down at the ring box again.

Silas Merrick had planned to ask me something that night.

Something lifechanging.

He hadn’t abandoned me.

He hadn’t run.

And that truth shattered something inside me that had been holding me upright for three days.

He had planned a future.

And someone had taken that from him.

At Home

When I walked through the front door of my mother’s house on Shore Lane, the smell of baked apples hit me first. My mother always baked when she worried.

She must have baked twenty pies since Silas vanished.

She looked up from the kitchen, relief and fear tangled in her eyes. “Eveline, where have you—oh. You’re freezing.”

I stepped inside without answering. My fingers still curled around the ring box. The fog clung to my hair and jacket, dripping onto the hardwood floor.

“Eve?” she whispered, her voice tightening. “What happened?”

I opened my hand.

Her breath caught. “Oh my God.”

“I found it on the pier,” I said softly. “Under a rope. Like it fell out of his pocket.”

“Oh, sweetheart…” She reached for me, but I pulled away—not in anger, just overwhelmed.

“He was going to ask me,” I said. “That night. He was going to—”

“I know.”

“No, you don’t,” I whispered. “Because that means he was planning a tomorrow with me. And someone took him before he could get to it.”

My mother pressed her lips together, eyes shining. “Sit down, Eveline.”

But I couldn’t.

I stood there in the middle of the living room, shaking with something that wasn't entirely fear. It was anger. A sharp, rising heat that felt almost foreign in my body.

Someone hurt Silas.

Someone took him from the pier.

Someone had been standing there tonight, watching me find the ring.

And I was done being quiet.

Someone, somewhere, knew something.

Later That Night

The phone rang at 10:42 p.m.

Sharp. Unexpected.

My heart leaped into my throat.

I snatched it up. “Silas?”

Silence.

Then—static.

Soft, irregular, crackling like a damaged radio line.

“Hello?” I pressed the phone tighter. “Hello—who is this?”

More static.

And then a faint, almost inaudible scrape.

Something like breathing.

“Silas?” My pulse spiked. “If it’s you, please—say anything. Anything.”

Another crackle.

A soft thud.

A muffled sound I couldn’t identify.

Then the line went dead.

“Wait—hello? Hello?” I stared at the phone as if I could force it back to life with sheer desperation.

My mother hurried in. “Eveline, who was it?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered. “But someone called and didn’t speak.”

“Probably a wrong number—”

“No.” I shook my head. “That wasn’t a wrong number.”

She swallowed. “Do you think it was—”

“Silas?” My voice cracked. “I don’t know. But it was something.”

My mother hesitated. “Should we tell the sheriff?”

“I don’t want it to disappear into paperwork,” I muttered. “I want answers.”

I grabbed my jacket again.

“Eveline!” Her voice rose sharply. “It’s almost eleven—where are you going?”

I paused at the door.

The fog pressed against the windows, thick as wool.

“I’m going back to the pier,” I said. “If someone is trying to reach me… it starts there.”

My mother stepped toward me, eyes wide. “Sweetheart, you’re scared. That place is—”

“I’m scared of not knowing,” I said, voice breaking. “I’m scared of waking up tomorrow and realizing I could’ve done something tonight and didn’t.”

She closed her eyes, pain etched in her face. “Then I’m coming with you.”

“No.” I shook my head. “If something’s happening, I’m not dragging you into it.”

“That’s not your choice,” she whispered. “You’re my daughter. I won’t let you walk into danger alone.”

I didn’t have the strength to argue.

So the two of us stepped out into the cold night.

Back at the Harbor

The fog was denser than before—thick bands of white sweeping across the pier like ghosts rushing past.

The harbor lights flickered.

One went out entirely.

My mother stepped closer to me.

“Let’s be quick,” she murmured.

We walked toward Dock 12, our boots echoing unnervingly loud against wet boards. The fog curled around our ankles. A gust of wind rattled the chains on a small lobster boat nearby.

Then—

A sound.

A soft taptaptap coming from the end of the pier.

My mother stiffened. “What is that?”

I swallowed hard. “It’s coming from where I found the ring.”

We moved closer. Every instinct told me to turn back, but I didn’t. Silas’s ring box pressed against my palm inside my pocket, grounding me.

The fog parted just enough to reveal something on the railing.

A piece of paper.

Held down by a small stone.

My breath caught. “Mom—”

“Don’t touch it yet,” she whispered, gripping my arm.

But I had to.

I stepped forward and lifted the paper.

It was damp around the edges, but the writing was sharp. Fresh.

Four words.

Just four.

Words that made my stomach drop and my legs nearly buckle.

"You weren’t alone, Eveline."