Chapter One: The Fire
“Dad, we’re not lost, are we?”
Elijah Ward’s knuckles tightened around the steering wheel. He glanced at Eden beside him—her hoodie pulled over her messy curls, one earbud dangling free.
“No. Just... finding the best way in.”
“It’s a town, not a battlefield.”
He didn’t answer.
The GPS flickered. “Turn right in 200 feet—”
But before he could, a blast of orange flared across the treeline.
Eden sat up straight. “Is that... fire?”
He squinted through the windshield. Flames licked the sky behind a stretch of houses. Smoke curled black against the moonlight.
“Jesus.”
He hit the brakes. Gravel scattered beneath the tires.
People were running—out of porches, across the street, toward the flames. Some were barefoot, holding buckets. One woman clutched a baby, shouting.
A siren wailed in the distance, still too far.
Eden’s voice was small. “Should we—”
Elijah was already out of the car. “Stay here. Lock the doors.”
He sprinted toward the crowd, heart pounding. Heat smacked his face. The smell of burning wood—sharp, suffocating—wrapped around him.
“Back up!” someone yelled.
Two firefighters pulled a hose around the corner. Flames poured out of the windows, roaring louder than any words.
Elijah turned—just in time to see two deputies wrestling a teenage boy to the ground.
“I didn’t do it!” the boy screamed. “It wasn’t me!”
His voice cracked. His clothes were singed, covered in soot. His cheeks streaked with ash and tears.
One deputy slammed him against the hood of a cruiser.
“Hands behind your back!”
“Please! I tried to stop it! I didn’t—It wasn’t supposed to—!”
The cuffs clicked.
Elijah’s feet froze. The sirens, the screams, the fire—it blurred.
The boy looked barely sixteen.
Another voice joined in. “Where’s his momma?”
“Trailer next door. Still inside.”
Elijah turned to the woman who spoke. Her hands shook, eyes glassy. “I think she passed out from the smoke.”
“Did anyone get her out?”
A man beside her muttered, “Too late.”
The boy heard it. He wailed, buckling in the deputy’s grip. “No, no—NO!”
His cries tore through the night.
Elijah stepped back.
This was not how he’d imagined coming home.
Ten minutes later
The fire had taken half the house.
A woman’s body was wheeled out, covered in a white sheet.
The boy had stopped screaming. He just stared at the ground, eyes wide, mouth trembling.
Sheriff Tom Ward arrived in a black pickup—same rusted bumper as ten years ago.
He saw Elijah and cursed under his breath. “You weren’t supposed to be here yet.”
“I drove straight through,” Elijah said, still watching the boy.
Tom sighed, pulling off his hat. “Hell of a welcome.”
“What’s the kid’s name?”
Tom didn’t answer right away. “Matthew Cole.”
“He said he didn’t do it.”
Tom looked at him. “You back for the case or just sightseeing?”
“I’m back for my daughter.”
Tom’s eyes flicked toward the car. “She okay?”
“She will be.”
Tom ran a hand through his hair. “Well, this ain’t New York, Eli. Around here, when something burns… it burns for a reason.”
Elijah looked back at the charred house, the body bag, the boy now slumped in the back of a cruiser.
Welcome home, he thought grimly.
Back at the car
Eden stared out the window.
“You saw him, didn’t you?” she asked as Elijah climbed back in.
“Saw who?”
“The boy. The one screaming.”
Elijah didn’t answer.
She turned her head. “Did he do it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Will you help him?”
He paused. “We’re not here for that.”
Eden’s voice dropped to a whisper. “But you used to help people like him.”
He started the car.
The GPS resumed its direction like nothing had happened. “Turn left on Baywood Avenue.”
But Elijah’s hands stayed on the wheel, unmoving.
In the rearview mirror, the fire kept burning.
And somewhere, just behind it, he knew…
So did the truth.