Chapter 4 — Check Under the Cabinet

Hayden went home without turning on the lights, moving through the dark living room with a soldier’s caution. He didn’t let himself grieve yet; he needed to understand the sequence first.

The dining room was the center of it. The Persian rug was gone, and the oak floorboards had been scrubbed with bleach, though stains remained trapped in the grain.

He knelt and read the room the way he’d been trained to — the pattern on the boards, the gouges, the partial boot prints. This was no amateur break-in.

Sabrina had been cornered on purpose.

Beside the heavy table, four drag marks scored the wood, as if a chair had been forced down during a struggle. He crawled toward the corner beneath the massive oak side cabinet — the ornate piece Abraham had given them on their wedding day, with a message attached.

So you never forget where Sabrina truly belongs.