Returnal | ONC 2025 ✔️

Haunted by the past, Rhiannon Carmichael returns to her hometown for her father's funeral, only to uncover a web of secrets and a possible murder, forcing her to confront the family she left behind.

***

Victor Carmichael, the titan of local construction industry, is dead.

Officially, it was his failing liver that finally did him in.

Off the record? He's been murdered, and the only one who suspects it is his prodigal daughter.

Gaffney, South Carolina, holds the ghosts of Rhiannon's past - the past she desperately tried to escape.

Forced to sift through fractured memories and lies, she must expose a killer possibly lurking in the heart of her family.

Every smile hides a secret, and every hug is a potential weapon.

Whodunnit?

Her mother, Lorraine, who seems to hold back more than tears?

Her resentful brother, Tom?

Then there are Beverly, the enigmatic interior designer with a past as murky as the swamps surrounding Gaffney, and Aubrey, the glamorous influencer whose connection to Victor runs deeper than anyone knows...

Each clue, each whispered secret, pulls Rhiannon deeper into a dangerous game. As the idyllic charm of her quiet hometown crumbles, the lines between friend and foe start to blur.

The more time passes, the more she realises: her returnal to Gaffney is not a blissful family reunion.

It's a deadly reckoning.

© 2025 EvelynHail
Exclusively on Wattpad

Based on prompt 61:

"The silence in room is deafening, as though it has a life of its own. It's time to rewrite the fairytale, but this time, the ending will be yours, and it won't be happy."