What Lies Beneath

Five years ago, Josephine Reed left her hometown behind without looking back.

Now, after the sudden death of her mother, she's forced to return to the one place she swore she'd never call home again. With her mother's house to sort through and a lifetime of memories waiting behind every door, Josie plans to stay only long enough to settle affairs and leave.

Then she runs into Ryan Taylor. Her childhood best friend. The boy she left behind. The boy who never forgave her for leaving.

At first, reconnecting with Ryan feels like slipping into a familiar dream-comforting, effortless, and impossible to resist. But the longer Josie stays, the more she begins to notice things that don't quite add up. Familiar faces. Unspoken secrets. The unsettling feeling that some things in this town have been waiting for her return.

And some people never learned how to let go.

Because beneath the nostalgia, beneath the grief, beneath the version of the past Josie remembers, something darker has been waiting all along.