The Lie Hidden in Roses Chapter 12

The Lie Hidden in Roses Chapter 12 The Border Map

A location near the Frostline Border had been marked on the map, with a small red star drawn beside it.

No notes.

No explanation.

Nothing to tell me what was waiting there.

My father had not kept the evidence on him. He had hidden it somewhere else, far enough away that if he died, it would not fall straight into the hands of the people who had betrayed him.

So he had left me a map.

A map hidden inside the music box he gave me when I was ten years old.

Maybe he had believed I would find it someday.

Or maybe he had prayed I never would.

I took a photo of the map, folded the paper carefully along its old creases, and tucked it back into the hidden compartment. Then I placed the music box exactly where it had been and closed the cabinet.

When I stepped out of my bedroom, my mother was in the kitchen making dinner.

“Mom, I can’t stay tonight.” I said. “I need to get back.”

She turned around. “You’re leaving already? Dinner is almost ready.”

“I know. I’m sorry. Work is just really hectic right now.”

I hugged her, holding on a little longer than I usually did, then forced myself to let go and head for the door.

At the entryway, I looked back.

She stood in the kitchen doorway with a spatula in her hand, watching me with the kind of quiet reluctance only a mother could show.

I made myself leave before I changed my mind.

The moment I got downstairs, I called Damon.

“Uncle Damon, I found it. It’s a map. There’s a location marked near the Frostline Border.”

“Good,” he said. “Send it to me. I’ll put a team together and have them retrieve whatever is buried out there.”

“No,” I said. “I’m going myself.”

“Have you lost your mind? They’re watching you. The second you leave Ravenshore, they’ll be right behind

you

“I know.”

My grip tightened around the phone, and my voice dropped.

“That’s the point. I need them to follow me.”

Silence stretched over the line.

“You want to draw them out at the border,” Damon said.

“Yes. It’s open country out there, and there won’t be many civilians around. If they make a move, you can close in. And if Rowan was taken near the Frostline Border, there’s a chance he’s still somewhere in that

area.”

“It’s too dangerous. If anything goes wrong-”

“Uncle Damon,” I cut in. “I’m not leaving him to face this alone.”

Damon let out a slow breath.

“You really are made of the same stubborn stuff as your father.”

A faint smile tugged at my mouth.

“Then help me get ready. I’m leaving tomorrow.”

When I got home, the fake Rowan was standing on the balcony, smoking.

The smell drifted into the apartment, sharp and bitter.

Rowan did not smoke.

He had never smoked. He used to say even the smell of cigarettes went straight to his head and gave him a migraine.

The fake Rowan saw me and immediately crushed the cigarette out, then slid the balcony door shut as if that could erase what I had already seen.

“You’re back?” he said.

“Yeah.”

“Where did you go today?”

“The office,” I said. “Then I stopped by my mom’s.”

He looked at me, and something small shifted behind his eyes.

“Maren,” he said, “are you hiding something from me?”

My heart missed a beat, but I kept my expression steady.

“What would I be hiding?”

“Nothing.”

He smiled and walked back inside.

I watched him cross the room, my palms damp with sweat.

He knew.

Somehow, he knew I had gone back to Willow Creek.

But how?

Had someone told him?

Or had he followed me himself?

Dinner felt wrong from the moment we sat down.

Finished

He didn’t make small talk the way he usually did. He just ate in silence, one bite after another, chewing with slow, even patience.

I said nothing either.

The meal dragged on inside a thick, suffocating quiet. Even the scrape of a fork against the edge of a plate sounded too loud.

After I finished washing the dishes, he spoke without looking at me.

“Maren, let’s take a walk.”

“Where?”

“Nowhere,” he said. “Just outside for a while.”

I didn’t refuse.

We left Ravenshore Heights and walked slowly down the road.

The streetlights stretched our shadows across the pavement, one slightly ahead of the other, as if even our silhouettes no longer belonged together.

He walked on my left, his right arm resting loosely around my waist.

Exactly the way Rowan used to walk with me.

“Maren,” he said suddenly, “have you ever thought about what you would do if I disappeared one day?”

The question came so abruptly that my steps nearly stopped.

“Why would you ask me that?”

No reason,” he said. “I was just wondering.”

I turned the question Back on him.

“What about you? If I disappeared one day, what would you do?”

He did not answer.

He only smiled.

It was faint, almost gentle, but there was a bitterness in it I could not understand.

It was not Rowan’s smile.

Rowan’s smile had always been open, warm, and careless in the best possible way.

My chest tightened.

Finished

For one brief, terrifying moment, I could no longer tell where the lie ended and where the truth began.