Chapter 2: The Message She Wasn't Supposed to Receive
The drive to Flagstaff took nearly three hours.
Nora sat in the back of the agency car with her hands folded in her lap, watching the desert roll past the window.
Her phone had seventeen missed calls from Bradley.
She didn't answer a single one.
Conrad Vance's house was nothing like Paradise Valley.
It was small, clean, and quiet.
A wooden ramp led up to the front door.
Inside, the furniture was simple.
No chandeliers.
No marble.
Just a man sitting at a kitchen table with a cup of coffee, looking like someone who had learned not to expect much from people.
He stood slowly when she walked in.
"You must be Nora."
"I am."
"I want to be honest with you," he said.
"I didn't ask for this program.
My sister signed me up without telling me.
So if you want to leave, I won't hold it against you."
Nora looked around the small house.
"I'm not leaving," she said.
That first evening, while she was unpacking in the guest room, her phone lit up.
Not Bradley this time.
It was a message from a number she didn't recognize.
*"You should ask your husband why he stopped looking into Conrad's name after the second page."*
Nora stared at the screen.
Her hands went still.
She had no idea who sent it.
But whoever it was — they knew exactly where she was.
---
What Nora found on that second page changed everything she thought she knew about her own marriage.
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