Chapter 1
“What am I doing here?” She muttered to herself, pacing back and forth outside of the locked door.
“This is stupid, you should just go home. There’s nothing to be gained here.” Her fingers twirled her silky auburn hair as she tried to talk herself out of making a huge fool of herself.
This had all started days ago. Sera couldn’t grasp how things had taken such a bizarre turn. When the strange man showed up at her job and offered to help her with her ex-boyfriend problem, Sera thought he was crazy. She didn’t know him from Adam and didn’t feel comfortable talking about the intimate details of her life with a complete stranger.
Somehow, that stranger knew much more about her than she was comfortable with. She knew that her ex was into some pretty sketchy stuff, but she never expected the likes of Psy Phillips to walk into her store.
The day in question was a Monday. Serabelle opened the general store as any other day. With a big yawn and a triple shot espresso in hand, she unlocked the door to the shop and set about getting things ready for the day.
After cleaning the windows of the morning dew and switching the sign from ‘Closed’ to ‘Open’, she sat down in the well-worn rocking chair near the entrance with the latest romance novel from her favorite author.
The store never got much business. In fact, it was on the verge of being taken away from her by the bank. She’d inherited the odd little place from her grandfather who had first opened it up as a Five and Dime decades ago.
Back then, the small town where Sera lived was on the main thoroughfare. Travelers, commuters, and truckers alike all came through and spent money at restaurants, stores, and hotels.
Since the interstate came through the city of Five Oaks, business declined. Eventually jobs left and the citizens followed. Before long, Five Oaks was only a shadow of its former self.
It made Sera nostalgic to think about the old city, but she didn’t know why since she’d never known it in its heyday. She could imagine though. Busy streets, smiling faces, and plenty of customers. Of course she could imagine it, but that didn’t make it any more likely to happen.
After years of fighting the inevitable and trying desperately to find a way to save the store, Sera finally resigned herself to accepting the hard truth: it couldn’t last forever.
To be more precise, it couldn’t last past two weeks from Friday.
She tried not to think about it. She didn’t want depressing thoughts like losing the store occupy space in her mind. She had precious little real estate in her mind available and she wasn’t about to let a rude tenant in. No, only positivity and denial for Serabelle. Just as it had always been.
She was just turning the page to Chapter Nine when the phone rang.
“Grandpa’s General Store,” she answered.
“You have a collect call from Drake County correctional facility; do you wish to accept the charges?”
A frown marred her otherwise pretty face. Who was calling her from jail? She didn’t have any family to speak of and her social life was pretty much the same. Sometimes the florist from across the street would pressure her into cocktails on the weekend, but Sera tried to keep those outings to a minimum. She wasn’t a fan of getting crazy or wild. She much preferred to stay curled up in the shop with a good book. It was much more comfortable… and safe.
“Yes, I’ll accept the charges,” she answered, curiosity winning out over all else.
“Hey sweetheart,” a familiar voice sent a pit of dread straight to her gut. Greg. How could she have not known it would be him calling?
Her finger hovered over the end button. She knew she should hang up on him. She knew that was the right thing to do. After everything that Greg put her through, he had the nerve to call her from jail? She hoped that he rotted away forever in that concrete hell.
“Don’t call me that,” she spat, barely containing the hysteria