Next Summer, Find Me If You Can

Chapter 01Evelyn POV"My friend, Miguel Hawkins, is coming for dinner tonight. I need you to get ready."Angelo's words landed in the kitchen like glass shattering against tile, and for a moment I convinced myself I had misheard him entirely.Ten years.Ten years since that name had touched my ears, and I had built an entire life out of the silence that followed it.I stared at my fiancé, waiting for him to laugh, to tell me he was only testing whether I still listened when he spoke.He didn't laugh.He stood there in his crisp white shirt, completely unaware that he had just dropped a body into the middle of our living room."I don't understand," I said slowly. "Who is coming for dinner?"Angelo crossed the room, reading my hesitation as exhaustion rather than terror. "I know you're tired of my friends parading through here lately," he said, his voice gentle, "but this one has a purpose. We have business to discuss, and I promise you, he's the last person I'll ever ask this of. He'

Chapter 03Evelyn's POV.The question hung in the air like a blade suspended above my throat.If Ethan walked upstairs and brought that drawing down, it wouldn't just be a sketch of a lake and a boat that Miguel would be holding in his hands. It would be us. My drawings had never been simple lines and shading. They told stories, captured faces in a right way that left no room for misinterpretation, and if Miguel stared at that page, he would see exactly what I had spent ten years trying to hide."No," I said quickly, my voice was sharper than I intended. "Ethan, go back to your room. Stay there, and let the adults talk."The whole table seemed to freeze at once.Angelo set his fork down slowly, his eyes moving toward me with quiet confusion, while Miguel's brows lifted, clearly caught off guard by the sudden chill in my voice."It's fine," Miguel said smoothly. "He can stay, I don't mind explaining whatever he wants explained.""No," I repeated, my tone leaving no room for conside