The day of Evelyn’s murder, Belle couldn’t stop shaking. Raven was coming home. Her first boyfriend. Her once-upon-a-time true love. She didn’t love Raven like she once had, didn’t feel a crushing weight at the thought of him kissing someone else. But her fear of losing him completely was like a fire that had been waiting to be stoked, embers burning and smoke curling inside her. One mention of him coming back to Rose Hollow, and Belle was aflame.

She had to protect him. It didn’t matter that he’d sounded stronger on the phone, like the scrawny-limbed, stoic child had grown into a man. Raven was not vicious enough to survive Evelyn Holloway. He was not wicked, and while Belle’s time with Lily had taught her that she had sweetness inside her, she would never be an innocent girl.

She would keep her loved ones safe. Belle took her phone out of her pocket, pulling up the calendar she’d synced with Edwin’s years ago. She’d needed to know when he’d be out of the house. Needed to know when he’d be attending a charity auction or a town luncheon, so she could slip off to visit Lily at the facility. According to the calendar, Edwin would be out of the house between five and seven that evening, and the second he left, Belle would sneak out after him.

But she wouldn’t be going to visit Lily.

Day bled into evening. Belle followed Edwin to the door, and he kissed her on the forehead before leaving, just like he had when she was eleven. She waved him out the door, locking it behind him.

Then she snuck out the back.

She could hear Edwin’s car pulling out of the driveway as she passed the little patch of belladonna on the side of the yard, and a few seconds later, she was heading for the street. She’d gotten alarmingly good at sneaking out of places. She’d gotten alarmingly good at sneaking into places too, but that day she headed to Raven’s front door, because she needed to know which cars were in the driveway: Stefan’s, Evelyn’s, or both.

Miraculously, the driveway was empty.

No one was home. If she hurried, she could search Raven’s room, and maybe the master bedroom, before anyone got back. Three years had passed since Raven’s departure. Evelyn could’ve destroyed any and all evidence in that time, but Belle couldn’t help but feel there was something hidden in a drawer or stuffed into the bottom of a box. Something to prove Evelyn had been torturing Raven.