Into the Fog (Fisher's Bay 1) ✅

Time for Bad Decisions

Nadia took a deep breath and heaved open the door to the study. It had been two days since the second body showed up in the marina and she had finally made good on her plans to start clearing out her grandmother's things. She had gone through two closets and boxed up everything that would need to go to town for donation. The boxes were now sitting on the porch, waiting for her to load them into her car.

Unfortunately, Nadia was still building up the courage to go into town and face the accusations again.

At least she hadn't been sleepwalking, waking up with no sand or dirt on her body. But that didn't mean she was sleeping better, each night bringing more and more dreams about Remy. Or the ocean. Which was... weird.

She had spent most of today napping as it was, but Nadia figured even if it was nearly dinner time, she could start going through the study. There were sure to be a lot of things that needed to be donated.

She stopped in the doorway and flipped on the light, slowly taking in the room. It was void of dust, telling her that Chloe must have cleaned up this room along with the rest of the house before Nadia arrived.

The back wall was filled with large windows with a big oak desk positioned in front of them, giving whoever worked there the perfect view out over the ocean. Windows also lined the wall adjacent to it with a low bookshelf underneath full of books of varying sizes and colors. The one common denominator was that they looked old. Another large bookshelf - also full of books - lined the wall that ran to the door. The wall to her left had a few old filing cabinets.

There were also photos on the walls, the desk and lining the top of the low bookshelf, all of them featuring her grandmother, mother, and her grandfather.

Nadia took a step into the room, a sort of reverence coming over her. She was afraid to touch anything, noting that this room had been kept pristine. Walking over to the desk, she looked over it, finding it organized, though the items were obviously dated. Reaching down, she picked up a worn day planner and flipped through it, finding it full of appointments and recipes. Placing it down, she walked over to the tall bookshelf opposite the desk, looking over the titles of the books.

Most of them appeared to be folklore based on the titles. They had names like "Stories of the Sea Folk" and "Shifters of North America."

"Interesting," Nadia murmured before turning and walking back to the desk.

Maybe she would keep the books. If anything, they looked like they could be great reading material. And they were all obviously old. Maybe the town library could use them? And well, she was a bit surprised to find that her grandparents had been fans of folklore. Or maybe it wasn't that strange.

She didn't know anything about her grandparents.

Pulling out the large leather chair, Nadia sat down in it and looked around the desk, trying to decide on which drawer to start with first. She ended up opening the top drawer on her right, finding folders, pens, and the usual things that filled desk drawers. Pulling the top yellowed file folder out, she placed it on the desk and opened it.

Her heart nearly stopped.

She immediately recognized her mother's handwriting.

Nadia quickly flipped through the folder, finding there were several in there. All were short and worded in a strange, vague way. They were also not signed and contained instructions to burn them, which her grandmother had obviously not followed.

Her mother had been writing to her grandmother all these years. And while they never said her name, Nadia could tell they were about her. Mostly how she was doing at school. That she liked writing. Putting the letters aside, Nadia froze when she came to the papers at the back, her eyes widening and filling with tears as one hand came up to her mouth.