All the Wrong Signs
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Rowan Cody
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61
Riley
RILEY
Ten years, gone in an instant.
The divorce blindsided me. I thought we were happy.
I was wrong.
Collin didn’t even have the decency to ease into it. I was standing over the stove, stirring pasta, when he walked into the kitchen and told me he wanted a divorce. Just like that.
Then came the gut punch—he’d been having an affair for over a year. She was pregnant.
I guess she could give him the one thing I never could. A child.
He used to reassure me that my inability to conceive didn’t matter. Said our dogs were our kids, and I believed him.
When the doctors suggested fertility treatments, I jumped at the hope. But Collin shut it down. If it’s meant to be, it’ll happen naturally, he said. I clung to that like a lifeline.
I’m glad now that we never had children. It would’ve made the divorce even messier.
He wanted everything—the house, the cars, even the dogs. He looked at me like I was the one who had betrayed him.
I tried to fight him for a while. But in the end, it just wasn’t worth it.
Once he agreed to let me keep the dogs and my car, I stopped caring about the house. It didn’t feel like home anymore.
My friends were furious. They wanted me to drag him through the mud, to take him for everything he had. But that’s not who I am.
The truth is, I didn’t even know who I was anymore.
For ten years, I was Collin’s wife, smiling at the right moments, charming his clients, playing the role.
I wouldn’t miss it. Not a single second of it.
Now that the blinders were off, I saw clearly how fake he was. How fake they all were.
My sister flew in to help me find a new place.
I made a decent living as a freelance journalist, enough to give me the freedom to work from home and set my own hours. That freedom suddenly felt like my new lifeline.
We found a cozy duplex with a big backyard, perfect for the dogs to run wild and forget, just for a moment, that their world had been upended too.
Before she left, my sister made me promise I’d decorate—really decorate—and send her pictures. I told her I would.
I lied. I’d been in the duplex for over a week, and I hadn’t unpacked a single box. What was the point?
Everyone thought I’d given up. Honestly? I was starting to think they were right.
Get your house in order, and the rest will follow. That’s what my sister had said.
I’d taken her advice…kind of. I’d pinned dozens of dreamy room ideas on Pinterest. But that’s as far as I’d gotten.
Just pinning pictures, pretending that counted as progress.
My dogs looked up at me with hopeful eyes. It was well past time to let them out.
“Come on, Luna. Come on, Shadow. Let’s go outside.”
The moment they heard their names, their whole bodies wiggled with excitement. I slid open the glass door and stepped onto the small patio, settling into a chair as they tore across the yard.
I pulled out my phone and called my sister. She answered on the third ring, her son wailing in the background like the world was ending.
I smiled. “What did you do to my nephew?”
Hollie snorted. “He’s furious because I won’t let him draw on the walls.”
I laughed. “Dream killer.”
“You come get him,” she said, trying to soothe his cries in the background.
“I wish I was closer,” I admitted.
Hollie’s husband was in the military, and they were stationed on the opposite side of the country.
“Me too, Riley,” she said gently. “How’s the new place coming along? Please tell me you’ve unpacked at least one room.”
I didn’t answer.
She sighed. “Riley…one room. Any room. Start with your bedroom or even the living room. I promise you will feel better. You’ll never feel right if your house is a mess.”
“I know. I did get some writing done, though.”
There was a pause.
“Riley, you can’t bury yourself in work.”
I looked down, blinking against the sting in my eyes. “I don’t know who I am anymore, Hollie. Nothing makes me happy. I just… I feel hollow.”
“You’re Riley Fitts. That’s all you need to know.” She paused, then added, “Wait—you did get your name changed back, right?”
“Yes, Mother, I did.”
“Speaking of our mother,” I muttered, “she thinks I need to get on depression meds.”
Hollie groaned. “No, you don’t. Don’t take advice from her. You need a hobby.”
“I don’t know,” I started.
“When I was leaving, I saw a shop around the corner from you. It looked like one of those new age places. You should check it out.”
“Maybe,” I said, though we both knew that meant probably not.
In the background, my nephew started crying again, louder this time. I smiled softly. “Sounds like chaos is calling. I’ll go check out the shop, see what kind of trouble I can stir up.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise,” I said, even if it felt like a lie. “Call me later, okay?”
“I love you, Riley.”
I smiled. “Love you too. Sisters for life, right?”
“Always.”
As I hung up, I wiped the tears from my cheeks.
I missed Hollie. We’d always been close, being twins.
There was no hiding anything from her. She always knew when I was lying. She could feel it.
Luna padded over and sat at my feet, her eyes full of quiet understanding. I leaned down, running my hand over her head.
I knew Hollie was right.
Pushing to my feet, I walked to the sliding glass door and held it open. Luna and Shadow barreled past me.
There was still about an hour of daylight left. I grabbed my keys and decided to walk to the shop Hollie had mentioned.
Who knew? Maybe a little weirdness was exactly what I needed.
My duplex really was in a great spot. If I ever got the motivation, I could walk to just about anything.
I’d always loved crystals, ever since we were kids.
It couldn’t hurt to look. Better than staring down the unopened boxes stacked in every corner of my house.
The shop sat on the corner, its windows half-covered with lace curtains and faded sun catchers.
The moment I opened the door, a wave of incense wrapped around me. I couldn’t place the scent, but it wasn’t unpleasant.
“Welcome to The Dark Side of the Moon,” a voice called.
A woman emerged from behind a display of candles and hanging pendulums. “Is there anything I can help you with?” she asked.
I gave her a small smile. “I’m new in town. Just thought I’d come check the place out.”
The woman smiled warmly.
“Feel free to look around. If you need anything at all, just let me know.”
I nodded and wandered toward the crystals, unable to resist their pull.
Coming here might’ve been a mistake. The shop had everything. Amethyst towers, smoky quartz clusters, obsidian spheres—every stone I could name, and plenty I couldn’t.
I tried to focus on what might look nice on my bookshelf, but my eyes kept drifting back to the same small cluster of stones.
“The stones you need will call to you,” the woman said softly.
“You just have to listen.”
I glanced at her, then back down at the shimmering display.
“I like them all,” I admitted, a little embarrassed by how true that was.
“But which ones are calling to you? Pick them up. Feel them. Let them speak.”
At first, I felt kind of ridiculous, standing there picking up stones like they were whispering secrets.
But as my fingers closed around one, a small piece of labradorite with a flash of blue that shimmered like trapped lightning, I paused.
I couldn’t explain it, but something about it felt…right.
I grabbed a little woven basket from the display and began selecting a few more stones, letting instinct guide me.
It wasn’t until I noticed the handwritten cards beneath each one that I realized they all had specific meanings. Protection. Clarity. Transformation.
Turning, I scanned the shop for the woman.
“Do you have a book about crystals?” I asked.
She nodded and led me to a small wooden shelf tucked into the corner.
“This one’s a great place to start,” she said, handing me a book on crystals. “I actually own this copy myself.”
I took it, flipping through the pages.
But as I glanced over her shoulder, my eyes landed on a deep purple book with silver lettering. Something about it pulled at me.
“What’s Wicca?” I asked, reaching for it. “Is it like witchcraft?”
The woman smiled. “If you want the textbook answer, Wicca is a contemporary, nature-based pagan religion. A spiritual path rooted in the cycles of the earth.”
She paused, then added, “People often mix it up with witchcraft, but they’re not exactly the same. All Wiccans are witches, but not all witches are Wiccan.”
“So Wicca’s more…nature-focused?”
She nodded gently.
I picked up the purple book, running my fingers over the embossed title.
“I’ve just been through a really rough patch,” I admitted. “I’m trying to figure out who I am again.”
The woman’s expression softened with understanding. “That book is a great place to start. It covers the basics—Wicca, crystals, symbols, sigils. It even introduces meditation and dream interpretation.”
She paused.
“It’s written for beginners, but by the end, you’ll know if it resonates with you…if it’s a path worth exploring further.”
With the books tucked in my arms, I followed her to the register.
“So,” she said as she began ringing me up, “you’re new to the area?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Freshly divorced. I needed a clean break.”
“New beginnings are scary,” she said, bagging the books. “But they give us the chance to finally be who we really are. No masks. No expectations. Just truth.”
I handed her my debit card and nodded.
“I was just telling my sister, I don’t even know who I am anymore. I’ve spent the last ten years being who someone else wanted me to be.”
“Well,” she said, sliding my card through the reader, “if you ever get bored, feel free to stop by. This town isn’t exactly a haven for witches. I’m Lakyn, by the way. I work here…and live here.”
“Riley,” I said, accepting my card back.
Lakyn turned and grabbed two small pouches from behind the counter.
“I added a few extras for you,” she said with a wink.
I smiled, genuinely. “Thank you so much, Lakyn. You’re basically the only person I know here.”
She laughed. “Girl, I feel sorry for you. We should do brunch soon. I’m here from lunch to eight every day. Well”—she gestured upward—“I’m always here, but you know.”
I nodded. “Absolutely. Let me give you my number.”
***
Once I got home, I let the dogs back out into the yard as I pulled my things from my bags.
The books came first. Then the crystals, cool in my hands, each one humming with something I couldn’t quite name. I made a mental note to read more about them tonight.
But what caught my attention most were the two pouches Lakyn had added.
I told myself it was probably something every customer got, just a little shop perk, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that these were different.
The first pouch held two bracelets, one made of deep green stones, the other a swirl of violet and black.
The second pouch revealed four small, unpolished stones. Random, maybe. But something about them felt intentional.
Like they’d been chosen.
Skipping dinner, I made a cup of coffee before letting the dogs back in. Once it was ready, I reached for the book on crystals but changed my mind.
Instead, I grabbed the Wicca book, sat in my recliner, and turned to page one.
Maybe this would be the start of something good for me.
Once I started reading, I couldn’t put the book down.
I was hooked, fascinated enough to start tabbing pages I wanted to revisit.
Runes, crystals, tarot cards, sigils…it was a lot to take in, and a little overwhelming. There was even talk of demons. Was it possible…Collin was a demon?
I laughed and turned the page.
Demons. Right.
It’s not like they were real.
Even if they were real, who in their right mind would summon one?
You’d have to be desperate…or crazy.
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