Title: Never Left

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They had accepted it—Y/N was gone. After the wreck, the current, the endless searching… there was nothing else to hold onto. The Pogues buried her in silence, in songs that didn’t sound right anymore, in empty chairs at bonfires.

But Kiara’s discovery changed everything.

The phone. The video. The whispered plea: “Please find me.”

Y/N never left them. She was lost, and maybe… maybe someone didn’t want her to be found.

And that’s where Rafe comes in.

No one would have guessed it. Not JJ, not even Kiara—who swore she’d never say his name without venom. But what they didn’t know was that before she went missing, Rafe had started seeing Y/N differently. It wasn’t part of a plan. It wasn’t a game. Somewhere between stolen glances and sharp words that softened, he fell for her.

And when she disappeared, he broke in a way no one saw.

He’d been hiding something ever since.

When the Pogues show up asking questions—about the strange boat, about that part of the marsh no one goes near—Rafe panics. He brushes them off. Tells them they’re chasing ghosts. But when Kiara tells him, "We found her phone," something flickers in his eyes. Guilt. Or maybe something else.

Later that night, he sits alone in his truck, pulling out a crumpled photograph.

Y/N. Laughing, mid-spin, barefoot on the sand. He had taken it when no one was looking.

He whispers, almost to himself,