Savannah

Lila turns to Dr. Julian Cross, a charming historian whose research into lost deeds and rigged loans echoes the locket’s clues. Together they read the city like a code: squares mapped to vanished families, initials carved into chapel pews, a prayer book naming the “Midnight Assembly,” a benevolent circle with rot at its core. Each discovery triggers a counter-move—files swapped, a shadowing sedan, a break-in staged to look like nothing. When the museum’s gala erupts in a blackout heist, Lila catches a terrifying glimpse of who’s orchestrating the hunt: power dressed as philanthropy, and it has eyes everywhere.

Forced off the polished paths and into Savannah’s hidden veins—bricked tunnels, an old cotton exchange, a sealed room that smells of river silt—Lila and Julian race to piece together Eleanor’s final ledger before the Assembly closes in. The locket is the key. The names inside topple reputations. And the city’s genteel façade is thinner than Spanish moss.

History never stays buried. As danger tightens and desire sparks between them, Lila must decide what she’s willing to risk for the truth—her career, her life, and the one person she can finally trust.