When Eloise Pruitt, Charleston’s most exacting antique restorer, accepts a donated Victorian writing desk, she expects warped veneer, worm tracks, and maybe a silver button slipped behind a drawer. Instead, she finds a hidden compartment containing a letter written in fear—and a name tied to a woman who vanished thirty-two years ago without a trace. As Eloise peels back layers of shellac and silence, the desk reveals what its original owner tried desperately to conceal. In a city where old families preserve their legends as carefully as their heirlooms, Eloise must decide how much of the past should be restored... and who might kill to keep it buried.