Chad stared at the near-illegible scroll on the piece of paper. Jo had handed it to him so he could fix the address into the GPS, while she dropped baby Ciara at the carer's house.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" he asked, peering out the windscreen at the lot, past the fat droplets of rain falling with a soft patter. Heavens had opened just as they had pulled into the quiet suburban neighborhood with properties that were into the million and above market.

"Yup." Jo nodded behind the wheel. There was no way she was letting Chad drive her baby anywhere, not the way he drove since that incident they would not talk about—the incident involving a certain someone and the empty gun. Since then, Chad was a nervous driver and she couldn't — or rather, wouldn't — have him behind the wheel with her baby in tow.

"It's the last known address he could dig up for one June Amari." She turned the engine off and grabbed the umbrella from the back seat.

"Where are you going?" he asked, watching Jo slip out into the rain.

"We've come this far. May as well ask the neighbours if they know anything, or her. You coming or what?"

Chad reluctantly slipped out into the rain behind Jo, pulling up his jumper's hoodie to protect his head. He quickly crossed the road and ducked under Jo's umbrella.

Jo headed for the empty lot that was June's last home address. They discovered, to their shock—burnt stumps in place of where a house should have been. A family home. Bits of debris still lay about amongst the tall grass behind the temporary wire fence.

"Wonder what happened here!" Jo's voice dropped an octave.

Chad swallowed with discomfort, vaguely remembering the handful of times June had ever talked about her home or her parents. She may have mentioned a fire in one instance.

"I think there was a fire here once," he said, trying to picture what the house might have looked like based on the neighbouring houses. But he couldn't really conjure an image since he had no details to go on from June.

"You think there was a fire here?" Jo sarcastically pointed at the remnants of fire still visible. She hit him on the arm gently and judged her head towards the neighbouring house. "Let's go talk to a few. See if they remember her and know where she might have gone, seeing how you have no clue."

She trudged ahead, taking the umbrella with her.

Chad scrambled to catch up.

She stopped in front of the house and turned to him with frustration. "How is it you were ready to pop the question, but you know nothing about her past? What gives? She's that good?" Jo's eyebrows danced suggestively.

Chad blankly stared at his sister, shaking his head. "She doesn't want to talk about her past, and I won't force her to tell me. I thought she'll tell me when she's ready; that I have my whole life to figure her out." He knew how idiotic he sounded.

"Oie, oie, oie... love has made many men foolish. Why should you be different?" Jo made her way to the front door.

"What does that mean? I thought you liked June." He sulked next to her as she knocked.

"I love the girl, but I feel you know her as much as I do, and that's not good!"

The door opened inside, though the person they were bothering didn't feel the need to open the screen door. Chad approved of that. Caution. He liked people who practiced it.

"Can I help you?" A female voice filtered through the dark screen. All they could make out was the woman's small stature.

"Hi, my name is Jo, and this is my brother Chad," Jo piped in calmly. "We were looking for June Amari, but we think we got the wrong house. Could you tell us if the address we have is the right one?"

She smacked Chad on the arm, flailing her palm open. It took him a moment before he realized and fished out the piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to her.

Jo held the paper up to the screen. "We are June's friend. We haven't seen her or heard from her in a few days, so we are worried about her."

The woman's silhouette drew closer to the screen.

"If you could help us out—" Chad began, but the woman interrupted him.

"Did you say you two are friends of Joon Amari?"

They both nodded, and Chad said, "Yes."

"Is this some sort of prank? Is this funny to you?" The lady began heatedly. "She's been dead for a couple of years! What are you two getting at? Calling yourselves friends? I've never seen your faces around here. Get off my lawn before I call the cops!"

Jo raised her palms up in surrender. "Easy, lady. We're just trying to find our friend."

But Chad refused to back down. "Please. I'm just trying to find my fiancé. She ran away three days ago, leaving behind a letter, and I'm just trying to find her before anything happens or she does something silly."

Something must have clicked in the woman's head as Chad said this, or it might have been the genuine fear in his voice. The screen door lock clicked open and a woman in her sixties pushed it open.

She eyed Chad from head to toe as if a cheetah scrutinising her prey. "I don't know what pipe you young kids smoke these days, but let me tell you something, pal."

She stepped out onto her porch and gave them both stink eyes. Hands-on-hips and death-stare. "June Amari died in a horrific house fire with her husband in that house there." She pointed to the lot next door, with its charred remained. "And that was nearly two years ago. So excuse me when a punk stands on my stoop claiming to be June's friend, trying to find her."

"Who is it, honey?" They heard a male voice ask from inside.

"A bunch of no-good punks, wasting our time!" The lady took a menacing step towards the twins, forcing them to descend her porch. "Don't let me see your faces here again."

They conceded defeat and headed back out towards the street. Chad almost tripped as he walked backward, too afraid to show his back to the woman in case she pounced.

"June's dead?" Jo was muttering behind him. "If June is dead... who have you spent more than a year with?"

He turned and met her gaze, stumped just as much as she was. He had no words to describe how he felt. It was all boggling. It was a good question Jo asked. Who the hell had he spent an entire year with, thinking she was June Amari — whoever June Amari was? Thinking she was the love of his life.

He shook his head as if to say, 'I don't know.'

"This is so fucked up, Chad!" Jo's voice sounded faint in his ears. "This is so, so fucked up! What the hell is going on?"

He wished he knew the answer to that. What the hell was going on?

June Amari died two years ago? So who was the June he'd been with? Who was his June Amari?—if that was even her name?