Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN WHO NEVER LEFT
Adrian didn’t move.
The phone remained against his ear.
Dead silence.
Everyone waited.
“Adrian?”
Clara’s voice brought him back.
He slowly lowered the phone.
“My father called me.”
Victoria immediately looked terrified.
“That’s impossible.”
Adrian looked at her.
“Why?”
She didn’t answer.
Again.
That was becoming a pattern.
Clara watched Victoria carefully.
“She knew.”
Adrian looked at Clara.
“Knew what?”
“My sister didn’t disappear.”
The words hit him.
“What are you saying?”
Clara took a deep breath.
“She survived.”
Adrian felt the ground disappear beneath him.
“No.”
“She was alive.”
“No.”
“She spent years believing you chose not to find her.”
Adrian shook his head.
“I searched.”
His voice broke.
“I searched for months.”
Clara nodded.
“But every lead disappeared.”
Adrian remembered.
The missing records.
The changed addresses.
The people who suddenly refused to talk.
He thought it was bad luck.
Now he knew.
Someone had been cleaning up every trace.
Victoria suddenly grabbed her purse.
“I need to leave.”
Adrian blocked her path.
“No.”
She looked at him.
“Move.”
“Not until you answer one question.”
Her eyes became cold.
“What?”
“Where is she?”
Victoria looked away.
And that was when Adrian knew.
She knew.
Clara stepped forward.
“Tell him.”
Victoria whispered:
“You don’t understand what she was like.”
Adrian stared.
“My children’s mother?”
Victoria’s silence was enough.
Adrian’s voice became softer.
“You were supposed to love me.”
Victoria looked at him.
“I did.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“You loved the life you built on a lie.”
The wedding guests slowly began leaving.
The celebration was gone.
The flowers remained.
The cake remained.
But the marriage was dead.
Adrian turned back to Clara.
“Take me to her.”
Clara looked down.
“She’s not here.”
“Where is she?”
Clara hesitated.
“She doesn’t know you’re coming.”
“Why?”
Because Clara’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because she thinks you forgot her.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Seven years.
Seven years of believing he lost someone.
Seven years of living with a hole he couldn’t explain.
And now he discovered the person he missed was alive.
But she hated him.
His phone suddenly received a message.
One photo.
One location.
One sentence.
Adrian opened it.
And his blood ran cold.
The picture showed a woman standing outside an old house.
The woman he thought was gone.
The message underneath said:
“Come alone if you want the truth.”
Adrian looked at Clara.
Then at Victoria.
Then back at the photo.
May you like
Because the past he buried for seven years…
Was waiting for him.
