Chapter 14 — The Photo in the Fire
551 Words
Dominic hadn’t returned inside when the sky turned orange. Marina stood on the porch wrapped in a cardigan, watching him by the firepit, tossing in logs like he was trying to burn through something deeper than wood.
She made her way down, footsteps crunching softly over gravel.
“You okay?” she asked gently.
He didn’t look at her. “Fine.”
“You’ve been out here for hours.”
“Some ghosts prefer fire over silence,” he said, voice low.
Marina sat beside him, her eyes tracing the flames. “What are you burning?”
He was quiet.
Then—without looking—he handed her a worn envelope from the bench beside him.
She opened it slowly, pulling out a photograph.
It was old, slightly bent at the corners. But what stunned her wasn’t the age—it was the image.
A woman. Her. Or someone who looked just like her.
Smiling. Hair longer. Wearing a white dress. Standing beside Dominic, their hands entwined.
Marina felt her throat go dry. “This… this is Juliette?”
He nodded once.
“She’s me,” Marina whispered.
“Or you’re her,” Dominic said. “I wasn’t sure until now.”
Her hands trembled. “You knew.”
“I suspected. But I didn’t want to believe it.” His voice cracked. “Because if you were Juliette… then you lied. And if you weren’t… then I’d have to accept she’s really gone.”
Marina looked down at the photo again.
Same eyes. Same face.
Same necklace.
Her fingers reached for her throat unconsciously—and stopped.
She remembered it suddenly.
The necklace.
It had been with her when she woke up in the hospital eight years ago.
No one could trace it. No one knew where it came from. She’d worn it for years, a strange comfort she couldn’t explain.
“Dominic,” she said slowly, “this necklace… I have it.”
His gaze snapped to hers, eyes darkening.
“You remember?”
“No… but I have it. I always have. From before I remembered anything.”
He stood up abruptly, pacing the edge of the fire. “Then why fake your death? Why take the money and disappear? You destroyed me, Juliette.”
“I don’t remember any of it!” she shouted. “I don’t remember being her!”
The fire crackled violently between them.
Then Marina, voice trembling, asked, “What if I didn’t fake anything? What if someone else did?”
Dominic went still.
And then he reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled something out.
A torn letter.
Burnt at the edges.
“I found this in our lake house safe. Last week.”
He handed it to her.
Marina unfolded it carefully.
Juliette,
They’re watching you. He doesn’t know. Take the money. Leave quietly. Or he dies too. —R
Her hands shook.
Dominic was silent.
“I think you ran to protect me,” he said, eyes fixed on the flames. “But you never told me why.”
And in that moment, as they stared at the fire, both haunted by the past, they realized—
Someone else had pulled the strings.
And they were only just starting to untangle the truth.
End of Chapter 14.
- Writer
