Midnight
1138 Words
I read the message three times.
Your husband will decide who dies.
My fingers went numb.
“What does that mean?” Vanessa whispered.
I didn't answer.
Lucian took my phone.
His eyes narrowed as he read the messages.
“Give me that.”
He handed it back.
“Who sent it?”
“I don't know.”
“Can you trace the number?”
“No.”
He looked toward the dark hallway.
“We're leaving.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Amara.”
“I've spent the last three years believing my husband was dead.”
My voice cracked.
“Tonight, I saw him.”
Lucian stared at me.
“And now someone is telling me he's alive.”
I held up the wedding ring.
“I need answers.”
“You need to survive.”
“Those two things aren't mutually exclusive.”
Lucian stepped closer.
“Tonight, they are.”
Before I could respond, Vanessa suddenly pointed toward the staircase.
“Look.”
A shadow moved across the wall.
Someone was standing upstairs.
I held my breath.
“Who's there?”
No answer.
Lucian grabbed a heavy lamp from the table.
He started toward the staircase.
I followed.
“Stay here,” he ordered.
“No.”
“Amara—”
“I am tired of everyone telling me what I can and cannot do.”
He stopped.
For a moment, we simply stared at each other.
Then he sighed.
“Fine. Stay behind me.”
We climbed the stairs.
One step.
Two.
Three.
Nothing.
The upper hallway was empty.
Then a door slammed somewhere behind us.
Vanessa screamed.
We turned.
The door to Adrian's study had closed.
Lucian ran toward it.
I followed.
He opened the door.
Empty.
Except for one thing.
A laptop sat open on Adrian's desk.
The screen showed a live video.
My breath caught.
A dark room appeared on the screen.
Someone was sitting in a chair.
His hands were tied behind his back.
His head was lowered.
“Adrian,” I whispered.
The man slowly lifted his face.
My heart stopped.
It was him.
My husband.
Alive.
His face was bruised, his lips split, and there was fear in his eyes.
“Amara.”
I rushed toward the screen.
“Adrian!”
He stared at me.
“Don't trust Lucian.”
Lucian's expression hardened.
Adrian continued.
“Whatever he tells you, don't believe him.”
I shook my head.
“Where are you?”
Adrian looked around.
“I don't know.”
“Who did this to you?”
His breathing became uneven.
“Your husband's family.”
I froze.
“What?”
“They've been watching you.”
“Who?”
He opened his mouth.
The video suddenly froze.
A message appeared across the screen.
YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES.
Then another.
CHOOSE.
A countdown appeared.
05:00
Lucian stepped toward the laptop.
“What the hell is this?”
The timer changed.
04:52
A second video opened.
It showed two rooms.
In the first, Adrian was tied to a chair.
In the second, someone else was sitting in darkness.
I couldn't see their face.
A message appeared:
ONE LIVES. ONE DIES.
My stomach twisted.
“No.”
Lucian stared at the screen.
“They want us to choose.”
A voice came through the laptop.
Distorted.
“Amara.”
I stepped closer.
“You have four minutes.”
“Who are you?”
“You know me.”
“No, I don't.”
The voice laughed.
“You've seen me every day for three years.”
My blood ran cold.
Lucian looked at me.
The voice continued.
“Your husband gave you one rule.”
The screen changed.
Adrian's face appeared again.
“Don't marry my brother.”
Then the mysterious voice whispered:
“But he never told you which brother.”
I froze.
Lucian's face changed.
“What did you say?”
The video went black.
A new photograph appeared.
It showed Adrian and Lucian standing together as children.
But there was another boy between them.
Three brothers.
Not two.
I stared at the photograph.
“Who is that?”
Neither Lucian nor Vanessa answered.
“Lucian?”
His jaw tightened.
“That man doesn't exist.”
“That's what everyone said about you.”
Silence.
The countdown continued.
03:17
I looked at Lucian.
“Tell me the truth.”
He didn't respond.
“Now.”
His eyes dropped.
“My family had another son.”
My heart pounded.
“Where is he?”
“Dead.”
“Are you sure?”
Lucian looked at the photograph.
“No.”
That single word terrified me more than anything else.
Suddenly, the laptop screen changed.
A live camera appeared.
I saw a corridor.
A familiar corridor.
My corridor.
Then the camera moved.
Someone was walking through the mansion.
I recognized the clothes.
Black suit.
Dark hair.
My breath caught.
It was Adrian.
He walked directly toward the camera.
Then he stopped.
And smiled.
Not the gentle smile I remembered.
A cold, unfamiliar smile.
The video cut back to the distorted voice.
“Three brothers.”
A pause.
“Three identities.”
Another pause.
“And one of them married you.”
I couldn't breathe.
Lucian grabbed my hand.
“We're leaving.”
But before we could move, the mansion doors slammed shut.
Every light went off.
The laptop remained glowing in the darkness.
The countdown continued.
02:01
Then someone whispered from directly behind me.
“Amara.”
I turned.
A man stood in the doorway.
For one impossible second, I thought it was Adrian.
Then he stepped into the light.
It wasn't.
He looked almost exactly like him.
Almost.
Except for the scar running across his eyebrow.
He smiled.
“Hello, sister-in-law.”
Vanessa screamed.
Lucian stepped in front of me.
The stranger laughed.
“You still protect her?”
Lucian's face turned pale.
“You're supposed to be dead.”
The stranger's smile widened.
“So was Adrian.”
The laptop timer reached:
01:00
Then the stranger pulled a key from his pocket.
The same key I had found inside Adrian's bedroom.
He held it up.
“You want to see your husband?”
I stared at him.
“Yes.”
“Then come with me.”
Lucian grabbed my arm.
“Don't.”
The stranger looked at him.
“Choose carefully, little brother.”
My blood ran cold.
Little brother.
Lucian wasn't the youngest.
And suddenly I understood.
The warning Adrian left me wasn't telling me to stay away from Lucian.
It was warning me about the brother nobody knew existed.
The stranger smiled at me.
“Your husband is waiting beneath the chapel.”
Then the mansion lights came back on.
And Adrian's mother was standing behind him.
Holding a bloodstained knife.
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