Chapter 4: The Man Who Knew Her Mother
331 Words
The next morning, Aria woke to shouting.
Not loud shouting.
Controlled shouting.
The dangerous kind.
She stepped into the hallway.
The voices were coming from downstairs.
One belonged to Damien.
The other belonged to a stranger.
She followed the sound.
At the bottom of the staircase stood an elderly man wearing a charcoal coat.
His silver hair was neatly combed.
His posture was perfect.
Yet his eyes carried something unusual.
The moment he saw Aria, emotion flooded his face.
Shock.
Recognition.
Disbelief.
The man’s lips parted.
“No…”
The word escaped like a prayer.
Aria stopped.
Damien noticed immediately.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
But the old man wasn’t looking at Damien.
He was staring at Aria.
As if he’d seen a ghost.
Slowly, he approached.
His hands shook.
“Those eyes.”
Aria frowned.
“What?”
The man’s voice cracked.
“You have her eyes.”
A strange silence followed.
Then Damien exhaled heavily.
The old man finally introduced himself.
“My name is Arthur Vale.”
Aria waited.
The name meant nothing.
Until he spoke again.
“I worked for your mother.”
Everything inside her froze.
The room suddenly felt smaller.
Warmer.
Harder to breathe.
Arthur reached into his coat.
Damien immediately tensed.
But Arthur simply removed an old photograph.
A photograph that had clearly survived many years.
He handed it to Aria.
Her fingers trembled as she took it.
The moment she looked down, her heart stopped.
The picture showed her mother.
Younger.
Smiling.
Alive.
Standing beside three people.
A young Arthur.
A teenage Damien Blackwood.
And a fourth person whose face had been carefully cut from the photograph.
Removed.
Erased.
Aria looked up.
“What happened to the missing person?”
Arthur’s face turned pale.
Damien’s expression darkened.
And for the first time, Aria realized something terrifying.
The biggest secret wasn’t hidden in the future.
It was hidden in the past.
And someone had spent fifteen years trying to bury it. 📖✨
- Writer
