Chapter 6: The Last Person to See Her Alive
923 Words
The words hit Aria harder than any betrayal.
“I was the last person who saw her alive.”
For a moment, the world seemed to stop.
The wind.
The city lights.
Even her breathing.
Everything faded.
Only Damien’s voice remained.
Aria stared at him.
“What did you just say?”
Damien didn’t look away.
Years of power had taught him how to face enemies.
But this was different.
This wasn’t a business rival.
This was a daughter asking about her dead mother.
And for the first time, Damien Blackwood looked uncertain.
“You heard me.”
Aria’s heart pounded.
“No.”
She shook her head.
“No, there has to be some mistake.”
“There isn’t.”
The answer came quietly.
Without hesitation.
Without excuse.
Aria stepped backward.
Suddenly every memory of her mother rushed back.
Her laughter.
Her smile.
The way she brushed Aria’s hair before school.
Then the memory she hated most.
The police officer standing at their front door.
The words that changed everything.
There was an accident.
For ten years she had accepted that explanation.
Now she wasn’t sure what to believe.
“What happened that night?”
Damien looked toward the city.
As if searching for courage.
Then he spoke.
“Your mother asked to meet me.”
Aria frowned.
“You knew her?”
“Not well.”
Another incomplete answer.
Another secret.
Her frustration grew.
“Then why meet you?”
Damien hesitated.
“Because she was afraid.”
Those words sent a chill through Aria.
Afraid.
Her mother had never seemed afraid of anything.
“What was she afraid of?”
“The Black Swan.”
Silence.
The same name again.
Every answer seemed to lead back to it.
The Black Swan.
Whoever they were, they had destroyed lives long before Aria’s wedding.
Damien continued.
“She said someone had discovered what she was hiding.”
Aria swallowed.
“What was she hiding?”
“I don’t know.”
For once, she believed him.
His frustration seemed genuine.
As though he had spent years searching for the same answer.
“What happened after you met her?”
Damien’s gaze darkened.
“She gave me something.”
Aria’s pulse quickened.
“What?”
“A key.”
The silver key.
The one Damien had shown outside the church.
Everything connected.
Everything.
“Then what?”
Damien’s expression hardened.
“She told me to disappear.”
“Why?”
“Because she believed someone was watching.”
The wind swept across the balcony.
Neither spoke.
Finally Damien finished.
“The next morning she was dead.”
The words settled between them like a storm.
Aria looked away.
Tears threatened to form.
Not because she doubted him.
Because she believed him.
And that was worse.
⸻
Meanwhile, across the city…
A black sedan sat parked outside an abandoned warehouse.
Its windows were tinted.
Its engine silent.
Inside, Sophia clutched her phone.
Her hands trembled.
The call connected.
A distorted voice answered.
“Report.”
Sophia swallowed.
“Arthur survived.”
Silence.
Then—
“And the notebook?”
“We don’t have it.”
The voice became colder.
Dangerously cold.
“You had one job.”
Fear flooded Sophia’s face.
“I tried.”
“Trying isn’t enough.”
Sophia closed her eyes.
For years she had obeyed every order.
Every lie.
Every manipulation.
And now things were falling apart.
“The girl knows too much.”
The voice paused.
Then came a sentence that froze her blood.
“Then make sure she never learns the rest.”
The call ended.
Sophia stared at the dark screen.
For the first time, she wondered if she was becoming the next target.
⸻
The following morning, Aria decided she needed answers.
Real answers.
Not fragments.
Not half-truths.
She carried the notebook into the library.
Sunlight streamed through the windows.
The room was empty except for Arthur.
The old man sat reading quietly.
When he saw her, he smiled sadly.
“You couldn’t sleep.”
It wasn’t a question.
Aria sat across from him.
“I need to know everything.”
Arthur closed his book.
For a long moment, he remained silent.
Then he nodded.
“Very well.”
He pointed toward the notebook.
“Open the last page.”
Confused, Aria obeyed.
The leather cover creaked.
The final page looked blank.
At first.
Then she noticed something.
Faint writing.
Almost invisible.
A message hidden beneath the paper’s surface.
Arthur handed her a small bottle.
“Lemon extract.”
Aria frowned.
“What?”
“Your mother loved puzzles.”
Slowly she brushed the liquid across the page.
Letters began appearing.
Line after line.
Word after word.
A hidden message.
Her heart raced.
The handwriting was unmistakably her mother’s.
And what she read made her blood run cold.
If anything happens to me, do not trust the Blackwood family.
Aria froze.
The room seemed to spin.
Not trust the Blackwood family?
Damien was a Blackwood.
Lucas was a Blackwood.
Every answer she’d found had come through them.
Arthur’s face lost all color.
Because there was more.
Another sentence appeared beneath it.
A sentence nobody expected.
The Black Swan is one of them.
Arthur slowly sank back into his chair.
Aria stared at the page.
Unable to breathe.
Unable to think.
Because suddenly the mystery had become far more dangerous.
The Black Swan wasn’t outside the Blackwood family.
The Black Swan was inside it.
And somewhere within that powerful family…
A monster had been hiding for fifteen years.
- Writer
