Chapter 3: THE WOMAN WITH NO NAME
535 Words
The rain had finally stopped.
Sunlight filtered through the curtains of the small cottage, warming the wooden floor, but the young woman felt nothing.
She stood before a cracked mirror, studying the stranger staring back at her.
Long black hair.
Deep brown eyes.
A small scar just below her left collarbone.
She touched it gently.
A sharp pain flashed through her head.
A white dress…
Screaming…
A hand covered in blood…
Then…
Nothing.
She stumbled backward, breathing hard.
The memories disappeared as quickly as they had come.
“Easy,” the elderly woman said, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Don’t force it. Your mind will remember when it’s ready.”
The young woman nodded weakly.
“I don’t even know my own name.”
“You don’t have to today.”
The old woman smiled kindly.
“My name is Grace. Everyone in the village calls me Mama Grace. Until you remember who you are, you can stay here.”
For the first time since waking, the young woman managed a faint smile.
“Thank you.”
⸻
Hundreds of kilometers away…
Ashford Manor prepared for Elena’s funeral.
Although the authorities had identified the body, the casket remained closed.
The injuries were too severe for a public viewing.
Guests dressed in black filled the grand hall.
Business partners.
Politicians.
Family friends.
Everyone came to mourn the woman they believed was gone.
Everyone…
Except one person.
Elena’s younger sister, Sophia.
She stood near the back of the room, watching every face.
When her father stepped up to deliver his speech, she noticed something strange.
He wasn’t grieving.
He was nervous.
His hands trembled.
His eyes kept drifting toward the entrance as if he expected someone to walk through the doors.
Someone impossible.
⸻
Adrian remained silent throughout the ceremony.
His fingers tightened around the folded note Elena had left him.
If anything happens to me… don’t trust anyone.
He read the words again and again.
Then he made a decision.
He wasn’t going to let the police close the case.
Not until he knew what Elena had been trying to warn him about.
⸻
That evening, Detective Daniel Hayes received the medical examiner’s final report.
He opened the file.
His eyes moved quickly across the first page.
Then they stopped.
He read the sentence again.
His heartbeat quickened.
“No…”
He grabbed the phone and dialed immediately.
“This is Detective Hayes. I need every officer working this case back at headquarters.”
The voice on the other end sounded confused.
“Did you find something?”
Hayes stared at the report.
“The fingerprints don’t match.”
Silence.
“The woman buried in that wedding dress…”
He swallowed.
“…isn’t Elena Ashford.”
At that exact moment…
Mama Grace opened the front door of her cottage to collect the morning newspaper.
The front page stared back at her.
A photograph of a smiling bride.
The headline read:
HEIRESS FOUND DEAD.
Mama Grace’s eyes widened.
Slowly…
She turned toward the young woman inside the cottage.
The same eyes.
The same face.
The newspaper slipped from her trembling hands.
“Oh, dear God…”
“You’ve been dead for six months.”
- Writer
