Chapter Twenty: The Ghost Between Us
The night before was intense and they woke up unable to act like it was nothing but they didn't give it a name.
There was a change,true but it didn't need to be labeled yet.
They had their morning routine,but the tension between them was hot and wide awake…
**************
Elena didn't mean to find it.
She wasn't even looking. Just scrolling idly on her phone, seated in the back of Aiden's car, half-tuned out as the city blurred past the tinted glass.
Then a headline snagged her attention:
"Heiress Abroad? Isabella Black Spotted in Lisbon."
Her heart dropped before it picked up speed making her breath cut for a little over 30 seconds
She stared at the photo. Blurry, distant, snapped by someone clearly hiding behind a plant.
But the shape of the face. The hair. The posture—
It looked like her.
Not her Elena.
Her predecessor. Isabella
The woman who'd vanished.
The reason Elena had been dragged into this marriage.
She didn't blink. Didn't move. Just tapped the headline and read the short paragraph beneath it.
"Sources report Isabella Black may have been seen outside a private hotel in Lisbon. If confirmed, this would be her first public sighting in months—raising questions about her sudden disappearance and her family's silence surrounding it…"
That was all.
No confirmation. No statement.
Just enough to split something inside Elena wide open.
She closed the app. Sat still. Breathed slow.
And didn't say a word.
But her heart was heavy.
---
When they got home, the story had spread.
Every tabloid. Every glossy lifestyle blog. Every social media thread.
The headlines got bolder by the hour:
"Vanishing Heiress or Runaway Bride?"
"Was the Switch Planned?"
"The Other Mrs. Black: Just a Pawn?"
Aiden was already pacing when she walked into the penthouse.
"I just got off the phone with PR," he said. "They're scrambling. No one knows if it's actually her—there's no confirmation." he walked slowly towards her.
She said nothing.
"Elena." he called like a question.
Still nothing.
Finally, she looked at him. Calm. Too calm for such commotion.
"You saw it?"
"Yes," she said. "This morning."
"And?"
"What do you want me to say?"
He stopped pacing.
"I don't know," he admitted.
She nodded once, like that told her everything she needed to know.
---
They didn't speak again until dinner. Or what would've been dinner.
She was standing in the kitchen, a glass of water in hand, staring out the window when he stepped in.
"I didn't know," he said quietly.
"I didn't ask."she muttered still staring at nothing but the window
He moved closer, slowly.
"She left without warning. No message. No goodbye. We were engaged on paper—but that was all it ever was." he spoke with a hint of urgency in his tone
She turned to him. "And I was the paper replacement."
"No. You weren't."
"But that's what people are saying, isn't it? That this—" she gestured vaguely between them, "—was just a cover story while she ran off to Portugal or Paris or wherever else she felt like disappearing to."
His silence was louder than any denial.
"I need space," she said.
"Elena—"
"I'm not angry," she said. "But I won't fight a ghost."
She walked past him.
And this time, she closed her bedroom door behind her.
---
AIDEN'S POV
He didn't sleep.
He sat on the edge of the guest room bed, staring at his phone, the photo open on screen.
Blurry. Indirect.
But it could be her.
Could be Isabella.
Could be the match that burned down the fragile bridge he'd started building with Elena.
And the worst part?
He didn't know what he felt.
Not about Isabella.
About Elena.
She hadn't yelled. Hadn't cried.
She'd just pulled away.
Quiet. Clean. Final.
He realized something in that silence:
He could lose her.
Not because of the press.
Not because of the past.
But because he'd never made her feel like she was his choice.
And now?
She didn't look like she wanted to be chosen at all.
---
ELENA'S POV
She sat on the edge of her bed, fingers running absently along the spine of a book she wasn't reading.
The headlines kept flashing in her head.
Not the photo.
The words.
"Just a pawn."
She thought she'd moved past that.
Thought she'd proven something.
To herself, if not to the world.
But now?
It felt like being erased all over again. She felt seen for the wrong reason.
Not by Aiden.
By everything.
She wanted to believe him when he said he didn't know.
She did believe him.
But that didn't change the truth:
She had stepped into someone else's life.
And now that someone else might want it back.
And what baffled her most,was the fact that she was scared of that someone else wanting it back.
---
Morning came too fast.
She didn't see Aiden at breakfast.
Didn't look for him.
She made her tea, buttered her toast, and flipped her phone face down on the counter without checking it.
She didn't want to know what else the world was saying.
Not yet.
---
He found her later, in the library. She wasn't reading. Just sitting.
"Elena."
She looked up. Said nothing.
"I'm handling it."
"I know."
"I'm not going to let this touch you."he vowed softly looking down at her with eyes like melted eyes.
She gave him a sad smile.
"It already has."
He stepped closer.
"She's not coming back."
"That's not the point."
"Then what is?"
She looked him straight in the eye.
"I need to know I wasn't convenient."
"You weren't." he said almost immediately.
He sounded like he meant it,but she wanted more,more than words of affirmation,she wanted…..
No she deserved more.
"I need to feel that, Aiden. I need to see it. Not hear it when you're trying to fix a scandal."
He opened his mouth.
Closed it again.
For once, he didn't know what to say.
And maybe that was good.
Maybe it was time he felt it instead.