A thin line of hallway light spilled across the ruined apartment floor. A hand appeared first. Pale. Trembling. Then a figure stepped into view, moving slowly, carefully, like someone crawling out of a grave she should have stayed buried in.
Elena Carter.
Aria's mother.
Alive.
Not a voice on the phone.
Not a memory breaking through trauma.
Not a dream she had prayed for.
Real. Breathing. Standing in front of her.
Elena looked older. Her cheeks were hollow, her skin thinner, her hair matted from the rain. A scar dragged down the side of her jaw. She looked exhausted, fragile, terrified. But when her eyes found Aria's, all of that fell away.
Those eyes were the same.
Warm.
Protective.
Breaking.
"Aria," Elena whispered. Tears brimmed instantly. "Sweetheart… I am so sorry."
Aria staggered backward until her shoulder hit the wall. Her vision blurred. The room spun.
"No. No, that is not possible." Her breath caught on a sob. "You died. Caspian said you… he saw… he thought… Mom, you were gone."
Elena took a step forward.
Caspian stepped in front of Aria before she could blink.
He did not lower his gun.
He did not blink.
He did not budge.
Every muscle in his body tightened with lethal, barely contained rage.
"You should not be here," he said, voice low and cold enough to slice through bone.
Elena winced as if his voice alone wounded her. "Caspian… please. I never meant—"
"Do not say my name." His tone cracked like ice shifting under pressure. "Not after what you did."
Rafael hovered to the side, tense, scanning every shadow. "Cas, we cannot do this here."
Caspian did not hear him.
His eyes stayed locked on Elena with a hatred that burned too deep.
Aria stepped around him, trembling violently. "Mom?"
That one word broke Elena completely. Her shoulders collapsed, tears spilling down her cheeks.
"My baby. My sweet girl. Come here. Please."
She reached out a shaking hand.
Caspian blocked her again, faster this time. "Do not touch her."
Aria grabbed his arm. "Stop. She is my mother."
"She is a liar." His voice dropped even lower. "She has been lying since the night Isabella died."
Elena covered her mouth with her hands. "I tried to save her. I tried."
"You ran," Caspian said. His voice cracked. "You left her in the rain."
Aria's heart cracked painfully inside her chest.
"Mom… tell me the truth." Her voice broke on the last word.
Elena stepped closer. This time Caspian lifted the gun higher.
"If you take one more step toward her," he warned quietly, "I will put you on the ground."
"Caspian." Aria grabbed his wrist, shaking. "Stop."
He froze.
Only because she touched him.
Only because it was her.
His breathing turned uneven, rough, as if every emotion he had suppressed for years was clawing at the surface.
Elena wiped her face. "I was there that night. Yes. But I was not alone."
Caspian went still.
Rafael's eyes widened. "Who else was with you?"
Elena swallowed tightly. "A man. Senator Richard Harrington."
Caspian staggered back as if the name itself punched him in the chest. His breath came out broken. "Harrington."
Elena nodded. "And someone else. The masked one."
Aria felt her stomach twist. "The Shadow."
Elena nodded again. Tears streamed down her face. "He was hunting Isabella. Not me. I tried to help her. I tried to get to her before he did. She dropped something. A drive. I picked it up. I ran because if I stayed, they would have killed me too."
Aria's voice trembled. "Then why did you not come back? Why did you let me believe you were dead?"
Elena sobbed softly. "Because I would have led them straight to you."
Aria covered her mouth as tears poured down her cheeks.
Caspian's jaw tightened. He seemed like he was fighting the urge to break something.
Elena reached inside her coat slowly.
Caspian raised the gun instantly. "Do not."
"It is only a photograph," she whispered.
She offered it with shaking hands.
The same photograph from the notebook.
Elena standing in a hallway Aria did not recognize.
Holding a baby.
A baby who was not Aria.
Aria's breath vanished. "Mom… who is that child?"
Elena's lips trembled. "That is Isabella's son."
Silence crushed the room.
Aria shook her head in disbelief. "Isabella had a baby?"
"Yes," Elena whispered. "She trusted me to help her. She did not trust her family. She was terrified of Harrington. She wanted to keep the child hidden."
Caspian dropped to one knee as if his legs gave out. His hand pressed against his forehead, breath breaking apart.
"No. Isabella would have told me. She would have told me."
"She tried," Elena whispered. "That is why she met me in the alley. She wanted me to get the child to someone safe. She never had the chance."
Caspian's face twisted in agony.
Aria reached for him.
He stepped back from her touch as if he could not bear to let her feel the pain shaking his bones.
Elena looked between them with guilt drowning her eyes.
"There is more. And now that you have seen this, you are both in danger."
Caspian rose slowly, a storm building in his expression. "Where is the child?"
Elena swallowed hard. "Hidden. Waiting. I was trying to reach you."
"Who else knows?" Rafael asked.
Elena hesitated.
Her answer landed like a blade.
"The Shadow."
Caspian crossed the room in two steps and grabbed Elena by the front of her coat, pulling her close.
His voice was a low, shaking threat. "Where is he?"
Elena met his eyes with heartbreaking calm. "He is coming for Aria."
The air froze.
Aria's lungs seized.
Caspian looked at her slowly. Terror cracked his expression. Pure, raw fury followed right behind it.
"No," he said quietly. "He is not touching her."
Rafael cursed. "We need to move."
Aria stared at her mother. "Mom… are you staying with us?"
Elena broke again. "If I stay, I will kill you both."
Caspian stepped between them, gun still in his hand, voice shaking with something dark and dangerous.
"He will not touch her," he repeated. "I swear it."
Somewhere down the hallway, a floorboard creaked.
All four froze.
Another sound followed.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Approaching.
Caspian turned toward the doorway, eyes turning cold and lethal.
"Elena," he whispered, "get behind Aria."
But Elena did not move.
The footsteps grew closer.
And closer.
Aria's pulse hammered in her throat.
Then a voice drifted through the thin hallway air.
A man's voice.
Calm.
Steady.
Familiar.
"Aria."
Every drop of blood in her body turned to ice.