Ayla's heartbeat thundered in her ears as she struggled to sit up. Her wrists ached from the cuffs, her vision still adjusting to the dim light of the unfamiliar room. Stone walls. A heavy door. No windows.
Then, that voice again—smooth, venomous, with a chill that cut through her like winter air.
"You don't recognize me, do you?" the man said, stepping into the light.
He was tall, refined, wearing a perfectly tailored suit that didn't match the brutality of the room. His eyes, however, were what froze Ayla. Cold. Calculating. Dangerous.
"I knew your mother, Elara," he continued, circling her like a predator playing with prey. "She stole something precious from me. Her freedom. Her secrets. And now… you."
Ayla didn't speak. Her throat was too dry, her mind racing. Who was this man?
"Who are you?" she finally rasped.
He knelt before her, brushing a strand of hair from her face with the back of his knuckles.
"I'm the one who should've had her killed the day she ran," he whispered. "But instead… I let her go. And for that, I paid. I lost her. And she gave birth to you."
He stood, straightening his sleeves like he hadn't just uttered something unthinkable.
"I am the shadow behind Viper's rise. The one he stepped over. And now… I take what's his."
Ayla's breath hitched. This wasn't just about Viper. It was about Elara. About her.
"You're using me as revenge?"
"I'm using you as a message," he snapped, suddenly cold. "To your father. To Leon. To the world that forgot me."
Back at Viper's estate, chaos simmered beneath the surface. The security feeds had been wiped. No trails. No names.
But Viper sat in his private chamber, going through a small box. Old photographs. Letters. A single name kept appearing in Elara's letters—Cassian.
Cassian Graves. His father's former ally. A man Viper once trusted. A man who disappeared when Elara escaped.
His jaw tightened.
"It's him."
Leon, in his own domain, got the same name. Nico had dug it up from deep files, hushed deals, and forgotten alliances.
Cassian Graves—the man who loved Elara before Viper's father bought her. The man who swore revenge the day she vanished.
Ayla wasn't just bait. She was a ghost's unfinished business.