Chapter 83 - THE WOMAN WHO NEVER DIED
Elena sat at the kitchen table.
She looked exhausted.
“Your grandmother wasn't dead,” she said.
I couldn't speak.
“She disappeared.”
“When?”
“Thirty years ago.”
“Why?”
Elena looked at my father.
He closed his eyes.
“Because she discovered what The Circle had become.”
My stomach tightened.
“What did it become?”
“A machine.”
My father finally spoke.
“Your great-grandfather created The Circle to protect the family. Your grandmother believed it should remain a private trust.”
“And?”
“And some members wanted more.”
“More power?”
He nodded.
“They began controlling people outside the family.”
I looked at the photograph.
“So she tried to stop them.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Elena answered.
“She vanished.”
I stood.
“Where is she now?”
No one answered.
Then my phone vibrated.
A location appeared.
No message.
Just coordinates.
I recognized the place immediately.
The old coastal house.
The same house connected to the files we had discovered weeks earlier.
Julian looked over my shoulder.
“That's impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because that property was destroyed.”
I grabbed my coat.
My father stood.
“Emily, don't go.”
“I have to.”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“You spent my entire life deciding what I was allowed to know.”
He flinched.
“I'm done with that.”
Julian stepped beside me.
“I'll come.”
I looked at him.
“This isn't your decision.”
“I know.”
He took a breath.
“But Noah is my son.”
That stopped me.
He continued.
“And whatever happens next, I won't abandon him again.”
For the first time since our divorce, I believed him.
May you like
We left before sunrise.
But someone was already waiting at the coastal house.
