Novels by Mary

The black card trembled between Elena's fingers.SUBJECT ELENA — ACTIVATION: 72 HOURS.She read the words again.And again.They didn't make sense.Yet somewhere deep inside her, a strange feeling told her they were real.“What happens in seventy-two hours?” she asked.Adrian didn't answer.Elena looked up.“What happens?”His silence frightened her more than the words on the card.“Adrian.”He finally met her eyes.“They'll come for you.”“That much I already know.”“No.”His voice was unusually serious.“You don't understand what activation means.”“Then explain it.”Adrian took a slow breath.“When you were fifteen, the Black Crown conducted an experiment on you.”Elena's stomach twisted.“You said that.”“They didn't simply erase your memories.”He stepped closer.“They placed something inside your brain.”Elena stared at him.“What?”“A trigger.”Her face went blank.“A trigger for what?”“Your abilities.”Elena almost laughed.“Abilities?”“You have unusually fast reactions. You

“You're the reason it exists.”Damien's words echoed through the vault.Elena stared at the speaker, unable to process what she had just heard.00:27The countdown continued.Adrian grabbed her hand.“We're leaving. Now.”Elena pulled away.“No.”His eyes hardened.“Elena.”“My father knew.”“Whatever answers you're looking for, you won't find them if you're dead.”She looked at Carter, still kneeling on the floor.“What about him?”Adrian glanced at the two armed men.“They're coming with us.”One of the men raised his gun.“Not so fast.”Adrian moved faster.A sharp kick sent the weapon flying.The second man lunged.Adrian caught his arm, twisted it behind his back, and slammed him against the wall.Elena didn't waste a second.She grabbed Carter and pulled him toward the exit.00:19The red numbers flashed above them.“Adrian!”“I see it!”He shoved the second attacker aside and ran after them.They reached the steel door.It wouldn't open.Elena's heart raced.“It's locked!”Adri

Elena couldn't move.That voice.She had heard it in her dreams.In memories she wished she could erase.In the final moments before her first death.Damien.Her former fiancé.The man she had loved with everything she had.The man who had stood beside Victoria after Elena's death and pretended to mourn her.The man whose photograph was now sitting inside her father's secret vault.Elena's fingers trembled.“Damien…”Adrian immediately stepped in front of her.“Don't answer him.”The speaker crackled again.A low chuckle echoed through the room.“Still protective, Adrian?”Elena's eyes widened.Damien knew Adrian.Not only knew him.He sounded familiar with him.“How long have you been listening?” Adrian asked.“Long enough.”Damien's voice carried an irritating calmness.“I watched you enter the vault. I watched Elena find the file.”Elena looked around.Cameras.There had to be cameras hidden somewhere.“You've been watching me?”“Since you woke up.”Her blood ran cold.“Since I wok

The black car sped through the rain.Elena sat in the back seat, staring at the small silver key resting in her palm.Her father's vault.The words continued to echo through her mind.For years, she had believed her father had left her nothing but debt, enemies, and a ruined family name.Now she was discovering that he had been hiding secrets from everyone—including her.She looked at Adrian.“Why didn't my father tell me about the vault?”“Because you weren't ready.”Elena scoffed.“I was his daughter.”“You were also being watched.”“By the organization?”Adrian nodded.“The Black Crown.”Elena's fingers tightened around the key.“What exactly do they want?”“Control.”“That doesn't tell me anything.”“They control businesses, politicians, financial institutions. Sometimes they don't even need to threaten people. They simply make one phone call.”Elena stared through the window.“And my father wanted to expose them.”“Yes.”“Then why did he fail?”Adrian was silent.Elena turned tow

Elena stared at Adrian.For several seconds, she couldn't speak.The hallway was filled with smoke, broken glass, and the distant sound of alarms, but none of it mattered.His words were the only thing she could hear.“Your father made me promise that if you ever came back… I would protect you from the person who killed you.”Her fingers slowly curled into fists.“My father knew?”Adrian didn't answer immediately.“Answer me.”“Yes.”Elena's heart twisted.“How long?”“Before his death.”“So he knew someone was coming after me?”“He knew you were in danger.”“And he knew I would die?”Adrian's jaw tightened.“He suspected.”Elena laughed bitterly.“Suspected?”She stepped closer.“I died, Adrian.”Her voice cracked.“I remember everything.”The warehouse.The gunshot.The blood.Her body hitting the ground.Her father's voice screaming her name.And then darkness.“I remember being afraid,” she whispered. “I remember begging someone to help me.”Adrian's eyes darkened.“I heard you.”

Elena stopped breathing.The voice.There was no mistaking it.Even after death, she could never forget that voice.Sweet.Gentle.Almost motherly.But behind it had always been something poisonous.Victoria Hart.Her stepmother.The woman who had smiled at Elena's funeral.The woman who had cried in front of reporters.The woman who had held Elena's photograph against her chest and told everyone how much she loved her.The same woman who had secretly celebrated Elena's death.Elena's fingers tightened around the broken glass.“You…”Victoria stepped forward.The faint emergency light from the hallway illuminated her face.She looked exactly the same as Elena remembered.Elegant black dress.Perfect hair.Diamond earrings.That gentle smile.Only now Elena could see what she had been too blind to notice before.There was no sorrow in those eyes.Only calculation.Victoria lifted the gun.“Put the glass down, Elena.”Elena didn't move.“You killed me.”Victoria smiled.“You finally rem