MasukElena's POV I grabbed my keys and left before I changed my mind.The drive felt longer than it actually was…..I convinced Adrian to let me go alone without security. My brain was the loudest at that exact moment and the penthouse was suffocating.My hands were tight on the steering wheel. My brain wouldn’t shut up.The body.The way the sheet dipped weird around her stomach…..The bruises….The way Hale paused before answering simple questions.Something wasn’t right….I could feel it in my bones marrow.And if something isn’t right, I don’t sit around waiting for someone to explain it to me.The morgue was quiet and clean.The receptionist looked at me with that sad face people use when they recognize you from the news.“They’re expecting you,” she said softly.I breathed in calmy as I walked down the hallway. The place was cold and quiet like an errie graveyard.The coroner met me in the hallway by fate.He was a man in his late 50’s with kind, sympathizing eyes, a sprinting gait an
Elena's POV I lay on my back staring at the ceiling, eyes wide open.Sleep refused to come.Every time I closed my eyes, I saw water and Amelia's cold, battered face. The way the sheet clung to her shape like it was trying to remember her body.So I kept my eyes open instead.Adrian hadn’t slept either.I could hear him moving around the house……pacing around frantically.Drawers opening and closing. The low murmur of his voice as he took calls on the balcony. He spoke like he didn’t want the walls to hear him. I turned my head toward the door, listening.“…handle it quietly,” he said into the phone.A pause.“No leaks….. Not yet…. We'll communicate the funeral process after the autopsy results.”Another pause.“I don’t care who you have to call.”His voice was calm, but I knew that calm. He was only hanging on by a thread…. I could feel his spirit breaking just from his voice alone.I rolled onto my side and pulled the duvet closer, not because I was cold but because I needed some
ELENA'S POV The smell of rotting flesh filled the air.River water…Metal…..Something rotten underneath it all.I didn’t think bodies had a smell from this far away, but maybe that was just my brain filling in the blanks. I looked around.Police tape fluttered in the wind like cheap decoration at a crime scene-themed party nobody asked for.Flashing lights reflected against the dark water. Red and blue everywhere.It felt unreal.Like I was watching a true crime documentary instead of standing in it.Adrian stood beside me, rigid. His jaw locked so tight I could see the muscle ticking……He hadn’t said a word since we got the call. I hadn't said anything either….. I knew he was hurting.“Stay behind the line, please,” a junior officer said.Adrian didn’t even look at him. “I know the protocol.”The officer swallowed and stepped back.Commissioner Hale approached us slowly, like he was walking toward a bomb.“I’m sorry you had to see this,” he said quietly.I folded my arms, not because
Elena's POV I snuck into the penthouse like I was trespassing in my own life.My heels in my hand…..my heart racing.Everything Commissioner Hale told me kept replaying on a loop, like a song I hated but couldn’t turn off.“Your mother and Freya were close.”They met regularly.“Freya was digging into something they weren’t supposed to.”Friends.My mother wasn’t just some unlucky woman who died quietly and left me and my dad with grief. She had been involved. She had known Freya…….And Freya hadn’t died randomly either.Nothing in my life was random.I was almost at the bedroom when Adrian’s voice stopped me.I looked up, he was leaning the kitchen island, shirtless and sexy…his hair scattered in a tired kind of way. It was obvious he was tired of my bullshit…..he was not amused.“Where have you been?”I froze for half a second, then kept walking like I hadn’t heard him.“I went out,” I said.“That’s not an answer.”I turned slowly. He was standing straight now by the kitchen island,
ELENA'S POV I didn’t slam the precinct door.I wanted to so badly….after the argument I and Adrian just had. I had driven half way across the city by myself without no chaperone because I needed to blow off the steam. I had almost had the urge to throw a very big rock at the door when I arrived.Instead, I pushed it open with the kind of control that only comes from knowing if I lost my temper right now, I might actually ruin someone’s life…..and I needed answers more than revenge….. For now.The smell of Old coffee, Newspaper and cheap perfume was literally very intoxicating. I took three steps in…. straightening my gown in a final bid to calm the storm plaguing my mind. I took a deep breath walking towards a door with a gold plague that read “Commissioner M. Hale" “Ma’am…..You can’t go back there.”I stopped.Slowly turned.The officer blocking my way looked… young. Like his uniform still felt new on his skin. Like he hadn’t learned yet that some people didn’t come to police sta
ELENA'S POV I don’t walk out of the hall.I bolt….my heart almost in my stomach.The chair scraped loudly when I stood, a sharp ugly sound that sliced through the polite hum of conversation. Heads turned almost immediately. Someone whispered my name….. everyone had seen the headline.I feel it…..The stares…..The judgment.The way everyone were already rewriting me in their heads.My phone vibrated in my hand again. I didn’t look. More headlines were popping out.They had twisted it.Of course they had.I kept my head high anyway. Pride was the only thing holding my spine together at that moment. My heels clicked too loudly against the marble as I moved, each step stiff and robotic, like my body was on autopilot and my brain was lagging behind.I could feel moisture everywhere….I was sweating “Mrs. BlackThorne….”“ Mrs. Elena, could you clarify….”“Did you mean Adrian was present that night?”“Are you retracting your statement?”The questions stacked on top of each other, loud and







