CHAPTER 18: The Footage

Ethan didn’t answer immediately.

He just stood there, staring at her across the apartment while the question settled heavily between them.

What if Isabella Hale never died?

Aria watched something shift behind his eyes.

Not belief.

Not exactly.

But uncertainty.

And that frightened her more than a direct answer would have.

Finally, Ethan exhaled slowly and picked up his keys from the counter.

“If she were alive,” he said carefully, “Victor would’ve found her by now.”

“That doesn’t sound convincing.”

“It’s the only answer I have.”

Aria folded her arms tightly across herself. “You said there’s missing footage. Missing records. Altered documents.” Her voice softened slightly. “At some point, coincidence stops being coincidence.”

Ethan’s jaw tightened.

“I know.”

The honesty in that reply unsettled her.

Before she could respond, he walked toward the hallway.

“Get dressed.”

Aria blinked. “I thought I wasn’t coming.”

“You’re not staying here alone after Victor just found a way into this building.”

That was not technically permission.

But it was close enough.

Daniel Mercer’s office sat near the edge of the financial district inside a steel-and-glass tower overlooking the river. By the time Ethan’s car pulled into the underground garage, dusk had begun creeping over the city.

Aria barely noticed the drive there.

Her thoughts had been spiraling nonstop since the necklace.

Since the note.

You lost this the night you disappeared.

Victor Hale believed something impossible.

The terrifying part was that pieces of the world around her were beginning to behave as though he might be right.

Ethan parked in silence before finally turning toward her.

“When we go upstairs, let me handle Daniel.”

“That usually means people are about to lie to me.”

A faint breath of amusement almost touched his face.

Almost.

Then it vanished again.

“I’m serious, Aria.”

“So am I.”

They held each other’s gaze for a moment before Ethan looked away first.

That tiny detail stayed with her.

He was the one looking away more often now.

As though the closer they got to the truth, the harder it became for him to look directly at her.

The elevator ride upstairs felt endless.

By the time the doors opened onto Daniel’s floor, tension had already settled heavily between them again.

Daniel himself opened the office door before they even knocked.

His expression darkened slightly when he saw Aria.

“You brought her.”

“She’s involved whether we like it or not,” Ethan replied.

Daniel didn’t argue.

That alone worried Aria.

The office beyond him was dimly lit, lined with shelves full of old files and records. Unlike Ethan’s sleek penthouse, this place felt lived in. Messier. More human.

Daniel led them toward a desk near the back of the room where a laptop sat open beside several folders.

“I managed to access archived security footage from the marina district,” he said.

“The marina?” Ethan frowned.

Daniel nodded. “From the night Isabella disappeared.”

Aria’s stomach tightened immediately.

Ethan moved closer to the desk. “I thought those cameras were wiped.”

“So did I.”

Daniel looked uneasy now.

“That’s why this matters.”

He clicked a key on the laptop.

Static flickered briefly across the screen before grainy black-and-white footage appeared.

A timestamp glowed in the corner.

Three years ago.

Rain poured heavily across the video feed, distorting parts of the image.

Aria instinctively moved closer.

The footage showed a waterfront parking area near the marina. Empty at first.

Then headlights appeared.

A black car pulled into frame.

Ethan went completely still beside her.

“That’s mine,” he said quietly.

The car door opened.

A woman stepped out.

Even through the grainy footage, Aria recognized the shape of her immediately.

Dark hair.

Slim figure.

The same posture as the woman in the photograph.

Isabella.

Aria glanced toward Ethan briefly.

His attention never left the screen.

The footage continued.

Isabella looked frightened. She kept glancing over her shoulder as though expecting someone to follow her.

Then another vehicle entered the frame suddenly.

Fast.

Too fast.

It stopped sharply behind her car.

The quality of the footage distorted for a second.

A man stepped out.

Tall.

Broad-shouldered.

The angle made his face difficult to see clearly.

But Aria felt Ethan tense instantly beside her.

“What is this?” he asked quietly.

Daniel looked grim. “Keep watching.”

Onscreen, Isabella backed away from the man.

They argued.

No sound accompanied the footage, only silence and rain.

Then Isabella turned sharply toward the camera for half a second.

Aria’s breath caught.

The resemblance hit harder in motion.

Not just similar.

Nearly identical.

Daniel paused the footage.

The frozen image of Isabella filled the screen.

Aria stared at it, unsettled by the strange feeling building inside her chest.

Like looking at a distorted reflection.

“She really does look like me,” she whispered.

Neither man answered.

Daniel resumed the footage.

The argument intensified.

Then suddenly, headlights swept across the camera from another direction.

A third car.

Everything after that happened fast.

Too fast.

The footage glitched violently for several seconds.

Static swallowed the screen.

When the image returned—

Isabella was gone.

Only the man remained standing in the rain.

And this time, his face was visible.

Aria felt Ethan stiffen beside her.

Because the man onscreen was Ethan himself.

The room fell silent.

Ethan stared at the footage like he’d stopped breathing entirely.

“No,” he said quietly.

Daniel folded his arms. “That’s not all.”

He skipped forward several minutes.

Another figure appeared onscreen near the edge of the marina.

Small.

Unsteady.

Walking through the rain alone.

Aria frowned slightly.

Something about the movement felt strangely familiar.

Daniel paused the video again and zoomed in.

The image quality worsened, pixels distorting across the screen.

But the figure’s face became just clear enough.

Aria’s pulse stopped.

Because she was looking at herself.

Or someone who looked exactly like her.

Standing in the rain three years ago.

Near the exact place Isabella Hale disappeared.

“No,” Aria whispered immediately.

Ethan looked stunned.

“That’s impossible.”

Daniel’s expression remained tense. “The timestamp is authentic.”

Aria stepped backward from the desk, her breathing uneven now.

“That’s not me.”

“No,” Daniel agreed quietly. “It can’t be.”

But the image on the screen said otherwise.

Dark hair soaked by rain.

The same face.

The same eyes.

Even the oversized hoodie looked strangely familiar.

Aria pressed a hand against the edge of the desk to steady herself.

“This has to be edited.”

Daniel shook his head slowly. “I already checked.”

Ethan tore his gaze away from the screen and looked at Daniel sharply.

“Who else has seen this?”

“No one yet.”

“Victor can’t get this footage.”

“He already might.”

The room seemed to tighten around them.

Aria looked back toward the screen again.

Toward the girl standing in the rain.

Toward the impossible version of herself staring back from three years ago.

Then something else caught her attention.

A detail so small she almost missed it.

Around the girl’s neck—

A silver crescent moon necklace glinted faintly beneath the rain.

The same necklace Victor sent her this morning.

Aria’s stomach dropped violently.

“No…”

Ethan followed her gaze.

And the moment he saw the necklace, all color drained from his face.

Because suddenly there was only one explanation left.

Either someone had spent years creating an impossible lie—

Or Aria Bennett had somehow been standing at the marina the night Isabella Hale disappeared.