CHAPTER 24: The Woman Below

Aria stopped breathing.

The woman stood motionless beside Victor Hale’s car while rain poured around her in silver sheets. Even from this distance, the resemblance struck like a physical blow.

Dark hair.

Pale skin.

The crescent moon necklace catching light against her throat.

And that smile.

Slow.

Knowing.

Unsettling.

Beside her, Ethan went completely rigid.

Aria looked at him instantly.

“You know her.”

The silence lasted only a second.

But it was enough.

“Yes.”

The answer landed heavily.

“Who is she?”

Ethan’s gaze never left the street below. “Her name is Celeste Navarro.”

The woman continued staring upward toward the hotel windows as though she knew exactly where they were standing.

Aria’s skin prickled.

“Why is she with Victor?”

“I don’t know.”

But Ethan’s expression suggested he had theories.

Bad ones.

The woman below finally slipped back inside the car. A second later, the door shut, and the vehicle pulled smoothly away into the rain-dark streets.

Aria realized only then that her hands had curled tightly into fists.

“She looked directly at us.”

“Yes.”

“That wasn’t accidental.”

“No.”

The room fell quiet again except for the storm outside.

Aria turned toward him slowly. “Who is Celeste Navarro?”

Ethan walked away from the window before answering.

“She worked for the Hale family years ago.”

“What kind of work?”

Another hesitation.

God.

Every conversation with him felt like peeling glass out of skin.

“She was Isabella’s caretaker for a while.”

Aria frowned slightly. “Caretaker?”

“When Isabella started struggling emotionally after her mother died.”

Something about the wording felt careful.

Too careful.

Aria studied him closely. “You don’t trust her.”

“No.”

“Why?”

Ethan exhaled slowly before answering.

“Because Celeste had a habit of appearing whenever things went wrong.”

That sentence settled uneasily inside her.

The emergency lights had finally faded completely now, leaving the suite illuminated only by the city beyond the windows and the soft interior lamps that had returned after the power disruption.

Still, the atmosphere remained tense.

Like the room itself knew something was coming.

Aria moved back toward the couch slowly, her thoughts racing.

“So Victor sent her here to scare us?”

“Possibly.”

“But why reveal her openly?”

Ethan’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“Because Victor never does anything without intention.”

Aria leaned back against the arm of the couch, exhausted already.

“Everybody in your world talks like they’re in the middle of a war.”

A faint shadow crossed Ethan’s expression.

“Sometimes they are.”

The answer was too serious to dismiss.

Before Aria could respond, her phone buzzed again.

Unknown number.

She almost ignored it.

Then another message appeared immediately after.

You should ask Ethan what Celeste was doing the night Isabella vanished.

Aria stared at the screen.

Of course.

Always another layer.

Ethan noticed her expression immediately. “What now?”

She handed him the phone silently.

The second he read the message, something hardened visibly in his face.

“You know exactly what this means,” Aria said.

Ethan deleted the message without replying.

“That wasn’t an answer.”

“It doesn’t deserve one.”

Frustration flared hot inside her chest.

“You don’t get to keep deciding which truths matter.”

His gaze lifted sharply to hers. “Some truths are dangerous.”

“So is ignorance.”

Silence crashed between them again.

Aria was beginning to realize something uncomfortable:

Ethan’s secrecy wasn’t random.

Every hidden detail seemed connected to one central fear.

Her.

Not just losing her trust.

Losing her to whatever this mystery actually was.

And somehow, that realization scared her almost as much as Victor did.

A soft knock interrupted the tension.

Both of them looked toward the suite entrance instantly.

Ethan crossed the room carefully and checked the monitor before opening the door slightly.

One of the hotel security staff stepped inside holding a sealed folder.

“Sir, this was delivered downstairs fifteen minutes ago.”

Ethan frowned. “By who?”

“No identification.”

Aria felt immediate dread.

The guard handed over the folder and quietly exited again.

Ethan shut the door before examining the package.

No markings.

No return address.

Just a thick cream-colored envelope sealed with black wax.

Aria stared at it.

“That’s creepy.”

“Yes.”

But Ethan already looked more disturbed than she expected.

“Do you recognize it?”

His jaw tightened.

Slowly, he turned the envelope over.

Pressed into the wax seal was a crescent moon.

The same symbol from the necklace.

The same symbol connected to Isabella.

Aria’s pulse quickened.

“What is it?”

Ethan answered without looking at her.

“I’ve seen this seal before.”

Fear moved coldly through the room.

“Where?”

His gaze finally lifted to hers.

“On the envelope Isabella gave me the night she disappeared.”

The air left Aria’s lungs.

No one spoke.

The storm outside intensified again, thunder rolling low across the city skyline.

Slowly, carefully, Ethan broke the seal.

Inside rested a single photograph.

Nothing else.

He pulled it free.

And immediately went still.

Aria crossed the room quickly. “What is it?”

Ethan handed her the photo without a word.

The second she looked at it, her stomach dropped violently.

The image showed a young Isabella Hale standing beside another woman.

A woman with dark hair.

Sharp eyes.

And a familiar crescent moon necklace around her neck.

Celeste Navarro.

But that wasn’t the worst part.

The worst part sat between them.

A little girl.

Maybe five years old.

Dark curls.

Small hands wrapped around Isabella’s fingers.

And a crescent-shaped scar visible near her wrist.

Exactly like Aria’s.

Her vision blurred slightly.

“No…”

Written across the back of the photograph in elegant black ink were six words:

She was never supposed to survive.