CHAPTER 36: Smoke Signals

Chapter 36: Smoke Signals

The drive to Blackwater House felt unreal.

Rain battered the windshield in relentless waves while the city slowly disappeared behind them, replaced by long stretches of dark coastal road swallowed by storm and forest.

Nobody spoke much.

The tension inside the SUV had shifted into something sharper now.

Hope.

Fear.

Urgency.

All tangled together.

Aria sat in the backseat staring at the blurred world outside while fragments of memory flickered at the edges of her mind like sparks refusing to die.

Rory.

The nickname still echoed strangely inside her chest.

A name wrapped in warmth.

In safety.

In someone else’s voice.

Beside her, Daniel remained focused on updates coming through his phone while Ethan drove with dangerous precision through the storm.

Victor followed behind them in another vehicle.

That unsettled her more than she wanted to admit.

Not because he was chasing her now.

Because he was coming willingly.

Toward Isabella.

Toward the fire.

Toward whatever waited inside Blackwater House.

And something about that felt final.

“How far?” Aria asked quietly.

“Ten minutes,” Ethan replied.

His voice sounded tight.

Controlled too carefully.

She watched him for a moment.

“You think she’s really there.”

It wasn’t a question.

Ethan’s jaw flexed slightly.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because Isabella never did anything halfway.”

The answer lingered between them.

Aria looked back toward the rain.

A woman she barely remembered had somehow become the center of everything.

A missing sister.

A ghost in photographs.

A survivor.

And maybe the only person left alive who knew the full truth.

Daniel suddenly straightened in the passenger seat.

“Wait.”

Ethan glanced at him briefly. “What?”

Daniel turned the phone screen toward them.

“There’s another emergency call connected to the estate.”

Aria frowned. “What kind of call?”

Daniel’s face darkened.

“A gunshot report.”

Silence filled the SUV instantly.

Ethan accelerated harder.

The tires hissed sharply across wet pavement.

Aria’s pulse began pounding again.

The storm outside seemed endless now.

Trees blurred past like shadows clawing at the roadside.

Then finally, through the rain and darkness, she saw it.

Blackwater House.

Or what remained of it.

The estate stood atop the cliffs overlooking violent black water below, enormous even in ruin.

And burning.

Flames tore through the upper floors in furious waves of orange and gold while smoke spiraled violently into the storm-dark sky.

Aria stared through the windshield in stunned silence.

The place looked haunted.

Not abandoned.

Haunted.

Like the fire itself remembered what happened there years ago.

Several emergency vehicles already crowded the lower entrance road.

Firefighters moved through smoke and rain while police struggled to secure the perimeter.

Ethan stopped the SUV hard enough to jolt everyone forward slightly.

Before the vehicle fully settled, Victor’s sedan pulled in behind them.

Victor stepped out immediately into the rain.

For the first time since meeting him, he actually looked shaken.

Not dramatically.

But enough.

Enough for Aria to realize this place mattered to him too.

Ethan exited the SUV fast.

Daniel followed.

Aria stepped into the storm moments later, freezing rain soaking her instantly.

The air smelled like smoke.

Burned wood.

Ash.

Something deep inside her twisted painfully the second she looked at the estate.

Then suddenly another memory crashed into her.

Warm candlelight.

Laughter echoing through large hallways.

A piano playing somewhere upstairs.

A girl running ahead of her barefoot while shouting:

Rory, hurry up!

Aria stopped breathing for half a second.

The memory vanished immediately afterward.

But the feeling remained.

Home.

This place had once been home.

“Oh my God,” she whispered.

Ethan noticed instantly. “What happened?”

“I remember this place.”

Victor turned toward her sharply.

“What?”

Aria looked up at the burning estate.

“I’ve been here before.”

Nobody spoke.

Rain thundered across the cliffs around them.

Then a firefighter rushed toward the group through the smoke.

“We can’t keep anyone near the structure!” he shouted over the storm. “The east wing’s already collapsing!”

Victor stepped forward immediately.

“There was a woman inside.”

The firefighter’s face tightened.

“We found evidence someone entered the building before the fire spread.”

Aria’s heartbeat quickened violently.

“Did you find her?”

The firefighter hesitated.

Then:

“No.”

Fear spread coldly through Aria’s chest.

Ethan’s expression darkened instantly. “What does that mean?”

“It means we haven’t searched the lower level yet.”

Victor went still.

Completely still.

Aria noticed immediately.

“So there is a lower level.”

Nobody answered her.

Which meant yes.

Of course there was.

This family buried secrets beneath the earth itself apparently.

Daniel looked toward Ethan sharply.

“You knew?”

Ethan’s eyes remained fixed on the burning house.

“There were rumors.”

Victor suddenly moved toward the estate entrance.

Fast.

Ethan grabbed his arm instantly.

“You walk in there alone and you die.”

Victor pulled free sharply.

“She could still be alive.”

“And if this is a trap?”

Victor’s gaze turned lethal.

“You think I care?”

The honesty of it stunned everyone silent.

Because he meant it.

Whatever else Victor Hale was, his desperation for Isabella was real.

Twisted.

Damaged.

Dangerous.

But real.

Then suddenly, through the roaring fire and storm, a sound cut across the estate grounds.

A scream.

Female.

Distant.

Aria’s blood froze.

Everyone heard it.

The firefighters turned immediately toward the east side of the mansion where smoke billowed violently from shattered windows.

“There!” Aria shouted.

Victor moved first.

Straight into the fire.