I NEEDED PROOF

Elena – POV

Charlotte and Lucas.

Never…never in my life did I imagine those two names in the same sentence, let alone in the way the letters revealed them.

How did they even meet? How did this start?

Seven letters. Seven handwritten pieces of someone else’s heart.

And they were love letters. No question about it.

Some pages smelled faintly of faded cologne, others were smudged at the edges, as if reread by trembling hands. The words were tender, romantic, and reckless, filled with longing. Lucas had been ready to give up everything for her. He wanted to leave, to start fresh. With her.

“You don’t have to be afraid about me being accepted,” one letter read. “We can leave everything behind and go to Paris.”

It felt surreal. Painful.

If they loved each other so much, why did she kill him?

The question burned through me, louder than my thoughts. My fingers trembled as I reached for another letter, but my eyes stung too much to focus. I wasn’t ready for more, not yet.

I needed proof. Something to make it all make sense.

The air in the room felt heavier, suffocating, like the walls were folding in.

I kept searching the box, hoping the next thing would undo this knot forming in my chest.

Then I saw it tucked beneath the last bundle of envelopes.

A USB FLASH DRIVE.

I grabbed my laptop and inserted the device with unsteady fingers.

The screen flickered once. Then twice.

Then there he was.

Lucas.

Alive. Speaking. Eyes hollow with urgency.

His voice cracked as he spoke directly into the camera: “If anything happens to me… Adrian and Charlotte are the reason. For everything.”

I froze.

The room felt like it dropped five degrees. My breath caught.

Tears fell before I even realized I was crying.

I had to pause the video. I couldn’t take it all at once. I’d seen enough death in the past year to know what a premonition looked like.

Lucas had known. He saw it coming.

And now he was gone.

I covered my mouth, swallowing a sob. I didn’t even know this man, not really, but now I felt his pain echoing through every wall of this cursed house. My body slumped forward. My forehead rested on my knees as I tried to breathe past the lump in my throat.

How could Charlotte do this?

And Adrian?

I continued searching the box, and that’s when I found the second USB.

I inserted it, half-hoping it would be corrupt lost to time like everything else in this godforsaken mansion.

But it wasn’t.

It opened to a grainy video, shaky, like it had been recorded in secret.

Then the image cleared, and my heart dropped.

Adrian.

And Charlotte.

In the same bed.

Kissing. Touching. Naked.

Having sex.

I recoiled like I’d been struck.

This wasn’t just betrayal. This was poison. A curse.

A second later, I paused the video. My eyes fell on the timestamp.

It was the same day Adrian asked me to be his girlfriend.

I couldn’t breathe.

“Those bastards,” I whispered. The words felt foreign, clawing up my throat. My voice shook, brittle and laced with disbelief.

Tears flooded my vision again, but I didn’t wipe them this time. Let them fall.

Let it all fall.

I whispered again, softer this time, “He was sleeping with my sister…”

My knees buckled beneath me, and I slid to the floor, the laptop still open on the rug.

So many lies.

So many masks.

And Charlotte… my sister. The one person I thought I could love without hesitation.

Was it ever real?

Was anything?

I reached for the last piece of paper in the box, a handwritten note, folded twice.

The words bled from the page like they were written yesterday:

“I can’t keep living like this. I told her I would leave it all behind, but she keeps choosing him. I feel like a fool.”

It was Lucas.

Still hopeful. Still desperate.

He thought he was enough.

But the pictures told a different story.

I closed the box, my body shaking. I couldn’t believe what I’d uncovered in just a few hours.

Charlotte had been with Lucas. Then she cheated on him with Adrian. The same Adrian who lied to my face, held my hand, and kissed me like I was his world.

They were going to run away.

Then Charlotte betrayed him.

And Adrian helped her.

I could feel the pieces clicking together like a loaded gun cocking back.

Lucas must’ve found out. Maybe he confronted them. Maybe he threatened to expose the truth.

And that’s when everything went wrong.

This was the truth I’d been chasing for months. The answer to the question that haunted every step I took.

Who killed Lucas?

Now I knew.

I didn’t need a court. I didn’t need a jury.

I just needed time.

Time to figure out my next move.

Time to watch the world burn.

I stared at the letters, the photos, and the videos.

And then, barely above a whisper, the name left my lips heavy and damning.

“Charlotte…”

I quickly put on a coat, Damien is yet to be back, probably stuck in the office, I’m gonna go meet him there. He needs to see this, though I don’t know how he will react… It’s his brother we’re talking about. My sister killed his brother. I took the car key and left the house.

Getting to the office, the security let me in. Obviously, Nobody is left in the office, but the light in his office is on. I knocked on the door. 

 “Come in“, he grumbled, and I walked in 

“What are you doing here?” He asked

  I sniffed in my tears, I’m very sure my eyes are swollen and red 

“I came to give you what I saw in Lucas house”, I said, and his eyes darkened 

I gave him the two flash drives, and he looked at them curiously. I gave him a tight smile.

He inserted the USB into his computer and Lucas video, and his jaw tighten his eyes darken with anger….

“Charlotte, I’m going to kill her," he said, standing up abruptly.