All Chapters of Never Meant to be Seen : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

I stared at Mia, completely confused."Protection from what?" I asked. She didn't answer. Instead, she pushed herself off the couch and headed for the staircase. I watched her, expecting her to say something, anything but she continued walking as if she hadn't heard my question. Halfway up the stairs, she suddenly stopped.Without turning around, she spoke."Do what you're told, Sofia stay away from Ava." Her voice was cold, carrying a warning that sent a chill down my spine."And be safe." Then she disappeared upstairs, leaving me alone in the deafening silence. I stood in the middle of the living room, my mind racing. What had I gotten myself into?At first, I thought I was simply pretending to be someone else for a few weeks. An easy job with good money. Now it felt like I had walked straight into a web of secrets, conspiracies, and lies spun by one of the wealthiest families in the country.They were paying me to become Isabelle and also paying for my true identity to be exposed.

The moment I stepped out of Ava's apartment, the cool evening breeze brushed against my face, but it did nothing to calm the storm inside me. I had gone there expecting answers. Instead, I walked away with more questions than ever. The image of that little girl lingered in my mind like a stubborn shadow. I didn't need the photograph in front of me anymore. I'd stared at it long enough for every detail to become etched into my memory. A child standing with Isabelle, called the other one, disappeared after turning six. I unlocked my car, Isabelle’s car rather and slid into the driver's seat, gripping the steering wheel without starting the engine. "This is ridiculous," I muttered to myself, there have to be a reasonable explanation, families lost photographs all the time right, not every mystery had some dark secret behind it, was I trying to convince myself that, it was okay for them to forget a child. I rested my forehead against the steering wheel and closed my eyes. "No one menti

“Something is wrong.” Why can't I brush that feeling out of my head. I don't remember leaving the hotel, one moment I was standing beside the bed, staring at my phone,the next, I was rushing through the hallway with my jacket half-buttoned, my keys clenched so tightly in my hand that they dug into my palm.The call ended unusually, that unsettled me, there's a possibility that the battery died or the nurse took the phone or maybe network. I kept repeating those possibilities to myself as I hurried toward the elevator.They were ordinary explanations, safe explanations,I needed one of them to be true, but underneath all those thoughts was another possibility I didn't want to acknowledge,someone could have ended the call.I immediately pushed the thought away,who would even do that, why will they do that? I had no reason to believe anyone was watching my father, this whole time, yet everything felt different tonight.The strange message I'd received,the things he'd almost told me about

Chapter 17 – The TradeI stared at Arlo, my mind racing, he had already made his terms clear,he would help me find my father, but in return, I had to tell him the truth not everything, perhaps but enough to satisfy him. I didn't know what that truth would cost me.If I told Arlo about Mia, the contract, and why I was pretending to be Isabelle, everything could fall apart, my identity could be exposed, the Ashworth family would find out and Mia could come after me but none of that mattered if something happened to my father, I closed my eyes and took a shaky breath.My father was the reason I had accepted the contract in the first place. I had agreed to become someone else because I needed the money for his treatment and now he was missing, and I was supposed to worry about protecting a secret? I couldn't.Not when his life was at stake, I opened my eyes, looking at Arlo. “Fine.” I said.Arlo remained silent. “I'll tell you the truth,” I said, forcing the words out. “Whatever you want t

On my way back to the hotel, my head was filled with questions. First I saw a little girl who looked exactly like me, who disappeared when she was six and nobody talked about it. Then my father almost told me something about my mother today but he suddenly stopped.And now the thought of what Mia said didn't leave my head, I just couldn't stop thinking about it, no matter how hard I try to.Someone was asking questions about my mother, not Isabelle Ashworth but my mother, since I took this job it has been one secret to another. I got to the hotel, took the elevator to my floor, today has been a long day, I saw and heard a lot.I sat on the edge of the hotel bed, staring at the wall. For years, my mother's death had been something I accepted without questioning, she died when I was six that was all I knew, there had never been a reason to dig deeper but now, suddenly, someone was asking about her past and Mia was concerned enough to move my father without telling me.That meant this was