The photo was sent at exactly 3:00 a.m.
No number.
No message.
Just an image.
A black-and-white snapshot of an old, decaying cabin in the woods, half-swallowed by fog. Bare pine trees surrounded it like skeletal guards. In the foreground: a child's shadow in the doorway. Lily.
But what sent Ava spiraling wasn't the cabin.
It was the writing on the wall—scrawled in thick black chalk just above Lily's head.
"Let the past burn, Ava. Or I'll burn her future."
Written in a script Ava hadn't seen in twenty-three years—not since the night her childhood home burned to the ground.
Her mother's handwriting.
Ava's hands trembled as she dropped the photo onto the table.
She couldn't breathe.
Not because she was afraid.
But because someone was dragging ghosts back from a grave she'd buried long ago.
Flashback - 23 Years Ago
Ava was eight.
She remembered the rain that night. Heavy. Relentless. The kind that soaks through skin and memory alike.
The cabin in the pines was where her mother used to take her when her father's fists got too loud. They'd sit by the fire and sing old Russian lullabies. Her mother would press a warm palm to Ava's cheek and whisper, "This is where we're free. Don't ever forget that."
But then came the fire.
Screams. Wood cracking. Smoke choking the stars.
And then… nothing.
No one ever spoke of it again.
Until now.
Present Day
"I know that place," Ava whispered. "He's not just threatening Lily. He's dragging me back into something personal. Something unfinished."
Damian watched her, quiet but calculating.
"You think this is someone from your past?"
"No," she said. "I think this is someone from my mother's."
Levi leaned in. "We tracked the coordinates of the cabin. It's deep in Pine Hollow Forest. No signal towers. No roads. Military-grade blind zone."
Ava stood. "Then we go in blind."
Damian stepped forward, hand gently closing around her wrist. "Not alone. This man isn't just playing games. He's orchestrating a story—and you're the main character."
Ava met his eyes. "Then let's give him a plot twist."
Deep in the Woods...
The man stood silently at the window of the cabin, watching the fog twist between trees like restless ghosts.
Lily slept in the corner, curled up with her backpack like it was armor.
He lit a match.
Let it burn low between his fingers.
He didn't flinch as the flame kissed his skin.
Instead, he whispered:
"You should have burned with the house, Ava."
He dropped the match.
It landed near a pile of letters—charred at the edges. Old, delicate.
Each one signed: Vera Romanov.
His pale eyes narrowed.
He turned to Lily.
"She's coming. And when she arrives, she'll bring the fire with her."
Back at Blackwood Tower - The Secret Vault
Before Ava left, she descended one last floor—one only Damian could unlock.
Inside: the family vault.
A place where secrets were stored like weapons.
Damian opened a metal case, silent.
Inside lay a cassette tape labeled:
"For Ava. Do not listen until the cabin burns."
Her mother's handwriting again.
Ava stared.
Her hands shook as she touched it, and for the first time, she wondered—
What if this had never been about Lily?
What if it had always been about her?
That night, under the rising moon, Ava stood at the forest's edge—wind in her hair, heart pounding.
Somewhere beyond the fog, the past waited.
The pine trees whispered her name.
And in the dark, the man watched her through binoculars.
He smiled.
"Welcome home, Ava."