📖 Chapter 4: Ghost Protocol
The hallway was quiet, but Aria's mind was screaming.
He knows. He doesn't trust me. And yet… he didn't fire me.
She paced in the dim-lit operations room, staring at the monitors. Her mission file blinked on a hidden screen only she could access. Target: Aiden Black. Status: Active. Eliminate when vulnerable.
But how could she do it now?
Aiden had a daughter. A past. A truth no one had warned her about. He wasn't the cold-hearted criminal her agency painted him to be.
He was a survivor.
---
Meanwhile, Aiden sat alone in the penthouse study, swirling whiskey in a glass. The fireplace cast shadows across the room, but his eyes were fixed on the camera feed showing Aria pacing downstairs.
"She's not what they think she is," he murmured to himself. "She's not what I thought she was."
A folder sat on the desk—her file. Full of redacted lines and falsified identities. But the one thing that stood out: Aria Vale does not exist before age 17.
Just like him.
---
Later that night, Aria got a call.
A scrambled, hidden voice buzzed in her ear. Her handler.
> "He suspects you. Proceed anyway. Make it look clean. Stage it."
Aria didn't respond.
> "Aria. You're too deep. Don't go soft. You know what happens when operatives get attached."
She finally whispered, "I need more time."
> "Time's up."
Click.
---
The next morning, Aiden was gone.
No guards. No note. No trace.
Aria tore through the building, checking every camera angle. Nothing.
Then she found it—his private office. Unlocked.
Inside, a photo sat on the desk.
It was of a young Aiden… and a woman with eyes just like hers.
She flipped it over. Handwritten words sent a chill down her spine:
> "Your mother saved me once. I owe her everything. Now I need to know why you were sent to kill me."
Her fingers trembled.
She never knew her mother. The agency had always told her she died during a failed mission. But why was Aiden Black holding her past?
And why did her next move feel like a choice between survival... and the truth?