Raven Hollow hadn't changed, not really. It still smelled like wet pavement and rusted secrets, and the air still hung heavy with the kind of silence that knew too much. The train screeched into the old station with the scream of metal on metal, and she stepped onto the platform with the practiced grace of a woman who had rehearsed her entrance a thousand times in the mirror of her exile.
Her name was Aria Vale once.
But Aria died three years ago—choked on betrayal, buried in a courtroom she never had a chance in, and forgotten by the only man whose love had meant anything. The name she wore now was Raven. Raven Vale. A name that tasted like blood and ash and a rebirth forged in cold fire.
A sleek black trench coat hugged her slender frame, and her heels made precise clicks against the stone platform as if they knew they were walking toward vengeance. Her lips, painted crimson, curled slightly as her eyes - cool and stormy scanned the shadows.
No press. No welcome. Just how she wanted it. But eyes were watching. HE was watching.
Across the street, behind the tinted glass of a black SUV parked beneath a flickering streetlight, Elias Thorne's knuckles whitened around the steering wheel.
She looked like a ghost. Or worse- like temptation.
He hadn't seen her in three years. Not since the courtroom. Not since the whispers started - murderess. Monster. Betrayer. Not since he watched the woman he once would've bled for get dragged away in chains. And now, here she was. Reborn. Still impossibly elegant. Still impossibly dangerous.
Elias didn't move.
He didn't breathe.
And neither did the guilt curling like smoke inside his chest.
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Detective Malek Rowe lit a cigarette on the other side of town, leaning against the rusted hood of his car with a manila folder under his arm. Inside that folder were photos. Crime scene shots. Newspaper clippings. One particular mugshot.
Raven Vale's.
The face in the photo was softer. Less guarded. The eyes didn't yet know betrayal. But he knew people didn't just vanish for three years and return without a reason.
And murder didn't stay buried in Raven Hollow for long.
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The rain didn't let up as Raven walked through the gates of Thorne Manor. The estate loomed like a cathedral of wealth and secrets—tall, cold, beautiful. And familiar. Every inch of this place was carved into her memory. She'd once kissed Elias on those steps. Bled for him in that hallway. Loved him inside those walls like her heart had never been broken before.
Now she was back. With red roses and ruin in her wake.
She left the rose—blackened at the edges—on the doorstep with a note tucked under the petals.
"You buried me. I hope you remember how deep."
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Back inside the SUV, Elias stared at the empty steps, a slow chill running down his spine.
She was back.
And she remembered.......