The private jet flew steadily in the sky, traveling back to the Imperial Capital at dawn. The sun had not yet risen, and the world outside remained dark. Inside the plane, the light was low, and the mood was quiet.
Aeliana lay asleep, her face pale but peaceful. The events from the night before were still fresh in everyone's memory.
The smoke, fire, chaos, and danger, yet she had survived it all safely. Now, wrapped in a blanket and resting on a wide seat, she finally looked like the young celebrity the world thought they knew.
But everything had changed.
Online, her name had exploded. She wasn't just a rising star anymore. She was "the wife of a rich mystery man."
The live broadcast from the island had shocked millions. Though the man who rushed to her rescue was shown, his face had been blurred in the stream. The audience only saw his commanding voice, his protective gestures, and the private guards who followed his every word. Speculations spread fast.
[Who is Aeliana married to?]
[He's clearly powerful. Look at that rescue team!]
[Was this planned? Or is she really that lucky?]
[Are you sure she's not someone's mistress?]
All the related news was cleaned up quickly. Reports were edited, rumors were blocked, and even the camera angles showing Reinhardt's face were removed. The media assumed it was done to protect Aeliana's privacy. But those who looked closely knew it was done by power, the kind that only the wealthiest families could command.
In the secret dungeon of the Razalo family, the captured assassins were locked up and questioned. Reinhardt's men moved quickly, tracing their path, checking their weapons, and looking for who had sent them.
It led them back to the old, burned-down laboratory. The team soon discovered something surprising. It wasn't just an abandoned lab. It was built and once used by a secret organization.
A place where five ghost doctors used to work. These doctors were legends in the medical world, people who could bring the dying back to life, who worked in the shadows, far from the rules of normal science. No one knew if they were still alive, or what experiments had been done there. And Aeliana had walked right into the middle of it.
Back on the plane, Reinhardt sat across from his wife. She was asleep, but his eyes were locked on the green pendant hanging from her neck. It was small, shaped like a half-moon, and made of old jade.
It's the same thing...
He recognized it immediately.
He had the other half.
His hand curled into a fist as memories flooded in.
A girl.
A promise.
The jade necklace he had given away when he was young.
But that girl had told him she lost it. She had told him it was gone forever.
Carmela.
Could it be?
He stood up and walked closer to Aeliana. The pendant gently rose and fell with her breath. He stared at it, unable to stop. It wasn't just similar. It was exactly the one he remembered.
Aeliana stirred. Her eyes fluttered open, and her instincts kicked in. She sat up quickly, a hand gripping the necklace protectively.
"Why are you staring at me like that?" she asked, her voice was low but alert.
Reinhardt didn't look away. "Where did you get that pendant?"
Aeliana blinked. She looked down at the jade, then back at him. "I've had it since I was thirteen."
"Who gave it to you?"
"I don't remember his name," she said. "Just that he was a boy. We were young. He gave it to me and said it was a promise. But I never saw him again."
Reinhardt's voice grew sharp. "You don't remember anything else?"
She frowned, sensing something strange in his tone. "I've moved around a lot. I've forgotten many things from my childhood. I only remember this necklace because it always brought me luck. That's all."
Reinhardt said nothing. His expression was unreadable. He turned around and walked back to his seat. But inside, his heart was in chaos.
He pulled out his phone and typed a message to his team.
[Look into Aeliana Torres's past. I need every detail. Especially her childhood.]
He needed answers. If Aeliana had his childhood promise pendant, then who was the girl who claimed to be his first love? Was it possible… that everything he believed about the past had been wrong?
He looked back at Aeliana, who had already leaned back and closed her eyes again. She didn't seem to know how deeply her words had shaken him.
Back in the capital, the media still buzzed with her name.
Even with the edits and censorship, people were digging. They wanted to know who her husband was, why he had such power, and what secrets she was hiding. But every time they got close to the truth, the stories disappeared, the links went down, and the news turned cold.
The Razalo family's influence was enough to silence a nation.
But it couldn't silence Reinhardt's thoughts.
He remembered Carmela clearly, her face, her lies, and how she had always tried to pull him back to the past. She had told him the necklace was gone, that she had lost it, and he had believed her.
Now, seeing that same pendant on Aeliana's chest, doubt bloomed in his heart like a cold flower. Had he loved the wrong person? Had fate brought the real girl back into his life through this wild, strange marriage?
Aeliana, unaware of the storm in his mind, whispered in her sleep, "I'll keep my promise…"
Reinhardt's eyes widened. That simple phrase echoed from long ago, sincere words said between two children under a summer sky.
He leaned back, silent.
Things were no longer simple.
The jade pendant was not just a charm.
It was the key to a forgotten past.
And the beginning of a truth that could change everything.
If Carmela was lying, how did she know I would be looking for the girl who had the pendant?
Carmela was an orphan living in the mountains, and it fit the description of the girl I gave the pendant to.
Aeliana was a noble's daughter, it can't be her...