CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE – The First Crack in the Mirror
Elena barely slept that night. The cabin's silence felt unnaturally thick, as if every piece of furniture and every whisper of wind pressed against her, waiting, watching. The darkness felt alive, stretching across the wooden walls and curling around her thoughts like fingers. She lay awake for hours, staring at the ceiling, listening to the creak of the beams and the soft, rhythmic breath of the world outside.
Each time she closed her eyes, Andrew's warning echoed through her. The truth will hurt more than losing Daniel. She thought she had reached the deepest point of grief, a bottomless place no pain could surpass. But the dread in Andrew's voice made her realize she had not even begun to understand the depth of what Daniel left behind.
By morning, exhaustion clung to her like a second skin.
She moved through the hallway slowly, as though afraid to disturb something fragile. Caleb was already awake, sitting at the kitchen counter with a mug of untouched coffee. He wasn't reading, not scrolling through his phone, not doing anything except staring at the wooden grain of the counter as if it held answers.
He looked up the moment she walked in.
The concern in his eyes softened something inside her, something she didn't know had hardened overnight. "You okay?" he asked gently.
"I don't think okay is possible anymore," she whispered.
Caleb stood immediately. He pulled her into his arms, not forcing comfort but offering it, and for once, Elena didn't push him away. She allowed herself to lean into the warmth of his chest, closing her eyes as his steady hands stroked her back.
"You're not alone," he murmured. "Whatever this is, we'll face it together."
His certainty helped, even if her heart still felt unsteady and bruised.
The moment was broken when Andrew stepped into the kitchen. His hair was unbrushed, his eyes red-rimmed, and his shoulders tense as though he had been awake the entire night. There was a sharpness to him this morning, a clarity edged with fear.
"We don't have much time," he said quietly. "I need to start explaining what Daniel found before the consequences catch up with us."
Elena pulled herself out of Caleb's arms, grounding her feet on the wooden floor. She nodded. "I'm ready."
Andrew hesitated. This time, it wasn't reluctance. It was painful. He walked to the table, reached into his jacket, and pulled out a single folded sheet of paper. He placed it between them with reverence, as if it were fragile or sacred.
"This," he said in a low voice, "is the first crack."
Elena reached for it slowly. Her fingers trembled, brushing against the worn edges of the paper. She unfolded it carefully. At first, the image was blurry, grainy. But then shapes sharpened. A face. A silhouette. Daniel.
And someone beside him.
Someone she knew.
Her breath caught. "Why is he with him?"
Caleb stepped closer and leaned in, his brows drawing together in disbelief. "He told everyone he barely knew Daniel."
Andrew exhaled slowly. "He lied. Their relationship went deeper than anyone realized. Daniel didn't just know him. He trusted him. worked with him. Confident in him. And that was the mistake that cost us everything."
Elena felt her stomach knot. "No. He wouldn't have lied to me. He would have told me if something was wrong."
Andrew's expression softened. "Daniel didn't lie to you. He protected you. There is a difference."
"That doesn't make it hurt any less," she whispered.
Andrew nodded once. "This man's name came up in places it shouldn't have. Financial accounts, property records, meetings at strange hours. Daniel stumbled onto a pattern, and once he saw it, he couldn't unsee it. He thought he could handle it on his own. But he underestimated how far this man would go to keep his secrets buried."
Caleb clenched his jaw. "So now he's coming after Elena?"
The silence that followed was chilling.
Andrew didn't need to say anything. His eyes said it all.
Elena felt the cold seep into her bones. "Why me?"
Andrew looked at her with heartbreaking honesty. "Because Daniel told him something before he died. Something that puts you directly in the line of fire."
Elena felt her pulse skip. She steadied herself by gripping the table. Caleb moved closer, as if preparing to catch her if she fell.
"What did Daniel tell him?" she asked.
Andrew opened his mouth to speak—
A sharp sound cut through the cabin.
A car door slamming.
All three of them froze.
Elena's breath caught in her throat. Caleb stepped toward her, instinctively protective. Andrew's head snapped toward the window, his body tense with instant fear.
"No," Andrew whispered. "Not yet."
Elena inched toward the window, careful not to make noise. The air felt too still, too charged. The moment she reached the glass, her breath stuttered.
A black SUV sat at the edge of the clearing.
Dark. Unmarked. Idling like a quiet threat.
Caleb moved beside her, his voice low. "That's not one of ours."
Andrew took a step back from the window. "He's here sooner than I expected."
Elena felt her heartbeat slam into her ribs. "Who?"
Andrew swallowed hard, dread etched into every line of his face. "The man in the photo."
As if summoned by the words, the driver's door opened.
A figure stepped out.
Tall. Confident. Moving with a familiarity that made Elena's skin crawl.
Her throat tightened. She knew that face. She knew that smile, sharp and cold as winter air.
Someone she had trusted. Someone Daniel had once trusted before everything went wrong.
Someone whose presence now twisted the cabin's safe walls into something suffocating.
Caleb reached for Elena's hand without looking away from the window. Andrew stepped farther from the glass, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Do not open the door. Do not speak unless I tell you."
Outside, the man in the photo began walking toward the cabin.
Each step felt like another fracture in the world Elena thought she understood.
And with every inch he moved closer, the truth Andrew feared was no longer a distant shadow.
It was here.
It had found her.
And nothing would be the same.