Ella stood at the edge of the burning wreckage, her arms wrapped tightly around Elara as the flames painted the sky in apocalyptic hues.
The mountain behind her crumbled—metal, stone, and memories buried beneath the earth.
She didn't cry.
She couldn't.
Because she had promised him—
To live.To protect Elara.To carry the truth even if it burned her alive.
But when the fire finally died…
There was no body.
No proof.
Just silence.
And the name Leon Hart etched on a digital death certificate issued 48 hours later.
She watched the headline flicker across every screen in every country:
Billionaire Leon Hart Confirmed Dead in Romanian Lab Explosion. Suspected in Global Bioengineering Scandal.
They called him a monster.A traitor.A ghost of sins past.
But no one knew the truth.
That he had died trying to save the two people he loved most.
Or worse—
That maybe he hadn't died at all.
Because some monsters don't die.
They reinvent.
He had been fire once—burning with obsession, scorching everything he touched.
Now, he was smoke—impossible to hold, impossible to see… but always there.
Ella felt him in the static on the radio.In the wind that knocked over Elara's crayon cup.In the feeling she got when she turned a corner and thought—just for a moment—he was watching.
Three weeks passed.
Ella relocated to Zurich under a new name.
She lived quietly.
Until the letter arrived.
No return address.
Just a wax seal.
Inside—
A single black card.
Embossed in silver foil:
"Carter Vale invites you to The Awakening."
Location: Monte Carlo.
Time: 10PM.
Dress Code: Black.
She almost threw it away.
Until she flipped it over.
A single line, scrawled in handwriting she could never forget:
"We're not done, El. This world still owes us."
Her fingers trembled as she stared at the signature below it.
C.V.
Carter Vale.
But she knew that signature.
Because once upon a time, it had signed love letters under a different name.
Leon.