Chapter 3 - The Father Who Was Never Gone
The door opened.
Elena stopped breathing.
For six years, she had imagined this moment.
Hundreds of times.
She imagined her father standing at the door.
Older.
Tired.
Broken.
She imagined screaming at him.
Asking why he left.
Asking why he chose to disappear without saying goodbye.
But she never imagined this.
Because the man standing outside was not alone.
Two men stood behind him.
Both wearing dark coats.
Both watching Adrian carefully.
And in the middle of them was the person Elena had spent six years trying to forget.
Her father.
Marcus Renner.
Older.
Thinner.
But alive.
Elena’s hand slowly lowered.
The broom slipped from her fingers.
It hit the marble floor.
The sound echoed through the penthouse.
“Dad?”
The word barely left her mouth.
Marcus looked at her.
His eyes filled with something Elena couldn’t understand.
Pain.
Regret.
Fear.
“Ellie…”
Nobody had called her that in years.
Not since she was a child.
Not since the night he disappeared.
Elena took one step forward.
Then stopped.
“No.”
Her voice shook.
“No, you don’t get to do that.”
Marcus swallowed.
“Elena—”
“You don’t get to walk back into my life and say my childhood nickname like nothing happened.”
The room stayed silent.
Even Adrian didn’t interrupt.
Elena looked at the man she had buried in her mind a thousand times.
“You’re alive.”
Marcus lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
“You let me believe you were dead.”
“I had to.”
“No.”
Her voice became louder.
“You wanted to.”
Marcus flinched.
That reaction hurt more than an argument would have.
Because it meant she was right.
Adrian stepped closer.
“Elena.”
She turned toward him.
“What?”
His expression was calm.
But his eyes told a different story.
“Not here.”
She laughed bitterly.
“Not here?”
She pointed toward Marcus.
“My father appears after six years and you’re telling me not here?”
Marcus looked at Adrian.
“Is she safe?”
That question made Elena freeze.
Not because of the words.
Because of the way he asked.
Like her safety mattered more than his own.
Adrian answered immediately.
“For now.”
“For now?”
Elena looked between them.
“What does that mean?”
Nobody spoke.
That silence was the answer.
Something was happening.
Something bigger than her missing father.
Something bigger than the man upstairs.
And somehow, she was in the middle of it.
Marcus stepped inside.
The two men behind him followed.
Adrian’s bodyguards immediately moved.
The atmosphere changed.
Everyone in the room knew exactly what kind of world they were standing in.
Except Elena.
She was the only person still trying to understand why her life had suddenly become a nightmare.
Marcus looked at Adrian.
“You shouldn’t have brought her here.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“I didn’t.”
Marcus glanced at Elena.
“She came to my door with a broom.”
For a second, nobody reacted.
Then one of Adrian’s men looked away, hiding a smile.
Elena crossed her arms.
“Don’t.”
The man immediately became serious.
Adrian looked at her.
“You realize how unusual that was?”
She stared.
“You’re still focused on the broom?”
“No.”
A pause.
“I’m focused on the fact that you walked into a dangerous situation without knowing anything.”
Elena pointed at Marcus.
“And apparently everyone else knew everything except me.”
That sentence silenced the room.
Because nobody could argue.
Marcus looked away.
Elena noticed.
That hurt.
Her father always looked away when he was hiding something.
“What did you do?”
Marcus looked back.
“What?”
“Six years ago.”
Her voice became quieter.
“What did you find?”
The room went still.
Marcus slowly reached into his coat.
Elena immediately stepped back.
Adrian moved in front of her.
But Marcus only pulled out a small object.
A photograph.
Old.
Folded.
He placed it on the table.
Elena looked down.
It was a picture of her.
But younger.
Maybe twenty years old.
Standing beside her father.
And beside them was Adrian.
She looked up sharply.
“You knew him.”
Marcus nodded.
“Yes.”
“You knew him before tonight?”
“Yes.”
Elena looked at Adrian.
“You knew my father.”
Adrian didn’t deny it.
“I told you.”
“No.”
Her voice shook.
“You told me he saved your life.”
“He did.”
“But you didn’t tell me you knew him.”
Adrian remained silent.
That was enough.
Elena felt something break inside her.
Everyone knew.
Everyone except her.
Marcus walked closer.
“Elena, listen to me.”
“No.”
“You need to understand—”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“You don’t get to explain.”
Her eyes filled.
But she refused to cry.
Not in front of them.
Not after six years of crying alone.
“You left me.”
Marcus looked devastated.
“I protected you.”
“From what?”
He hesitated.
And that hesitation terrified her.
“From people who wanted what I found.”
“What did you find?”
Marcus looked at Adrian.
Then at the key on the table.
The silver key marked with the number 17.
“Elena.”
His voice dropped.
“That key opens a place where your father hid the truth.”
She stared.
“What truth?”
Marcus didn’t answer immediately.
Because someone else did.
Adrian.
“The list.”
Elena turned.
“The list of names?”
Adrian nodded.
“Yes.”
She looked between them.
“What’s on it?”
Marcus’s face changed.
“Everything.”
“That means nothing.”
“It means names.”
“Whose names?”
Nobody answered.
Elena stepped forward.
“Whose?”
Adrian finally spoke.
“People with enough power to erase someone’s entire life.”
The words settled over the room.
Elena thought about the messages.
The ruined car.
The warning.
Nice slippers.
Your father owes people money.
She suddenly understood something.
The threats were never random.
They were connected.
Her father.
The key.
Adrian.
Her.
Marcus moved toward the window.
“They know she’s here.”
Adrian looked at him.
“I know.”
“No.”
Marcus turned.
“You don’t understand.”
The seriousness in his voice changed the room.
“They don’t just know she’s here.”
A pause.
“They know she has the key.”
Elena looked down.
The key.
The small piece of metal that had somehow turned her normal life into chaos.
“I don’t have it.”
Everyone looked at her.
“What?”
Elena frowned.
“I don’t have the key.”
Adrian looked at the table.
The key was gone.
Nobody moved.
The room exploded into silence.
One of the guards immediately checked the cameras.
Another searched the area.
Adrian’s expression became cold.
“When?”
Nobody answered.
Because nobody knew.
Marcus looked terrified.
“Someone was inside.”
Elena felt a chill.
“That’s impossible.”
Adrian looked toward the hallway.
“No.”
His voice was low.
“It isn’t.”
The lights suddenly flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then went out.
The entire penthouse fell into darkness.
Elena froze.
She heard movement.
A chair scraping.
A door opening.
Someone breathing.
Adrian’s voice came through the darkness.
“Elena.”
She couldn’t see him.
But she heard him.
“Stay where you are.”
A second later, emergency lights turned on.
Red.
Dim.
Terrifying.
The room looked different.
Marcus was standing near the table.
The guards were searching.
Adrian was gone.
Elena’s heart raced.
“Adrian?”
No answer.
Then she noticed something.
The photograph.
The one with her younger self.
It was still on the table.
But someone had written something on the back.
Her fingers shook as she turned it over.
Five words.
Only five.
Her father never left you.
Below the sentence was a name.
A name Elena had never seen before.
But Adrian had.
Because the moment he returned to the room, he saw the paper in her hand.
And all the color disappeared from his face.
“Elena…”
She looked at him.
“What?”
Adrian stared at the name.
Then at her.
“That person cannot be alive.”
A phone suddenly rang from inside the penthouse.
Not Adrian’s.
Not Marcus’s.
Not any of the guards.
It was coming from the locked room at the end of the hallway.
The room Elena had never noticed before.
Adrian slowly walked toward it.
The ringing continued.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
May you like
He reached for the handle.
The door was already unlocked from the inside. Someone was waiting for them.
