Chapter 96: Chapter 95: The Lost mory
The morning light crept through the blinds of Ethan's apartnt, casting thin streams of gold over the empty room. The city, forever bustling outside, seed distant today—like a different world entirely. Ethan sat at the kitchen table, staring blankly at the untouched coffee cup in front of him. His mind felt foggy, as though sothing important had been lost just beyond his reach, slipping through his fingers no matter how hard he tried to grasp it.
Lila's words echoed in his mind: "You don't rember, do you? The day it all began. The day we both made the choice."
She had said that to him, just before everything started to unravel. But what did she an by it? What choice had they made? What had he forgotten?
Ethan rubbed his forehead, the familiar pressure building behind his eyes. It was like a puzzle with missing pieces—sowhere, buried deep inside him, there was a mory that held the key. But no matter how much he thought about it, the mory remained elusive.
His fingers traced the rim of the coffee cup, the edges worn smooth with use, and then he stood up, pacing around the room, trying to push through the fog in his mind. Sothing, sothing fundantal, had shifted that day. The day everything changed. But what had happened?
He needed answers. He needed to know what he was missing, to fill the gaps in his story before it consud him completely.
It had been two days since he'd left the eting with Maximilian. He hadn't spoken to anyone since then. No calls, no ssages. Lila, Max, Ava, even Zoe—they had all been reaching out, trying to contact him, but he had avoided them all. There was only one person left who could help him, who might be able to uncover the truth buried beneath the layers of deceit.
Sophia Miller.
The widow of the victim. A woman who had beco far more integral to this story than he had first realized. She was more than just a grieving widow—she was the key to sothing Ethan had yet to fully comprehend. She had known more than anyone else, and now, in the quiet of his apartnt, Ethan felt that it was ti to face her once more.
Sophia's office was located in one of the quieter parts of the city, tucked away in an unassuming building. Ethan stood outside for a long mont, his hand hovering over the door handle. His fingers tightened, then loosened. What would he say to her? What could he say?
The last ti they had spoken, it had been at the funeral, when everything still seed like a series of disconnected, unrelated events. She had been a stranger then—grief-stricken, fragile, and distant. But now... now she was sothing else entirely. She was soone who had once seed like an ally, and yet, he couldn't shake the feeling that she was hiding sothing.
Finally, he pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Sophia looked up from her desk, her face expressionless, but the mont she saw him, her eyes softened. She rose slowly from her chair, her presence commanding yet somber.
"You ca," she said quietly. There was a trace of sothing in her voice—a mix of resignation and sothing darker, sothing he couldn't na.
"I need answers," Ethan replied, his voice rough with determination. "I need to understand. What happened that day?"
Sophia's gaze flickered toward the window, as though the answer was written sowhere outside, just out of her reach. She let out a slow breath, then moved toward the door, locking it behind them.
"What do you think you're missing, Ethan?" she asked, turning back to face him.
"I don't know," he admitted, his voice raw. "But I'm starting to feel like the truth is right in front of , and I can't see it. I keep going over the events, trying to piece them together, but... there's a gap. Sothing I should've known but can't rember."
Sophia crossed the room, her heels clicking against the polished floor. She stood in front of him, her expression unreadable. "It's not sothing you can rember, Ethan. It's sothing you need to let go of."
His stomach tightened, an inexplicable sense of dread crawling up his spine. "What do you an?"
She hesitated for a mont, as if weighing the impact of her words. "The mory you're searching for... it's buried deep, far too deep for you to uncover on your own. And perhaps it's better that way."
Ethan shook his head, frustration and confusion mingling in his chest. "Why? Why can't I rember? What's so important about that day? What am I supposed to forget?"
Sophia's eyes softened for a mont, and she stepped closer, her voice dropping to a near-whisper. "The truth is, Ethan, you were never supposed to know. Not like this. Not until it was too late." She paused, her gaze moving to the window as if searching for sothing just beyond the glass. "What you don't understand is that everything you've done, everything you've learned, has been carefully orchestrated. The choices you've made, the paths you've walked—they were never truly yours."
Ethan felt his heart skip a beat. "What do you an, 'carefully orchestrated'? Are you telling
this was all planned? From the very beginning?"
Sophia t his gaze, her eyes unblinking. "You were part of sothing much larger than you realized, Ethan. You were never ant to see the full picture, but it's too late for that now. The ga has changed."
Ethan's mind raced. "Then why didn't you tell
sooner?" He had trusted her, had believed her to be an ally in his search for the truth. Now it seed as if everything had been a lie. Every clue he had followed, every person he had trusted—had it all been a trap?
Sophia sighed heavily, and for the first ti, Ethan saw the weariness in her eyes. "Because, at so point, I thought you could make a difference. I thought you might be the one who could stop it. But I was wrong."
"Stop what?" Ethan demanded, stepping closer. "What is it you think I could stop?"
She didn't answer him imdiately. Instead, she turned her gaze back to the window, watching the cars pass by, unaware of the turmoil unfolding inside her office. "It's not sothing you can fight, Ethan. Not without losing yourself. The mont you uncover the truth, everything changes. And not just for you. For everyone."
Ethan's heart pounded in his chest. "Tell , Sophia. Tell
what happened."
She looked at him, her expression a mixture of sorrow and resolve. "The day it all began," she whispered, "was the day you made your choice. The choice to walk this path. And now, there's no turning back."
The fog in Ethan's mind seed to grow thicker with every word Sophia spoke. The more she said, the more pieces of the puzzle seed to shift and break apart. He could feel the weight of the truth pressing against him, but it wasn't enough. Not yet.
He wasn't ready to let go of the search. Not when the truth was so close, so tantalizingly out of reach.
Sophia was right about one thing—he had made a choice. But that choice, as he now realized, was never truly his.
It was a decision made for him, a decision from which there was no escape.
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