Once in a lifetime

Elena couldn't move. Murdered. The word clung to her like a curse.

Her own body, in another lifetime, had been left to die in this very house. But why? And by whom?

Her gaze flickered between Liam and Catherine. One looked devastated, the other amused.

"I want the truth," she said, forcing strength into her voice.

Liam hesitated. Too long.

Catherine sighed dramatically. "He's always been like this, you know. Always thinking he can protect you from the truth. As if history doesn't repeat itself."

Elena clenched her fists. "Then you tell me."

Catherine's smirk deepened. She took a slow step forward, the crimson of her gown pooling around her feet like spilled wine.

"You were found in the East Wing," she said. "In your wedding dress."

Elena's stomach lurched.

"Wedding dress?" she echoed, her voice barely above a whisper.

Liam tensed beside her.

Catherine's smile was all sharp edges. "Oh, dear. He really didn't tell you anything, did he?"

Elena turned to Liam. "We were married?"

Liam's expression was unreadable. "We were going to be."

A strange pressure built in Elena's chest. She had no memories of a wedding, no flashes of vows or rings or white lace. But her name had been on that pocket watch.

Elena Bennett.

Her heart pounded. She had been his fiancée.

"What happened?" she whispered.

Liam closed his eyes briefly, as if the memory was a wound that had never healed.

"The night before our wedding," he said slowly, "you disappeared."

A chill ran through her.

"You were missing for two days," he continued. "When we found you..." He swallowed hard. "It was too late."

Elena's pulse hammered.

Catherine, of course, was enjoying every second of this.

"They said it was an accident," she murmured. "That you must have fallen from the East Wing balcony." Her green eyes gleamed. "But we both know that wasn't the truth."

Elena's breath came fast and shallow. A fall. A lie.

Her murder had been covered up.

She gripped the armrest of the chaise, her head spinning. The East Wing. It wasn't just a place where she had died. It was a place where she had been taken.

And suddenly, she knew one thing with absolute certainty.

If she wanted the truth, she had to go back there.

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"If you were told your death was covered up as an accident, would you dig deeper-even if the truth was dangerous?"

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