Chapter 2 - The Return of the Drowned
"Aiden," she whispered.
The voice was raspy, vibrating with an eerie, supernatural resonance that seemed to carry over the roar of the ocean winds.
Aiden froze, paralyzed by a mixture of overwhelming terror and bone-deep shock. He wanted to speak, to call her name, to ask how a woman who had spent five years at the bottom of the Atlantic could look at him with such terrifying vitality, but his vocal cords refused to cooperate.
Elena slowly climbed to her feet. She wasn't shivering. Despite the freezing gale, her wet silk dress clung to her frame as if she were standing in the warm sun of a summer afternoon.
"You look like you've seen a ghost," she murmured, taking a slow step toward him across the slippery pier.
"Elena... you... you're dead," Aiden managed to choke out, stumbling to his feet, his hands raised defensively. "We held a funeral. Your uncle Victor inherited the estate. Your signature was on the corporate dissolution papers—"
"Victor forged my signature," Elena interrupted, her voice dropping into a chilling, metallic register. "Just like he forged the autopsy report, the boat rental logs, and the brake line failure on my car three months before he pushed me off this exact pier."
Aiden stared at her, the horrific pieces of the puzzle clicking together with sickening speed. Five years ago, Elena had been the majority shareholder of Vance Global Shipping—a multi-billion-dollar maritime empire. Her uncle, Victor Vance, had wanted control of the board. He had engineered her disappearance, seized her assets, and left Aiden drowning in grief and guilt.
"Victor..." Aiden whispered, his fists clenching at his sides. "He told me you committed suicide because of the corporate debt. He showed me the note."
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"Victor is a very convincing liar," Elena said, stepping past him toward the dark, winding road leading up the cliffside toward the Vance Manor. She paused, looking back over her shoulder, her amber eyes burning with a cold, relentless fury. "But tonight, the trial is over. Tell me, Aiden... are you going to help me bury my uncle, or are you going to stand in my way?"
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