Night had settled quietly over the city.
After dinner, Elise stepped out into the gallery, seeking a moment of peace away from the chaos of the day.
She wore a dark silk night suit, the soft fabric moving gently with the cool evening breeze.
Her long hair swayed freely, strands dancing across her face whenever the wind grew stronger.
A steaming mug of hot chocolate rested between her hands.
The warmth seeped into her fingers as she leaned back in her chair and gazed into the distance.
The world felt calm.
Below, the gardens were bathed in silver moonlight, and the faint glow of streetlights painted soft shadows across the pathways.
For a rare moment, there were no crime scene photos, no unanswered questions, and no disturbing visions occupying her thoughts.
Only silence.
Only peace.
Around the property, the security guards remained alert at their posts.
Their eyes constantly scanned the surroundings, trained to notice even the slightest movement.
Occasionally, the faint sound of a radio crackled through the night before disappearing into the stillness again.
Elise took a slow sip of her hot chocolate.
The warmth comforted her, but her mind refused to rest completely.
Somewhere beyond the peaceful night, a mystery was waiting.
“I must catch the culprit,” Elise whispered to herself.
She finished the last sip of her hot chocolate and placed the empty mug on the table beside her.
The peaceful night no longer comforted her.
Instead, her thoughts drifted back to the murder.
I’m safe, thanks to my friends…
but I’m still considered a suspect.
The thought weighed heavily on her chest.
I need to prove myself.
Closing her eyes, Elise leaned back in her chair and forced herself to revisit every detail she had seen.
The crime scene.
The photographs.
The blood.
The wounds.
The strange black cloth fibers.
She replayed everything again and again inside her mind, examining each memory as if she were standing there once more.
The images became clearer.
Sharper.
Almost real.
In her imagination, she moved through the crime scene step by step, searching for something she had missed.
Then—
A flash.
A knife.
Elise’s eyes snapped open.
Her heart skipped a beat.
“The knife…”
She stood up abruptly.
It was the same knife.
The exact same one she had seen earlier that day in the small apartment she had visited.
At the time, it had been lying casually inside the kitchen sink, stained with what she had assumed was old residue.
But now—
Now she remembered it clearly.
There had been dried blood on the blade.
And something else.
Something she hadn’t paid attention to before.
A marking.
A small clock engraved near the handle.
Elise’s breathing quickened.
The image of Shelly’s wounds flashed through her mind.
The shape.
The depth.
The dimensions.
Everything suddenly seemed to connect.
Slowly, a realization began forming inside her.
That knife wasn’t random evidence.
It was a clue.
And whoever owned it might be much closer to the murder than anyone had imagined.
For the first time that night, Elise felt as though she was finally standing on the edge of something important.
Something dangerous.
And perhaps—
Something that would change the entire investigation.
“I need to go. Maybe he is still there.”
Elise stood up from her chair and took a few steps before stopping.
“What if there is more than one person?”
She frowned.
“One of them… I remember clearly. The one who attacked me recently.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“This time, I’ll be more careful.”
She looked around the room.
“I should ask him those questions. But where is he?”
She searched for him around the house.
The living room was empty.
The study was empty.
The kitchen was empty.
She checked her phone.
No messages.
No calls.
Since lunch, he had not been there.
“Where did he go?” she muttered.
Still holding her phone, Elise walked toward the window and stared outside.
The night remained quiet.
But the questions in her mind only continued to grow.
The President was in his office with his personal secretary and Enzo.
They were watching the CCTV footage.
Screen after screen.
But the culprit was not there.
The President looked at his personal secretary.
“Install CCTV cameras and lights in every dark and abandoned area.”
“Yes, sir.”
The secretary immediately took out his phone and sent messages to arrange it.
The President turned toward Enzo.
“Did she remember anything else? Did she see anything else?” he asked.
Enzo looked at the screen.
“I didn’t ask her. She was sleeping, and she was at the shock, so I let it go.”
New scene:
He was searching the same murder case on the internet when Enzo spoke again.
“Do you think she remembers you?”
His fingers froze over the keyboard, and for a moment, it felt as if his heart had stopped too.
“I don’t know.”
Enzo looked at him sympathetically.
“It must be hard for you.”
Lucien looked at him and said calmly,
“It would be hard if I didn’t know where she was. This is better than that.”
He exhaled sharply and turned his attention back to the article, his eyes scanning the screen as he continued reading.
“Don’t you want to talk to her?”
Lucien sighed at the question.
“Let her be. She needs time.”
Enzo ran a frustrated hand through his hair.
“Why are you not even taking her name?” he asked.
“You’re the one who gave her that name.”
The words hit harder than Enzo intended.
Lucien’s gaze remained fixed on the screen, but his focus was gone.
And then—
The memories came rushing back.
Like scenes from an old movie, they began to replay in his mind.
Past:_
A nurse carried the tiny infant gently in her arms.
The baby’s parents were crying tears of joy, overwhelmed by the moment, while the other couple sang a soft welcome song with bright smiles on their faces.
The room was filled with warmth, laughter, and happy tears.
Slowly, the nurse walked to the cradle and carefully laid the baby inside.
The newborn blinked up at the world with curious eyes as the adults gathered around, their faces glowing with love.
For a moment, everything felt perfect.
The baby suddenly burst into tears.
Everyone in the room rushed to calm her down, but nothing worked.
The parents tried rocking her gently, the nurse checked on her, and the others sang softly, yet her cries only grew louder.
Then—
A little boy came running into the room.
He wore a white striped shirt and matching pants.
His dark hair was perfectly styled despite his young age, and a faint, pleasant fragrance followed him as he hurried forward.
Curious, he peeked into the cradle.
The moment the baby saw his smiling face, her cries stopped.
Silence filled the room.
Then the baby smiled.
A bright, innocent smile.
The adults exchanged surprised glances while the little boy grinned proudly.
He leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead.
“Elise,” he said in a bright, excited voice.
The name seemed to settle over the room like a blessing.
“Elise.”
“My God is an oath.”
“Pledged to God.”
And somehow, from that moment on, it felt as though no other name could ever belong to her.
Present:_
Lucien blinked.
A tear slipped from the corner of his eye.
He wiped it away immediately, but not before Enzo noticed.
“Lucien,” Enzo said softly, “I know you’re trying to hold yourself together, but for God’s sake, talk to her. Tell her how long you’ve waited for her.”
For a moment, Lucien said nothing.
Then he rose from his chair and walked to the window.
The city lights shimmered beyond the glass, but his gaze was fixed somewhere far away.
“She forgot me,” he said quietly.
The words hung heavily in the room.
“She only knows one man now…”
A bitter smile touched his lips.
“And that’s Joe.”
Regret laced every syllable.
His hand tightened into a fist at his side.
“To her, I’m just a stranger.”
The confession hurt more than he cared to admit.
After all those years of searching, waiting, and hoping, he had finally found her.
Yet the distance between them felt greater than ever.
“Okay, then I’ll tell her everything myself.”
Enzo pushed his chair back and stood up.
Before he could reach the door, Lucien’s voice stopped him.
“Please, don’t.”
Enzo froze.
“That would make her uncomfortable.”
For a moment, the room fell silent.
Enzo slowly turned around and stared at him.
The concern in Lucien’s eyes was impossible to miss.
Even now, after all these years, his first thought was Elise’s comfort, not his own.
And that was exactly what frustrated Enzo.
“You keep saying that,” he said.
“You keep worrying about how she’ll feel, but what about you?”
Lucien looked away.
“What about all the years you’ve spent looking for her? What about everything you’ve been through?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter!”
Enzo’s voice echoed through the room.
“You’re acting like a stranger in your own story, Lucien.”
Lucien remained silent.
His silence only made Enzo more certain that beneath his calm expression, he was hurting far more than he would ever admit.
But instead of trying to fix what was broken, Lucien continued standing still, carrying the burden alone.
Two days passed like that.
The investigation consumed every waking hour.
Stacks of files covered the desks as Lucien, Enzo, and the others searched for any clue that could lead them to the killer.
They reviewed old case reports, unsolved murders from years ago, and every suspicious incident that had taken place in Paris, both in the past and the present.
Sleep became a luxury.
Coffee cups piled up beside mountains of paperwork.
Yet despite all their efforts, the answers remained frustratingly out of reach.
The situation had become so serious that even the President was growing concerned.
Beyond the palace walls, worry spread throughout the kingdom.
Rumors filled the streets, and fear quietly settled over the people as news of the murders continued to circulate.
Everyone wanted the same thing.
The killer had to be found.
And fast.
Inside the investigation room, Lucien rubbed his tired eyes and turned another page of a decades-old case file.
“There has to be a connection,” he muttered.
Enzo glanced up from his own documents.
“Then we’re going to find it.”
The room fell silent again, broken only by the sound of turning pages and the ticking of the clock as the hunt for the killer continued.
Just then, Enzo’s phone rang.
He glanced at the screen and immediately recognized the caller.
Elise.
A small smile appeared on his face as he answered the call and placed it on speaker.
“Hello?”
On the other end came a voice filled with concern, curiosity, and barely concealed fear.
“Where have you been?” Elise asked.
“It’s been two days since I’ve seen you.”
The moment Lucien heard her voice, his heart seemed to stop.
He forgot to blink.
Forgot the files in front of him.
Forgot everything except that voice.
The voice he had spent years searching for.
“Why?” Enzo asked casually.
“What happened?”
He made no move to turn off the speaker.
Because he knew.
He knew Lucien wanted to hear her voice.
“I was worried about you,” Elise admitted softly.
Lucien lowered his gaze.
A strange ache spread through his chest.
She had called because she was worried.
Not about him.
About Enzo.
And yet, despite the pain that thought brought, he couldn’t stop listening.
Every word she spoke felt precious.
Like something he had lost long ago and had only now found again.
On the other side of the room, Enzo caught the look on Lucien’s face.
For the first time in two days, Lucien wasn’t staring at a case file.
He was listening.
Completely and utterly captivated by the sound of her voice.
“Tell me where you are. I’ll come to you,” Elise said.
Enzo exchanged a quick glance with Lucien before replying,
“Why? Do you want to see me? Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine,” Elise said.
“But I want to tell you something.”
Enzo straightened immediately.
“What is it? Did you remember something?” This chapter was copied from novelping.com without permission.
A brief silence followed.
“Yeah,” she said quietly.
“I remembered something.”
“What?!”
Lucien’s head snapped up.
For the first time in days, a spark of hope flashed across his face.
“I’ll tell you when I meet you,” Elise continued.
“I don’t want to say it over the phone.”
“Okay,” Enzo said quickly.
“Then we’ll come to you.”
There was a pause.
“We?”
The confusion in her voice was unmistakable.
“Yeah,” Enzo replied.
He glanced at Lucien, whose eyes were fixed on the phone.
“Me and the President.”
The line went silent.
“…The President?”
Elise sounded as though she wasn’t sure she had heard correctly.
Enzo grinned.
“Yes. The President.”
Across the room, Lucien closed his eyes for a moment.
Part of him was relieved.
Part of him was terrified.
After all, if Elise had truly remembered something…
There was no telling whose face would be waiting for him in those memories.
After the call ended, silence filled the room.
Lucien and Enzo looked at each other.
“Why did you tell her that I’m coming too?” Lucien asked, sounding almost alarmed.
“Yeah!”
Lucien frowned.
“I asked a question.”
Enzo rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
“I don’t know why, but whenever she gets into journalist mode, I get scared.”
Lucien stared at him.
“Scared?”
“Yes, scared.”
Enzo pointed at him dramatically.
“You haven’t seen what I’ve seen. The moment she starts investigating something, she becomes unstoppable. She asks questions from every angle, notices things no one else notices, and somehow corners people into telling the truth.”
A shiver ran down his spine.
“I can’t handle that alone.”
“Don’t joke around with me.”
“I’m not kidding, Mr. President.”
Enzo raised both hands in surrender.
“I’m just being honest. You’ve known me for years.”
Lucien sighed.
“You can go alone.”
“Sorry, sir, but that’s not happening.”
Enzo grabbed his coat.
“You need to come with me. What if she remembered something important? Something that could lead us directly to the killer?”
Lucien fell silent.
As much as he wanted to avoid facing Elise, Enzo had a point.
If her memories contained a clue, they couldn’t afford to ignore it.
After a long pause, he finally nodded.
“Okay.”
Enzo’s face immediately lit up.
“Great!”
He headed for the door excitedly.
“Let’s go before she changes her mind.”
Lucien followed more slowly.
Unlike Enzo, he wasn’t worried about the investigation.
He was worried about seeing Elise again.
A short while later, the two of them arrived at the mansion.
As soon as they stepped inside, a maid greeted them with a respectful bow.
“Where is Elise?” Enzo asked.
“Miss Elise is in the study room, sir,” the maid replied.
Without wasting any time, Enzo and Lucien headed straight there.
The closer they got, the more Lucien’s heartbeat quickened.
It had only been two days since he had heard her voice again, yet it felt much longer.
Before entering, Enzo stopped another maid.
“Please bring us some coffee.”
“Of course, sir.”
“One Americano, black. And one cold coffee.”
The maid nodded and left.
Enzo glanced at Lucien.
“You look nervous.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re lying.”
Lucien shot him an annoyed look.
Enzo grinned.
“Relax. We’re here for information, not an interrogation.”
Lucien didn’t answer.
Because the truth was that he wasn’t worried about the investigation.
He was worried about Elise.
Taking a deep breath, Enzo pushed open the study room door.
Both men stepped inside.
And there she was.
When Elise saw the two of them enter, she immediately rose from her chair.
“Good evening, sir.”
She greeted Lucien with a respectful bow.
Lucien nodded in acknowledgment, but he barely heard her words.
His eyes were fixed on her.
She was wearing an ocean-blue hoodie that made her eyes seem even brighter.
A few stubborn strands of hair had escaped and kept falling across her face, forcing her to brush them aside every now and then.
Her makeup was minimal—just a touch of eyeliner that accentuated her eyes and a natural look that suited her far better than anything extravagant ever could.
To everyone else, she looked ordinary.
To Lucien, she was breathtaking.
For a moment, he found himself staring.
Not because of the hoodie.
Not because of the makeup.
But because she was standing right there.
Alive.
Safe.
Close enough for him to see the tiny expressions on her face.
Close enough to hear her voice without a phone between them.
A feeling he had buried for years stirred painfully in his chest.
Meanwhile, Elise completely m issed the storm of emotions behind his calm expression.
She simply smiled and turned toward Enzo.
“You took longer than I expected.”
Enzo laughed as he pulled out a chair.
“Trust me, if I had known you remembered something, I would have flown here.”
That immediately caught Lucien’s attention.
His gaze sharpened.
The reason they had come.
The memory.
The clue.
Whatever Elise had remembered might finally bring them one step closer to the killer.
____________________________________
Sometimes, the smallest memory becomes the biggest turning point.
But not every truth is meant to be remembered…
Are you ready for what Elise reveals next?