Chapter 3 — Echoes of the Dead

The gala was everything she remembered chandeliers spilling light like captured stars, glasses chiming with practiced laughter, men in tailored suits shaking hands as if sealing invisible wars.

To everyone else, it was just another corporate celebration.

To Elena Voss, it was her resurrection.

She stood at the edge of the ballroom, her expression serene, her posture perfectly controlled. The dark velvet gown she wore clung like shadow and moonlight, understated yet commanding. Every movement, every breath was deliberate. The kind of elegance that made people turn before they knew why.

“Ms. Voss,” murmured her assistant, a slender woman named Camilla. “Mr. Graves from the Cole Corporation has arrived. Shall I”

“No,” Elena interrupted softly. “Let him find me.”

Camilla nodded and drifted away.

Elena’s gaze swept the room. The Cole Corporation her husband’s empire, now co-owned with Selene had invited the worlds elite tonight to mark another merger. The irony wasn’t lost on her.

Three years. That was how long she had been gone. Three years since the storm, since she had woken up reborn under a stranger’s roof. Three years since Ava Cole had ceased to exist.

And now here she was, the ghost they buried, standing beneath their chandeliers.

Her fingers brushed the stem of her champagne glass, the cold bite grounding her. She’d told herself she was ready that she had erased every trace of the woman who once trembled beneath Adrian’s silence or Selene’s shadow.

But when she heard his voice across the room, the glass nearly slipped from her hand.

“Adrian Cole,” someone announced with reverence, “always a pleasure to have you.”

The sound of his name still had power, a sound that cut clean through air and memory alike.

Elena turned slightly, and there he was. For a moment she had flashbacks, flashbacks of the man she once loved, the man she once adored, the man for whom she could go to the end of the world for.

But now he stood there, just an ordinary man, Mr Adrian Cole

Time had been kind to him too kind. The same striking symmetry, the same calm arrogance in the way he carried himself. His hair was a little shorter, touched with silver at the temples, but his eyes those storm-gray eyes hadn’t changed. They scanned the crowd, polite, unreadable.

He looked untouched by loss.

She had once thought she could read every flicker behind his gaze. Now she saw nothing but composure, polished to a mirror’s edge.

Selene wasn’t beside him tonight. That detail didn’t escape her.

Elena’s lips curved faintly not quite a smile. Selene had always been more comfortable basking in the glow of what Ava built, not maintaining it.

A waiter brushed past, and when he did, Adrian’s eyes lifted straight to her.

For a heartbeat, the world fell silent.

It wasn’t recognition, not yet. Just… a pause. A subtle tilt of his head, a narrowing of the eyes. The kind of instinct that whispered I have seen her before.

Elena met his gaze evenly. Calm. Detached. Entirely foreign.

Then she turned away first.

If he wanted ghosts, he would have to chase them.

Later that evening, she found herself near the terrace. The city lights stretched below, golden and endless. The air was cooler there, sharp with the scent of champagne and roses.

She leaned on the balustrade, letting the noise of the party fade behind her.

“Enjoying the view?”

The voice came from behind low, smooth, edged with the faintest curiosity.

Elena turned.

Adrian stood a few steps away, glass in hand, watching her as though he could not quite decide whether to approach or retreat.

“It is beautiful,” she said, her tone composed. “Though beauty often hides its cost.”

He smiled faintly that same measured smile she remembered, controlled and practiced. “You sound like someone who has seen enough to know.”

She tilted her head, studying him with quiet fascination. “Perhaps.”

A pause stretched. The breeze tugged at a strand of her hair.

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” he said finally. “Adrian Cole.”

“Elena Voss.” Her voice didn’t tremble. “It is an honor, Mr. Cole. Your name carries quite the reputation.”

“Reputation can be a curse,” he replied. “It depends who is speaking.”

Her lips curved. “And who is listening.”

He studied her for a long moment. “You remind me of someone.”

The words brushed against her skin like static.

“Do I?” she asked softly.

“Yes,” he said. “Someone I knew a long time ago.”

Elena’s gaze didn’t waver. “Then you must have known someone remarkable.”

Something flickered in his eyes confusion, intrigue, something else buried deeper.

Before he could speak again, Camilla appeared by the door. “Ms. Voss, they’re waiting for you in the lounge.”

“Of course.” She turned back to Adrian, her expression composed, polite. “It was a pleasure, Mr. Cole.”

“The pleasure was mine,” he said quietly, but his voice carried an edge of something unspoken.

As she walked away, she could feel his eyes following her searching for a name that no longer existed.

Inside the private lounge, the air shifted from luxury to strategy. Men in suits leaned over portfolios, laughter subdued beneath the weight of numbers. Elena slipped seamlessly into the rhythm.

“Ms. Voss,” said one of the directors, “your proposal on the renewable branch expansion is bold. Are you certain about the acquisition terms?”

“Absolutely,” she said, her voice calm but decisive. “The Cole Corporation is the perfect entry point. They have grown too quickly. Expansion breeds weakness, and I intend to find it.”

Someone chuckled, impressed by her confidence.

Elena smiled faintly, though inside, her pulse beat with steady precision. Every move, every investment, was a step closer not just to power, but to the truth.

Julian had warned her: Revenge without control is self-destruction.

But control had become her second skin.

Hours later, when the gala ended, Elena remained near the exit, waiting for her car. The night was quiet now, the sky heavy with stars.

Then she heard footsteps.

“Leaving so soon?”

Adrian’s voice again closer this time, lower.

She turned, and the faint glow from the entrance cast them both in muted light.

“I prefer to exit before the applause,” she said lightly.

He studied her face, searching. “Forgive me if this sounds strange… but have we met before?”

Elena’s expression softened, almost sympathetic. “Memory is a tricky thing, Mr. Cole. It often confuses familiarity with fate.”

He smiled faintly. “Maybe… Still, I could swear I have seen your eyes before.”

She held his gaze, steady, unflinching. “Perhaps in another life.”

For a heartbeat, he said nothing. The silence between them was a living thing charged, fragile, almost tender.

Then he nodded slowly. “Another life,” he echoed.

She inclined her head politely and stepped into her car. As the door closed, she allowed herself one last look at him through the window.

The man she once loved. The man who buried her without asking why.

And he had no idea she was sitting ten feet away, alive, breathing, watching.

The car pulled away, and she exhaled, her reflection ghosting against the glass.

The past had found her tonight. But not to haunt her to warn her.

There would be more meetings like this. More reminders of who she once was.

But Ava Cole was gone. And Elena Voss had work to do.

Back at her penthouse, she stood before the mirror, removing her earrings one by one. The city glowed beneath her, its heartbeat distant and indifferent.

“Three years,” she whispered.

Her reflection looked back poised, flawless, unrecognizable.

He didn’t see me.

The thought should have comforted her. It didn’t. Instead, it unsettled something deep within a pulse of grief she had not expected to feel again.

Julian’s voice echoed in memory: To destroy them, you must first let them think they have already won.

Her jaw tightened. “I intend to.”

She reached for her phone and dialed.

A male voice answered, calm and deep. “Yes?”

“It’s me,” she said. “I met him tonight.”

A pause. Then, “And?”

“He looked right at me.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “And did not recognize the woman he once swore to love.”

“Good,” Julian said. “That means you ‘re ready.”

Elena’s gaze drifted to the window. The Cole Corporation tower glinted in the distance like a blade catching moonlight.

“Ready?” she murmured. “No, Julian. I have only just begun.”