Elena... Elena, are you even listening to me?
The voice pulled her back, soft and familiar. Elena blinked, her hazel eyes refocusing on the reflection in the window not the past, but the present. Behind her Lily stood with a cardboard box balanced on one hip, her dark hair falling in waves over her shoulder.
Sorry. Elena turned away from the window, forcing a smile. What did you say?
Lily set the box down on the worn wooden floor with a soft thud. I asked if you wanted the blue curtains in your room or mine. But you were somewhere else entirely. She tilted her head, studying her older sister with those wide, innocent eyes,eyes that had never seen what Elena had seen. You've been doing that a lot since we got here.
Just tired from the move.Elena picked up a box cutter from the coffee table, slicing through the tape on the nearest box. Blue curtains are yours. You know I prefer the white ones.
The apartment wasn't much a two bedroom unit on the third floor of a middle class building in the heart of Ashford City. The living room opened into a small kitchen, separated only by a breakfast counter with two wooden stools. The walls were painted a soft cream color, already showing signs of age with tiny cracks near the ceiling. The landlord had left behind a brown sofa that sagged slightly in the middle and a coffee table with water rings etched into its surface. But it was clean, and the rent was affordable, and most importantly... it was here.
In Ashford City.
Where everything had ended.
Where everything would begin again.
This place has good energy, don't you think? Lily moved to the window where Elena had been standing moments before, throwing it open. Fresh air rushed in, carrying the sounds of the city car horns, distant conversations, the rumble of the subway two blocks away. I know it's not as quiet as home, but there's something exciting about it. Something alive.
Elena watched her sister breathe in the city air, her face bright with hope and possibility. Lily was twenty one, just graduated from college with a degree in graphic design, ready to take on the world. She wore a simple yellow sundress that brought out the warmth in her skin, her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail that swayed when she moved. She had their mother's smile gentle and trusting.
Too trusting.
It's different, Elena said carefully, pulling dishes wrapped in newspaper from the box. You'll get used to it.
Different good or different bad? Lily turned, leaning against the window side. Because you've been acting strange ever since we decided to move here. Every time I asked why Ashford City specifically, you just said it had better job opportunities. But there are lots of cities with opportunities, Elena. Why here?
The question hung in the air between them.
Elena focused on unwrapping a plate, taking her time with the newspaper, smoothing out each crease. Because I used to live here. When I was little. Before Mom died.
Lily's expression softened. I didn't know that. You never talk about... before.
There's not much to talk about. Elena set the plate on the counter, reaching for another. We left when you were a baby. I barely remember it myself.
The lie tasted bitter on her tongue.
She remembered everything.
Oh! Lily pushed off from the window, coming to help with the unpacking. Well, maybe being here will help you remember the good things. Like what Mom was like. You knew her, even if I didn't.
Elena's hands clenched on the newspaper. The good things. If only Lily knew there were no good things left to remember about this city. Only rain and mud and her father's back bent pleading on the mud. Only her mother's grave and a little sister who came into the world just as their mother left it.
Only rage.
Maybe,Elena said softly.
They worked in silence for a while, the apartment slowly taking shape around them. Lily hummed while she worked she always hummed, filling the room with melody the way some people filled it with words. It was one of her talents, She could sing, play piano, pick up any instrument and make it sound like beauty. Their father had saved money for piano lessons even when they could barely afford groceries, because Lily's gift was the one pure thing left in their lives.
Elena moved through the apartment slowly, placing things where they needed to go, but her mind kept drifting back to the window. To the view of Ashford City spreading out below them in every direction. Somewhere out there, in one of those buildings or houses or offices, was the man whose face she'd carried in her memory for seventeen years.
The man who had everything that should have been her father's.
The man who had kicked them out into the rain. She felt a sharp pain in her heart whenever she remembered that day.
She didn't even know his name. Not his full name, anyway. She'd been eight years old, and all she had heard was her father calling him "Richard" as they knelt in that muddy driveway. Richard and his wife and his three sons standing in the doorway of that beautiful house, looking down at them like they were nothing. Like they were trash whom deserve to be on the streets begging.
Eight years old Elena, shivering in her wet clothes, watching her father beg.
Elena?
She jerked, realizing she'd been standing in the middle of the kitchen, a mug frozen halfway to the cabinet.
Lily stood in the doorway to her bedroom, concern spread across her face.You're doing it again. Going somewhere else.
Just thinking about where to put things. Elena forced herself to move, placing the mug in the cabinet with the others. You should rest. We've been unpacking all day.
I'm not tired. But Lily yawned as she said it, covering her mouth with one hand. Okay, maybe a little tired. But I want to finish my room first. I start my internship on Monday, and I need everything organized before then.
Go.Elena made a shooing her out. I'll finish out here.
Lily hesitated, then crossed the room and wrapped her arms around Elena from behind, resting her chin on her sister's shoulder. Thank you. For everything. For taking care of me after Dad died. For working so hard so I could finish school. For bringing me here to start fresh. I know it hasn't been easy, and I know I don't say it enough, but... I love you.
Elena's throat tightened. She covered Lily's hands with her own, squeezing gently. I love you too. Now go before I change my mind about those blue curtains.
Lily laughed, and disappeared into her bedroom.
Alone, Elena let out a breath she hadn't realized how long she been holding.
She moved back to the window, this time allowing herself to fully sink into the memories she'd been fighting all day. The city lights were beginning to twinkle as evening approached, painting Ashford in shades of amber and gold. Beautiful. It had been beautiful that night too, she remembered, before the rain started. Her father had dressed in his best suit the gray one he saved for important occasions. He'd combed his hair back and smiled at her mother, assuring everything would be fine. That Richard would see reason. That their partnership would be restored, and everything they'd worked for wouldn't be lost.
Her mother had packed a small bag that night, just in case. She'd been eight months pregnant with Lily, moving slowly, one hand always resting on her swollen belly. Elena had held her mother's other hand, not understanding why they were going to see Uncle Richard that's what she'd called him then, Uncle Richard but understanding that something was very wrong. She could feel it in the tightness of her mother's grip, in the forced brightness of her father's smile.
The house had been in the nice part of town, the part where the streets were lined with trees and the yards stretched out like green oceans. Elena had pressed her face to the car window, staring at the mansion that appeared before them. Uncle Richard's house. It looked like something from a fairy tale, with its white columns and sprawling porch and windows that glowed with warm light.
They'd parked on the street. Her father had straightened his tie three times before getting out of the car.
Stay here, he'd told them. I'll just be a moment.
But then Richard had come to the door, and whatever her father had said had made Richard's face turn hard and cold. The conversation had escalated, voices rising, and then her father was being pushed off the porch, stumbling back into the driveway. Her mother had gotten out of the car then,she remembered the mud,and her shoes untied and her mom walking as fast as she could, reaching for her husband.
That's when the rain had started.
Elena had followed, of course. She'd been a child, but even then she'd known her family was falling apart, that they needed to stay together. She'd reached her parents just as her father dropped to his knees in the mud, her mother beside him, both of them looking up at Richard who stood cold and aloof under the shelter of his porch.
Please,her father had said. Richard, please. You know that company is as much mine as yours. We built it together. You can't just take my name off everything. You can't cut me out. I have a family. A baby on the way. Please.
Richard had said something Elena couldn't quite remember now, something cruel and final. What she did remember was her father pulling her down, making her kneel too, the mud soaking through her tights, the rain plastering her hair to her face. She remembered her mother crying, one hand still on her belly, protecting Lily even then.
She remembered kneeling in the mud and looking up at that porch and seeing them.
Richard's wife a woman with perfect hair and a perfect dress and a perfect life. And three boys, standing in a line like soldiers. The oldest had looked about her age, maybe a bit older. He'd been staring down at her with an expression she couldn't quite read. Not pity. Not cruelty. Just looking.
Richard had told them to leave. When her father hadn't moved fast enough, he had called someone security, maybe, or the police. The threat had been enough. Her father had pulled them up, all three of them covered in mud, and led them back to the car.
As they'd driven away, Elena had looked back at that house, at those people standing together in the warm light while her family fell apart in the rain. And something inside her eight year old heart had hardened into stone.
I'll come back, she'd promised herself. I'll come back and make them hurt the way we hurt.
Three days later, her mother had gone into labor. Too early. Too much stress. The baby was fine Lily had come into the world safe and healthy. But their mother... their mother had bled out on that hospital bed, holding Lily for just a few minutes before the light went out of her eyes.
Elena hadn't cried at the funeral. She'd been nine years old, standing in a black dress that was too small for her, holding Lily while her father stood at the grave and wept. She had looked down at her baby sister's sleeping face and made another promise.
I'll protect you. And I'll make them pay.
Her father had taken them away after that. To a small town three hours from Ashford City, where no one knew them and no one asked questions. He'd found work as an accountant, earning barely enough to keep them fed and housed. The light had gone out of him, just like it had gone out of their mother. He had carried all the responsibilities of a mother and father,going to work, making meals, helping with homework but he had been emptied inside. A shell of the man he had been.
He had lasted until Elena was twenty-three and Lily was nineteen. A heart attack, the doctors said. Sudden and massive. Hehad been at his desk, working late as always, and his heart had just stopped.
At his bedside in the hospital, in those final moments, he had gripped Elena's hand with surprising strength and made her promise.
Don't go back, he'd whispered. Don't go back to Ashford City. Don't... don't dig up the past, Elena. Please Promise me. Let it go. Let me go. Jus be happy. Take care of your sister and be happy.
She'd promised. She held his hand and looked into his dying eyes and promised she would let it go.
But she had been promising him. Not herself.
Now, standing at the window of their new apartment in the heart of Ashford City, Elena touched her fingertips to the cool glass a tear rolled down her cheek but no one to comfort her but she couldn't back down now, she wiped her tears and smiled a smile that didn't spread through her eyes.
I'm sorry, Dad. But I can't let it go. I won't.
Behind her, she heard Lily moving around in her bedroom, the soft thud of boxes being unpacked, the sound of furniture being moved. Her sister's life stretching out ahead of her, bright and full of possibility, completely unaware of the storm Elena was about to unleash.
Elena caught her reflection in the darkening window. Twenty-five years old and she barely recognized herself sometimes. Gone was the little girl who would have knelt in the mud. In her place was a woman with hazel eyes that had learned to hide their softness, blonde hair that fell past her shoulders in carefully controlled waves, and skin that had lost its childhood glow and settled into something more refined. She wasn't beautiful in the ordinary sense her features were too sharp for that, her gaze too intense. But people noticed her. Men and women alike. There was something in the way she moved and carried herself, in the set of her shoulders, in the way she looked at the world like it owed her something.
Because it did.
They did.
She spent the last two years planning this return. Working two jobs to save enough money for the her return. Researching Ashford City, learning its rhythms and patterns. She'd found the company her father had helped build Carson & Associates, it was called now. Just Carson. Not Carter and Carson, the way it should have been. Richard Carson had erased her father as completely as if he'd never existed.
But Elena remembered.
She would make sure everyone remembered.
The water pressure in my shower is terrible! Lily's voice called from the bathroom, followed by the sound of pipes groaning. We're going to have to call the landlord tomorrow.
Add it to the list Elena called back, pulling herself away from the window and the ghosts that danced in its reflection.
She moved through the apartment, checking if the locks were secure, that the windows were closed properly, that everything was in its place. It was something she'd done every night since their father died checking and double checking, making sure her small world was safe and controlled. Lily teased her about it sometimes, calling her a mother hen, but Elena couldn't stop. Revenge was all she had left.
Control and rage and a plan that had kept her going through the darkest nights.
The apartment settled around them as evening deepened into night. Lily came out from her bedroom in pajamas, her hair wet from the shower, her face scrubbed clean and shining with like a rare gem. She raided the kitchen for snacks, finding the box of crackers and the jar of peanut butter they had packed separately, and curled up on the uncomfortable sofa with her phone.
"Oh good, the Wi-Fi is working," she said, scrolling through her messages. Emma already texted asking how the move went. And Mom Rodriguez wants to know if we need anything."m
Mrs. Rodriguez had been their neighbor in their old town, a kindly woman who'd helped raise them after their father died. She'd cried when they'd told her they were moving, but she'd understood. Young people needed opportunities, she'd said. They needed to spread their wings.
If only she knew the real reason they had come here she would have tried to stop her.
Tell them we're settling in fine, Elena said, gathering the empty boxes and breaking them down flat. And we'll visit soon.
You say that, but you know we won't. Lily looked up from her phone, her expression gentle but knowing. You don't like going back, do you? You always want to move forward.
Elena paused, a flattened box in her hands. Is that so wrong? No just different from me, I guess. I like remembering. I like holding onto the good parts of before. Lily set her phone aside. Will you tell me about Mom someday? About what she was really like? Not just the stories Dad used to tell, but your memories of her
The question hit Elena like a physical blow. She turned away, busying herself with the boxes. Someday. When I can.
Okay. Lily didn't push. She never pushed. That was part of her gift too knowing when to let things be. I'm going to bed. Big day tomorrow, setting up my room properly.
She crossed to Elena and kissed her cheek, the gesture reminded her of their mother that Elena had to close her eyes against the sudden sting of tears.
Goodnight, Elena. Sweet dreams.
Goodnight.
Elena waited until she heard Lily's bedroom door close before she allowed herself to move back to the window. The city sprawled below her, alive with lights and motion and secrets. Somewhere out there was Richard Carson. Somewhere out there were answers to questions she'd been carrying for seventeen years.
Why had he done it? What had happened between him and her father? What had turned a partnership into betrayal so complete that it had destroyed their entire family
She pressed her forehead against the cool glass, her breath heavy against the window.
She'd made a list, back in her old apartment, late at night when Lily was asleep. A list of things she needed to do:
Find Richard Carson.
Learn everything about him.
Learn everything about his family.
Find the weak points.
Strike.
It wasn't a good plan. It wasn't even a complete plan. But it was something. A direction. A purpose.
The face from that rainy night stirred up in her memory again. Richard Carson, older and harder and so certain of his power. His wife, elegant and cold. And those three boys. The oldest one, staring at her with those unreadable eyes.
They would be men now of course. Her age or older. Living their privileged lives, completely unaware that the little girl they'd watched kneel in the mud had grown up and come back.
Elena smiled at her reflection, and it wasn't a kind smile.
I'm here, she whispered to the city. I came back, just like I promised. And you're going to pay for what you took from us.
The city lights twinkled back at her, indifferent and eternal.
Somewhere in the apartment, a pipe creaked. The refrigerator made hummed to life. Traffic sounds drifted up from the street below. All the small sounds of life going on, ordinary and unchanged.
But nothing would stay ordinary for long.
Elena Carter had come home.
And she'd brought her ghosts with her.
She stood at that window long into the night, watching and planning and remembering, while behind her closed door, Lily slept the dreamless sleep of the innocent. Two sisters under one roof. One looking toward a bright future. One looking back at a dark past.
Both standing on the edge of something neither of them could yet see coming.
And in that moment, standing between memory and revenge, Elena felt something she hadn't felt in years alive. Truly, completely alive. Not just existing or surviving, but burning with purpose. It was intoxicating and terrifying and absolutely necessary.
She touched the window one more time, a promise and a threat.
"Soon," she whispered. "Very soon."
Then she turned away, leaving the ghosts to dance in the glass alone, and went to make her plans.
Tomorrow, Ashford City would wake to just another ordinary day.
But for Elena Carter, tomorrow would be the beginning of the end.
Or perhaps the end of the beginning.
Only time would tell which face revenge would wear when it finally came calling.