CHAPTER THREE

Elara choose to go back to the place full of her mother's memories, not to grief but to find answers.

How did her mother die? The car accident is planned. But who would kill her mother?

The house was quiet when Elara arrived. Her father stood in the doorway, older than she remembered, his eyes sunken with years of silence. He didn't speak right away. Just opened his arms, unsure if she'd step into them.

She did.

It wasn't forgiveness. Not yet. But it was something.

Later that night, Elara wandered into her mother's study. Dust coated the shelves, but everything was still in place-books on astronomy, journals, star maps. She ran her fingers along the spines until one slipped loose.

Inside was a letter. Folded. Hidden.

"If anything happens to me, it won't be an accident. They want the observatory. They want silence. But I won't give it to them."

Elara's breath caught.

She flipped through more pages. Her mother had been documenting meetings with a local developer-someone who wanted to buy the observatory land and turn it into a resort. She had refused. Repeatedly.

There were names. Dates. A photo tucked between the pages-her mother standing beside a man in a suit. On the back, in faded ink: Orion Vale. 2003.

The same name etched into the telescope.

Elara's heart pounded. Her mother hadn't just loved the stars. She had protected them. Fought for them.

And someone had wanted her gone.

Elara closed the journal and stared out the window. The stars blinked back at her, quiet and knowing.

She wasn't just grieving anymore.

She was searching for answer.

THE NEXT DAY

The house was quiet, but not peaceful. Elara stood in the doorway of the living room, her mother's journal clutched tightly in her hands. Her father sat in his usual chair, staring out the window as if the sky might offer him absolution.

"I found her journal," Elara said.

He didn't turn.

"She was scared. She wrote about threats. About someone wanting the observatory. She said if anything happened, it wouldn't be an accident."

Her father's shoulders stiffened.

Elara stepped closer. "Did you know?"

He finally looked at her. His eyes were tired, hollowed out by grief and guilt. "I knew she was fighting something. She wouldn't tell me everything. Said she didn't want me involved."

"But you were involved," Elara said, voice trembling. "You were her husband. You were supposed to protect her."

"I tried," he whispered. "But she was stubborn. Brave. She believed in that observatory more than anything. She thought it could change people. Heal them. She wouldn't sell it, no matter how much they offered."

"Who?" Elara asked. "Who wanted it?"

He hesitated. "A developer. Marcus Virelli. He came to town a few years ago. Wanted to turn the cliffside into a luxury resort. Your mother refused. Publicly. Loudly."

Elara's heart pounded. "Did he threaten her?"

Her father nodded slowly. "She got letters. Calls. She told me not to worry. Said she could handle it."

"But she couldn't," Elara said. "And now she's gone."

Her father looked down. "I didn't fight hard enough. I didn't believe it would go that far."

Elara stared at him, the silence between them thick with everything unsaid.

"I'm going to find out what happened," she said. "I'm going to finish what she started."

Her father didn't stop her.

He just whispered, "Be careful."

Elara returned to the observatory under a sky thick with clouds. It felt different now-not just sacred, but charged. Like the stars themselves were holding their breath.

She moved with purpose, searching every drawer, every crack in the floorboards. Behind a loose panel near the telescope, she found a folder labeled Virelli Development Proposal. Her mother had marked it with red ink: "Not safe. Not ethical. Not happening."

Inside were letters-aggressive ones. Offers to buy the land. Threats disguised as business. And one final note, unsigned:

"You're standing in the way of progress. Accidents happen."

Elara's hands trembled.

She took the folder and walked straight to the town records office. The clerk, a tired woman with coffee-stained sleeves, barely looked up when Elara asked for information on Marcus Virelli.

"He left town a month after the accident," the clerk said. "Said the project was 'no longer viable.' Never came back."

Elara pressed. "Did he have meetings with my mother?"

The clerk hesitated, then nodded. "She came here often. Filed complaints. Tried to rally the town. But people didn't want trouble."

Back at the observatory, Elara sat beneath the telescope, the folder open beside her. She stared at the stars, her mother's stars, and whispered, "I'm not letting this go."

She didn't know what she'd do next. But she knew where to start.

She would find Marcus Virelli.

And she would ask him why her mother had to die.

IN OBSERVATORY

Elara wandered through the halls, her fingers trailing along the walls like she was searching for something she couldn't name.

She found it by accident.

A hollow sound beneath her footstep. A loose floorboard near the base of the telescope. She pried it open and revealed a narrow staircase, spiraling down into darkness.

The hidden room was small, windowless, and lined with shelves. Dust clung to everything like time itself had been sleeping there. But the documents were intact-folders, maps, letters, and photographs.

One photo stopped her cold.

It was the same man from her mother's journal. Younger. Smiling. Standing beside her mother in front of the observatory, stars behind them like a crown.

On the back, in faded ink: Orion Vale - 2000

Elara stared at the name. It matched the one etched into the telescope. The one whispered in her mother's final notes.

Who was he?

She searched the room for more. Found a letter addressed to her mother, signed O.V.

"You were right to fight for it. The stars belong to everyone. If they come for you, don't let them take the light."

Elara folded the letter carefully, her heart pounding.

She didn't know where Orion Vale was now. Or if he was even alive.

But she knew one thing.

She had to find him.

Because he knew the truth.

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