CHAPTER FOUR

It's been five years since the last time I went to the observatory. I still remember the accident.

Not the crash itself-I wasn't there. But the phone call. The silence on the other end. The way her name felt like a wound when spoken aloud.

Marianne Quinn.

She was more than a colleague. More than a friend. She was the heartbeat of that place. The stars bent toward her when she spoke, like they knew she believed in them more than anyone else ever could.

We built that observatory together. Not with bricks and beams, but with dreams. She wanted it to be a sanctuary-for science, for wonder, for healing. I wanted it to be hers.

And then she was gone.

I left town the week after the funeral. Couldn't bear the way the observatory looked without her in it. Couldn't bear the way the town turned its back on her fight. Marcus Virelli had offered me money to stay quiet. I didn't take it. But I didn't speak either.

Coward.

Now I hear her daughter's back. Elara.

I saw her once, years ago. A quiet girl with her mother's eyes and her father's silence. If she's returned to the observatory, she's looking for something. Answers. Closure. Maybe revenge.

She'll find the hidden room. The letters. The photo of me and Marianne.

And she'll come looking.

I only hope I'm ready to tell her everything.

Orion Vale hadn't stepped foot in the observatory since Marianne's funeral. But he'd never stopped watching the stars.

He kept a small telescope on his balcony, pointed toward the same patch of sky they used to study together. It wasn't much, but it was enough to remind him of her voice, her fire, her refusal to be silenced.

Now Elara was back.

He'd heard whispers from town. A girl asking questions. A girl with her mother's eyes and her father's quiet rage. She'd found the hidden room. She'd found his name.

Orion stood in his study, surrounded by boxes he hadn't opened in years. Letters. Maps. Copies of the development plans Virelli had tried to push through. Evidence Marianne had gathered-some of it passed to him in secret, some of it buried in guilt.

He opened a drawer and pulled out a folder labeled Quinn - Final Notes. Inside were transcripts of meetings, recordings, and one last letter from Marianne:

"If Elara ever comes to you, tell her everything. Don't protect her from the truth. She's stronger than you think."

Orion stared at the words for a long time.

He wasn't ready. But she deserved answers. And he owed Marianne more than silence.

He packed the folder, the letters, and the photo of the three of them-Marianne, Elara as a child, and himself as a child, smiling like the world hadn't yet broken.

Then he waited.

Because he knew Elara would come.

And this time, he wouldn't run.

Elara stood outside the weathered cottage on the edge of town, her fingers curled around the photo of Orion Vale. The sky above was pale and restless, like it knew something was about to shift.

She knocked once.

The door opened slowly, revealing a man with silver at his temples and eyes that had seen too much. He didn't speak. Just looked at her like he already knew why she'd come.

"I'm Elara Quinn," she said. "You knew my mother."

Orion nodded. "I did."

She stepped inside. The cottage smelled like cedar and old paper. Star maps lined the walls. A telescope sat by the window, aimed at the same sky she'd been searching.

"I found your name in the observatory," she said. "In her journal. In a photo."

Orion walked to a shelf and pulled down a box. Inside were letters. Documents. A photo of Marianne holding Elara as a baby.

"She was brilliant," he said softly. "And brave. She fought for that observatory when no one else would."

Elara's voice cracked. "She died because of it."

Orion looked away. "She died because someone wanted her silence. Marcus Virelli. He threatened her. Tried to buy her off. When she refused, things escalated."

"Did you know?" Elara asked.

"I suspected," he said. "But I didn't act. I left. I thought I was protecting her by staying out of it."

Elara stared at him. "You weren't."

"I know."

Silence settled between them, thick with regret.

Then Orion handed her a folder. "This is everything I have. Letters. Meeting transcripts. Evidence. She wanted you to have it."

Elara took it with trembling hands.

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

Orion nodded. "Then I'll help you."

"I couldn't protect your mother before but now I will protect you." he said

Elara nodded " Thank you"

Elara clutched the folder tighter, her pulse steadying for the first time in days. She didn't know what came next—only that she wasn't alone anymore.

"I don't know where to start," she admitted.

Orion stepped toward the window, gazing at the sky as if it might offer direction. "We start with what we know. Your mother kept records. She trusted you to finish what she couldn't."

He turned back to her, eyes sharp now. "And we find Marcus Virelli."

Elara nodded. "If he's still out there, he needs to answer for what he did

Orion walked to a cabinet and pulled out a map—an old blueprint of the observatory and the surrounding land. "There's more buried than you think. Marianne believed the observatory held something worth protecting. Not just the stars. Something else."

Elara leaned in. "Like what?"

Orion hesitated. "She never told me everything. But she hinted at a discovery. Something she found in the archives. Something Virelli wanted."

Elara's heart raced. "Then we find it."

Orion smiled faintly. "You really are her daughter."

Outside, the stars blinked into view, quiet witnesses to a promise reborn.

And inside, Elara Quinn took her first step—not into grief, but into truth.

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