Chapter 328: Are You Surprised?

Whitney had already handed me her phone. If I used it to contact someone outside, my chances of escape would shoot up overnight. She clearly wanted me to leave she didn’t want me trapped here like her.

And still… I could feel it. Deep down, a part of her wanted to see me again. Not as a memory. Not as a ghost in her chest.

As me.

Her emotions had been pulling her in two directions all day. She wanted to push me out of this place, but she also wanted to keep me close enough to prove she wasn’t alone.

I wiped her tears with my thumb, then lifted my hands and signed slowly, clearly.

If we leave, we leave together.

“Leave?” Her laugh was small and empty. She shook her head. “He’ll never let me go. I know too much. Even if I die… it’ll be by his side.”

Just like that, the truth sat between us.

Whitney wasn’t only trapped in this house. She was trapped in what it had done to her. She had lived inside fear for so long that freedom sounded unreal like something meant for other people.

I shook my head hard. I tried to show her, with clumsy signs and desperate eyes, that the outside world still existed. That the sky was still wide. That mornings still smelled like rain and food and new chances.

Her lashes trembled. “Since the world is so wonderful… you shouldn’t stay here with me.” Her voice cracked. “Elena, you must run if you get a chance…”

She was only twenty-five, but the light in her eyes looked like someone who’d already said goodbye to life.

It shouldn’t be this way.

Hot frustration rose behind my eyes. I wanted to speak. I wanted to grab her shoulders and shake sense back into her. But I couldn’t. My throat stayed locked, useless, like my own body was punishing me.

And my sign language… it wasn’t enough. It couldn’t carry everything in my chest.

So I did the only thing I could. I slowed down. I repeated myself with my hands, with my gaze, with the way I leaned toward her like I would fight the world for her.

I won’t leave you. I’ll protect you. We’ll get out together.

Whitney stared at my hands for a long moment. Then she nodded vague, careful like she didn’t want to break me with the truth she believed.

I sighed.

Her mind was still stuck in the last twenty years. I couldn’t undo that in one night. Not with a few gestures. Not even with love.

But I could start. I could show her that life held more than pain.

When I first came back, revenge was all I could taste. It sat on my tongue like iron. It was Lewis who reminded me there was still warmth in this world. That I wasn’t abandoned. That I was still wanted. Still chosen.

Whitney needed that same warmth slow and steady until hope didn’t feel like a trap.

She rinsed her face and spoke like she was changing the subject on purpose. “By the way… you asked me about Amber before, didn’t you?”

I nodded quickly. My hands moved fast, sharper this time. She tried to kill me. Tell me.

Whitney didn’t look up as she washed her hands. “She’s Yael and Vito’s biological mother.”

My whole body went still.

Of all the answers I expected, that wasn’t one of them.

It clicked in ugly pieces the way Yael never called her “Mom.” The way he always said “that person,” like the word mother burned his mouth. The way he once mentioned being hit as a child, like it was normal.

What kind of woman makes her own sons afraid to say her name?

Even Lewis hadn’t been able to trace Amber’s husband. And now I understood why because her husband had been the late Blackwell patriarch.

So Amber wanting me dead made sense. I was a threat. A loose end.

But the question that scratched at my mind wouldn’t stop.

Why did she stay close to Lewis?

Was I imagining the care? Was it just strategy dressed up as kindness? If she wanted something from him, why hadn’t she taken it already?

One mystery solved, and the room filled with more shadows.

I lifted my hands again, asking Whitney what else she knew. What Amber was like, up close.

Whitney paused with her toothbrush in her mouth, then lowered it slowly. “She’s terrifying.”

I didn’t argue.

“She’s cold to the Blackwell brothers,” Whitney added. “Probably because of their late father.”

I traced words on the foggy mirror with my fingertip.

Hales. Connection?

Whitney shook her head. “I don’t know. I didn’t interact with her much. Honestly, even Yael and Vito rarely see her. They’re both afraid of her.”

Her mouth tightened. “She’s high-ranking in that organization. Those secrets are above my head.”

My stomach sank. Amber wasn’t just dangerous.

She was powerful.

Whitney caught my expression and tried to steady me. “Elena… be careful. She’ll definitely show up at my bonding ceremony with Vito.”

I nodded once.

Then she handed me toiletries. I didn’t wash off my makeup, but I brushed my teeth and took a quick shower. When I pulled on Whitney’s sleepwear, something in my chest softened.

For a second, it felt like time folded.

Back then, she’d stopped sleeping beside our parents, but she’d sneak to my door at night clutching a teddy bear. She loved stealing my clothes. She loved jumping out to scare me, then laughing like she’d just won a war.

She wasn’t the sharpest of us, but she had the brightest spirit. The loudest joy.

Now she moved like a scared little rabbit, fragile and quiet, like she was always waiting for the next hit.

It made me want to scream.

Since “Mute Girl” and Whitney weren’t supposed to be close, we couldn’t share a bed. So I made a floor bed beside hers. Whitney rested her head near the edge of the mattress, so all she had to do was look down to see me.

That night, she fell asleep fast.

Like she finally believed she wasn’t alone anymore.

I couldn’t sleep.

I listened to her breathing, even and soft, and my thoughts drifted to Lewis.

Carl… are you okay?

His face when I left those eyes, that broken stillness kept replaying in my mind like a punishment.

But Whitney didn’t have nightmares. Not even one.

She slept until morning.

When Vito came in, she was still asleep. He glanced at me, and I quietly left the room.

Right before I stepped out, I saw him bend down and press a kiss to her forehead.

The look on his face was full of something that resembled love.

And it made my skin crawl.

After everything he’d done… did he really believe love could erase it?

The moment I walked into the courtyard, Yael appeared with breakfast in his hands, acting like last night hadn’t happened.

This time, I didn’t even pretend to refuse food. Whatever came next, I needed strength.

I wiped my mouth, steadying myself

When a loud, familiar voice rang through the yard.

“Whitney! Whitney! I’m here to see you again! Are you surprised?”

My head snapped up.

Riley stood in the courtyard.

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