Chapter 423: Elena, Let Go!

I opened the door, and Lewis caught me before I could take another step. “Elena, don’t worry.”

“Theo, what’s happening?”

“Right now, we don’t know what’s going on with the cruise ship. They changed course, and just a day in, the entire ship went dark.” Seeing the fear rise in my face, Theo added quickly, “But nothing bad has happened yet. If something had gone wrong, she would have found a way to reach out before the signal was cut. They must have acted while no one was watching.”

Lewis pulled me closer, his warmth steady against my panic. “Even without a signal, a ship that size can’t just vanish. As long as Whitney is on board, Luther won’t touch her.”

“They’ve probably shifted their approach, sensed something closing in. And remember, there are other forces involved. Don’t spiral.”

I exhaled slowly. Worry wasn’t going to bring her back.

Lewis guided me back to bed. “Rest. I’ll handle it.” The sea beyond the window was black and endless, like a living thing waiting to swallow whatever fell into it. I pulled the blanket tight around me, both hands resting on my stomach.

“I’m sorry for scaring you,” I whispered to the quiet room.

Whitney, please be safe.

I didn’t sleep. I sat up alone and watched the dark bleed into dawn.

The moment I spotted Theo with Lewis, I crossed the room fast. “Any news?”

“Yes. Some passengers were moved off the ship last night.”

“The students?”

“Correct. They’ve been transferred to a private island — likely one of their main bases.”

My mind raced. If Vito had passed the information along and the authorities reached the island in time, there would be witnesses, evidence, all of it. But what about Whitney? Her phone was still unreachable. What if she never left the ship?

“If everyone was moved, Vito must be on that island too,” I said.

I felt like something caged, pacing without anywhere to go, not knowing what was happening to my sister at that very moment.

“Elena.” Lewis’s voice was calm but firm. “I reached Vito. He’s bringing forces in to lock down the island. No one’s getting out. What they’re hiding there is bigger than anything we found at that repair shop.”

The wait stretched out like something physical. I watched the sun climb and then begin to fall, having gone more than a day without sleep, and still I felt nothing like tiredness. The island grew closer. Then came the distant crack of gunfire, and the sound of a full battle breaking open.

The island was crawling with armed men, different factions tearing into each other. My anxiety sharpened as the light faded. Then Lewis’s phone buzzed, and his shoulders dropped with relief — the island had been secured.

I breathed. But the relief didn’t reach me fully. “What about Whitney?”

“No sign of her yet.”

He knew I wouldn’t settle until I saw her myself, so he made sure the ground was safe before he brought me onto the island. We were still searching when a voice crackled through the radio.

“Shadows on the west cliff — two men and a woman. She’s wearing white.”

“Whitney!”

I was already moving. My heart slammed against my ribs as I ran toward the cliff.

“Elena, slow down!” Lewis was right behind me, and he caught me, lifting me up before I could trip over myself.

I grabbed his shirt and held on. I had no idea what state she was in, what had passed between her and Luther and Vito out there. My instincts screamed that something was wrong in a way I couldn’t name.

“She’s going to be fine,” Lewis said, but even he couldn’t fully mask the tension underneath.

As we neared the cliff’s edge, I heard her voice — strained, raw, like something in her had already broken.

I pulled free and ran.

“Elena, wait—” Lewis’s warning was cut short by a gunshot splitting the air.

“Mrs. Hale, get down!” Theo’s voice came sharp from somewhere behind me.

Lewis moved without hesitating, firing at the shadows between the trees. “Call for backup!” More shots rang out, but he kept his body between me and the sound. I barely registered any of it. All I could see was the cliff ahead.

Then I saw her — a slim figure standing right at the edge.

“Elena.” Whitney turned when she heard me, and the smile on her face stopped my heart. It was soft and sad and final. “He already contacted the authorities. The evidence is on this phone. With everything we gathered, they’ll be able to catch them all.”

“Yes, Whitney, you did everything right.” I kept my voice gentle even as something cold gripped my chest. “Come away from the edge. It’s windy, and you’re not well. You’ll get cold.”

Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Elena, he’s gone. I can’t do this without him.”

Luther and Vito had vanished. That alone told me everything.

“Whitney, don’t do this. You still have me. You’re the only family I have left. Don’t you want to stay — for me?”

“Elena, I’m sorry.” Her voice was quiet, almost peaceful, and that was the most terrifying thing about it. “Just let me go. I’ll leave the phone here. I hope it helps save someone.”

She set the phone on the ground.

Then she turned toward the drop.

I didn’t think. I ran, and I caught her hand the second before she went over.

The world tilted. My feet scrambled for grip at the crumbling edge, her weight pulling against my arm, and everything in me locked down around that single point of contact — her fingers in mine.

It felt so familiar. Like a dream I’d had a hundred times, always the same — a cliff, a hand, a choice made in a fraction of a second. In the dream, I was small, and I let go, and I lost her for twenty years.

Every time I woke from it, I swore I’d never let go again.

“Whitney, I let go of you once. I was just a child, and I didn’t understand what it meant. But I understand now, and I am not letting go. Not this time.”

She looked up at me, and for a moment something flickered in her eyes. Then it faded. “Elena, you’re pregnant. Please. Let go before you fall too.”

Tears ran off my face and onto hers. “Stay alive, Whitney. For me. For this baby — don’t you want to hear them call you Aunty?”

“Elena.” Her voice was softer now, hollowed out. “Living like this drains everything from me. I can’t be like you. Everyone I see, I see something dark in them. I don’t know what I’m still here for. I used to think that if I just got past all of it, past all the hard parts, I’d come out somewhere free.” She paused. “But he’s not out there in that free place anymore. Being able to see you and the rest of the family again — that was enough. It really was. But he lived his whole life for other people, and I don’t want him to die somewhere alone.”

The sea wind lifted her hair. Her eyes were clear and calm, like someone who had already made their peace.

“Elena, I chose this. I don’t have any regrets. Let go.”

“No.” My grip tightened. “I won’t. Not even if we both go down.”

I heard Lewis shout my name from somewhere across the cliff, his voice cracked with fear. He was running, weaving through the last of it. “Hold on! I’m coming!”

Then Whitney’s hand slipped.

The water had taken her from me once before. Now she was choosing to go back to it — and taking whatever was left of her hope with her.

“Elena, I can’t come back from this.”

Her voice drifted up like something already leaving.

“Live with what I couldn’t carry. Tell Mom and Dad I’m sorry. I wasn’t the daughter I should have been.”

A beat of silence, filled only with wind and waves.

“It has been so good, being your little sister in this life.”

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