"...they would kill my family."
Maya's eyes widened.
Suddenly everything made sense.
The fear.
The silence.
The strange behavior.
The message.
The papers.
Everything.
Ryan looked at her.
"I married you because I thought if I followed their orders..."
his voice broke,
"...I could save them."
Maya's heart pounded.
The room felt smaller.
Harder to breathe.
Then suddenly—
Maya noticed something.
Something strange.
In the photograph Ryan dropped earlier...
she looked closer.
Very closely.
And her entire body froze.
Because standing in the background...
behind Ryan's wife and son...
was someone she recognized.
Someone impossible.
Someone who made her blood run cold.
Slowly...
very slowly...
she lifted the photo.
Her hands shook violently.
She looked at Ryan.
Then whispered:
"...Why is my father in this picture?"
Ryan's face instantly turned white.
Not fear.
Not shock.
Pure horror.
Because Maya's father...
had been dead...
for ten years.
