Ashes of Our Flame
Episode 5: "The Girl in the Photo"
Kara didn't open the folder until she was alone.
Back in her small, hidden apartment above a rundown bookstore, she sat at her desk—heart pounding like a war drum—and flipped it open.
Photos. Names. Codes. Contacts.
All tied to a man marked for surveillance.
But it wasn't the target that made her blood run cold.
It was a photo slipped between the pages.
Old. Faded.
Her mother.
Standing beside Marcus Vale.
Kara's breath caught. Her hands trembled.
"Tessa," she whispered into the mic. "Are you seeing this?"
"I tapped the file feed," Tessa replied. "Kara... that's your mom. And she's not standing there like a victim."
"She knew him," Kara muttered. "She knew Marcus Vale."
And he kept that photo.
Why?
She stared at her mother's face—soft, smiling, eyes shining. A woman she barely remembered… smiling beside the man who destroyed them.
Was it all a lie?
Suddenly, everything shifted. Her mission, her rage, her certainty.
Adrian knew this photo was in the folder. He wanted her to see it.
But why?
To warn her? To control her?
Or… to tell her the truth?
Her phone buzzed. A message from an unknown number:
"Did you like what you found?"
Kara's pulse spiked.
Another text followed:
"Next time, knock before digging through my past."
– A
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To be continued in Episode 6…
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