Ashes of Our Flame
Episode 6: "The First Thread Unravels"
Kara didn't sleep that night.
The photo haunted her.
Her mother, smiling beside Marcus Vale, as if they were more than acquaintances. As if they shared something real. Something intimate.
She couldn't stop staring at it. Every fiber of her being screamed that it didn't make sense. Her mother was supposed to be the victim—collateral damage in the Vale family's reign of terror. Not part of it.
Tessa called just after 3 a.m.
"I pulled some background on the image metadata," she said through the speaker. "It was taken twenty-four years ago at a private gala hosted by ValeTech. But there's no digital record of your mom ever working there."
Kara paced her room, fists clenched. "Because they scrubbed her."
"Exactly. Marcus Vale erases people. Clean. Quiet. But this photo proves they were connected."
Kara's voice hardened. "It proves they were close."
Tessa hesitated. "What if she wasn't the victim you think she was?"
Kara's pulse kicked. "Don't."
"I'm just saying… you need to be ready for the possibility that she had secrets. Big ones."
Kara ended the call without replying.
She couldn't deal with possibilities. She needed answers.
The next morning, she dressed in black—tight, tactical, efficient. Then she slid the photo into her jacket, a weapon of truth as much as the gun strapped beneath her belt.
---
Vale Tower loomed like a monolith above the city, all steel and mirrored glass.
Getting inside without a badge was near-impossible. Luckily, Kara didn't plan to sneak in.
She walked through the front doors like she belonged.
Confident. Unflinching.
The receptionist looked up. "Miss—?"
"Tell Adrian Vale his 3 a.m. ghost is here."
The receptionist hesitated, but Kara's glare brooked no argument. A security officer stepped forward, but a moment later the elevator behind them dinged.
Adrian stood inside, expression unreadable. "Let her up."
---
The ride was silent.
Kara stood on one side of the elevator, Adrian on the other. The tension between them was electric—taut and humming.
When the doors opened to the executive floor, she followed him down a corridor lined with fine art and surveillance cameras hidden in ornate frames.
He opened a sleek office door and stepped aside.
"After you."
Kara walked in, stopped in the middle of the room, then turned. "Why did you give me the folder?"
Adrian closed the door. "Because I wanted to see what you'd do with it."
She pulled out the photo, held it up.
"This isn't a game, Adrian."
His eyes flicked to the image, then back to her face. "No. It's not."
"Why was my mother with your father?"
Adrian crossed the room slowly, voice low. "I don't know."
"Liar."
"I don't, Kara. I was a kid. But I've seen that photo before. My father keeps it in a vault. Under lock and facial scan."
Kara's breath caught. "So it mattered to him."
"Apparently."
She searched his face, looking for cracks. Lies. Guilt. But he wasn't breaking.
"Why give it to me?"
He looked at her, serious now. "Because if you're going to burn my family's empire down, I want to know why. And if there's something hidden in our past that matters, I want it uncovered as much as you do."
She didn't trust him. But she needed him.
Kara pocketed the photo. "Then start talking. Everything you know about your father. No lies."
Adrian sighed and walked to the bar.
As he poured himself a drink, he said, "Marcus Vale doesn't trust anyone. Not even me. But he made one mistake years ago. He kept a record. A black book. Written, not digital. Because he doesn't believe in encryption—just paper and fire."
Kara's eyes narrowed. "Where is it?"
"In his private vault."
She folded her arms. "And you can get me in?"
"No," he said, turning to face her. "But I can get you close."
---
That night, Kara followed Adrian to a charity gala—another mask the Vale family wore to cover its rot.
She wore a blood-red dress. It wasn't her style, but it turned heads—and Adrian's eyes lingered too long when she stepped out of the car.
"You clean up well," he said.
"I look like bait," she replied.
He smirked. "You are."
They entered arm in arm.
The crowd was high-class corruption—senators, CEOs, crime lords in disguise.
Marcus Vale stood near the back, drinking something amber and expensive. When he spotted them, his smile twisted with curiosity.
Adrian leaned in. "We'll use the distraction I planned. You'll have about ten minutes to slip into the restricted wing."
"What happens if I'm caught?"
"They'll bury you," Adrian said plainly. "So don't get caught."
---
The plan unraveled fast.
Five minutes in, the distraction Adrian staged—a staged fight between rival donors—escalated into real chaos. Security swarmed the scene.
Kara slipped away unnoticed, sliding through service halls and maintenance doors, her heels traded for flats stashed in her clutch.
She found the entrance to Marcus's private study.
Locked. Coded.
She took a deep breath and pulled out Tessa's override device. The scanner beeped twice… then the door slid open.
Inside, the room was lined with ancient books and new tech. And there—against the far wall—a vault.
Kara approached, heart pounding.
She reached for the panel when suddenly—
A voice behind her.
"You're not as subtle as you think, Miss V
oss."
She froze.
Marcus Vale stepped out of the shadows, gun in hand.
---
To be continued in Episode 7…
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