CHAPTER 13 — WHEN THE HUNTER LEAVES A NAME
The entire estate exploded into chaos.
Security officers flooded the hallways, radios crackling, boots pounding against marble, but the storm outside swallowed their noise, making everything feel eerily distant. Ariana stood frozen, her heartbeat a frantic drum against her ribs as Damian barked orders with a sharpness that shook even the walls.
"Lock every exit!" he commanded. "Search the grounds, the tunnels, the servant passages—every corner of this estate! Vanessa didn't walk out on her own. Someone took her."
Marcus nodded and sprinted away.
Ariana swallowed hard, her mind spinning with images she didn't want to imagine—Vanessa dragged through the rain, someone's hand over her mouth, terror in her eyes. For the first time, even though Vanessa had tormented her, Ariana felt a guilt that gnawed painfully at her chest.
Damian turned sharply toward her.
"Ariana." His voice softened instantly. "Come here."
She stepped into his arms without thinking. Her body trembled against his, and he wrapped her tightly, one hand protectively covering the back of her head.
"It's okay," he whispered. "I've got you."
Ariana nodded, but everything inside her screamed that things were getting worse.
Much worse.
---
THE SEARCH
Minutes turned into nearly an hour, and still—no sign of Vanessa.
Damian's mansion, for all its beauty, was massive. It had enough rooms to get lost in, enough hallways to confuse an outsider, and enough hidden passages to make even Damian uneasy in moments like this.
Marcus returned, drenched from the rain and panting.
"Sir," he said, catching his breath, "we found tracks on the grass outside the balcony. Two sets—one dragging, one leading."
Damian's jaw tightened. "Footprints?"
"Yes, sir. Deep impressions. Whoever did this is strong."
Ariana's voice trembled. "Do they lead out of the estate?"
"Not directly," Marcus replied. "They disappear near one of the old maintenance sheds."
Damian stiffened. "The shed?"
Ariana looked between them nervously. "What's wrong with it?"
Marcus hesitated. Damian answered instead.
"That shed hasn't been used in years. The doors rusted shut. No power, no tools, nothing inside but dust."
"Meaning?" Ariana whispered.
Damian's eyes hardened.
"Meaning whoever took Vanessa… knew this place better than most people here."
Ariana felt cold creep into her bones.
"Someone inside…" she whispered.
Damian didn't deny it.
---
AT THE SHED
The rain had softened into a chilling drizzle by the time they reached the shed, its weathered wooden walls leaning slightly, as if exhausted from decades of storms. The area felt wrong—too quiet, too still. Even the guards seemed reluctant to approach.
"Marcus," Damian said, "open it."
Marcus tried the handle.
It didn't budge.
"Locked from the inside," he murmured.
Damian stepped forward, fury glowing beneath his skin. "Stand back."
He kicked the door.
It snapped open with a scream of metal and splinters.
The inside was dark.
Too dark.
A single weak bulb flickered from above—someone had restored the power. The sight made Ariana inhale sharply.
"Damian… someone planned this."
He nodded grimly.
Then they saw it.
In the center of the shed, tied to a chair, unconscious but breathing—
Vanessa.
Ariana covered her mouth. "Oh God…"
Vanessa's hands were bound behind her back, ankles tied, her lip bleeding. Her hair was wet and tangled, her skin marked with bruises that were still fresh.
Damian moved first, cutting the ropes with swift precision.
"Check her pulse," he ordered.
Marcus did. "She's alive. But she's been drugged. The injection mark is recent."
Ariana crouched beside her, touching Vanessa's cold cheek gently.
"Why would they just leave her here?" she whispered. "Why take her… then leave her?"
Damian stood slowly.
He had seen it.
Something Ariana couldn't see yet.
Something carved into the wooden wall behind Vanessa's chair.
"Because," he said quietly, "this wasn't an escape."
His voice dropped lower.
"It was a delivery."
---
THE MESSAGE
Ariana stood slowly, following Damian's gaze.
Then she saw it.
Carved deep into the wood, jagged lines spelling a word that made her blood turn to ice:
"NEXT."
Ariana's breath caught. "Next? Next what?"
Damian exhaled, his fists shaking.
"Next target. Next victim. Next warning." His voice hollowed. "Ariana… this entire thing wasn't to kill Vanessa."
He turned toward her.
"It was to show us how easily they can get close."
Ariana stepped back, panic rising in her chest.
"Damian… they're coming for me."
"Over my dead body," he growled.
---
VANESSA WAKES UP
Two hours later, after Damian's private doctor had flushed the sedative from her system, Vanessa stirred awake in the guest medical room. Her eyes fluttered open slowly, confusion clouding her expression.
"Where… where am I?"
Ariana leaned over her gently. "You're safe now."
Vanessa flinched at her voice, then blinked again as memory flooded in. She sat up too fast, grabbing Ariana's wrist.
"They took me!"
Ariana nodded, squeezing her hand. "I know. You're okay."
"No—listen!" Vanessa's voice cracked. "You don't understand—he said something—"
Damian stepped forward. "He?"
Vanessa swallowed, tears forming in her eyes.
"I didn't see his face. He wore a mask. But he whispered in my ear before I passed out."
Ariana's heart raced. "What did he say?"
Vanessa looked directly at her.
"He said… 'You were never the one I wanted. Tell Ariana she's next.'"
Ariana's breath vanished. Her knees weakened, and Damian caught her immediately.
"That's enough," he murmured tightly. "She doesn't need details."
"No—she needs to hear it," Vanessa insisted. "He said it like he knew her. Like he's been close. Watching."
A chill swept over the room.
"Vanessa," Damian said steadily, "did he say anything else? Anything at all?"
Vanessa nodded shakily.
"He mentioned something about the night of the charity gala… telling Ariana she shouldn't have gone back there."
Ariana frowned deeply. "But nothing happened that night."
"No," Damian corrected, "nothing you were aware of."
---
A MEMORY REVISITED
Back in their room, Ariana paced anxiously.
"The charity gala was months ago. How could it possibly matter now?"
Damian leaned against the table, arms crossed tightly. His eyes tracked her movements with deep worry.
"Think carefully," he urged. "Anything strange? Anyone unusual? A conversation? A moment you shrugged off?"
Ariana stopped walking.
"There was something," she whispered.
Damian's head lifted. "Tell me."
She bit her lip.
"That night, in the ladies' section, someone bumped into me. Hard. Not accidentally. The person wore a hooded jacket—strange for such a formal event."
"Male or female?" Damian asked.
Ariana shook her head. "I don't know. They mumbled an apology and walked out quickly."
"That could be nothing," Damian muttered, though his expression said he didn't believe it.
Ariana continued. "But later, I noticed my bracelet was missing."
"Which bracelet?" Damian asked.
"The one your grandmother gave me."
Damian's posture stiffened.
That bracelet wasn't cheap, wasn't ordinary, and wasn't random.
It had the Leonetti crest engraved inside it.
A symbol only the family and trusted staff knew.
Damian stepped closer.
"Ariana…"
Her voice trembled.
"You think… they took it on purpose?"
Damian didn't have to answer.
His silence said everything.
---
THE HIDDEN CAMERA
At 1:13 AM, Marcus returned with something that made Damian's expression darken further.
"Sir… we searched the maintenance shed thoroughly."
"And?"
"We found this."
He handed Damian a small device.
Ariana stepped closer. "What is it?"
"A microcamera," Marcus replied. "It was hidden behind the board. And it was recently active."
Ariana covered her mouth. "So he was watching us… watching when we found Vanessa…"
Damian's voice was low and lethal. "Not watching us."
Ariana looked up.
"Then who?"
"You."
A chill washed over her.
Damian continued, "The angle of the camera… it was pointed at where you stood. Not Vanessa. Not the entrance. Just you."
Ariana stepped back, dizzy. "Why? Why would someone go this far?"
Damian grabbed her shoulders firmly.
"Because they're obsessed," he said. "This isn't about revenge anymore. This isn't jealousy. It's fixation. Someone has been watching you… long before the mirror message. Before the pillow trap. Before the shed."
Ariana's breath shook.
"So this… this is someone who knows me personally."
Damian nodded slowly.
"And they're getting bolder."
---
THE CALL
It was nearly dawn when Damian's private line rang.
Ariana sat up immediately.
Damian answered, his voice cold. "Leonetti."
A distorted voice replied.
"Did you like my message?"
Ariana froze.
Damian straightened, every muscle tensing.
"Who is this?" he demanded.
The voice chuckled lightly.
"You shouldn't be worried about who I am. You should be worried about what I want."
Damian's tone sharpened. "If you hurt Vanessa—"
"She was never my target," the voice cut in. "But she served her purpose."
Ariana clutched the blanket.
"What do you want?" Damian growled.
A slow inhale came from the other end of the line.
"I want Ariana."
Her blood turned to ice.
Damian's voice thundered. "Over my dead body!"
"Then prepare your grave," the voice whispered.
The line went dead.
Ariana stared at Damian, horror widening her eyes.
"Damian… what do we do now?"
He pulled her into his arms, holding her as tightly as he dared.
"We find him," he said, voice thick with fury. "We expose him. And then…"
He kissed her forehead gently—but behind his tenderness, there was fire.
"I end him."
---
THE LETTER
Just when Ariana thought things couldn't get worse, a maid appeared an hour later, trembling.
"S-sir… this was left at the front gate with your name."
Damian took the envelope.
His name on the front.
But the handwriting—
Ariana recoiled as if slapped.
"That's… my writing," she whispered.
Damian scanned the note inside.
And his face changed.
Not anger.
Not confusion.
Something deeper.
Darker.
He handed it to Ariana.
Her hands shook as she unfolded the paper.
Inside was one sentence:
"Do you remember what you forgot?"
Ariana stared at it, her heart hammering.
"I… I don't understand…"
Damian touched her cheek gently. "Ariana. Think."
Her breathing faltered.
A memory flashed.
A tiny one.
Distant.
Blurry.
A shadowed figure leaning over her as a child.
A voice whispering her name at a playground.
A lost necklace she thought she dropped.
A pair of eyes watching her for years… always from the corner of her vision.
Her hands flew to her mouth.
"Damian… I think… I think this person has known me since I was little."
Damian's heart dropped.
He held her.
Tight.
"Ariana," he whispered, "this isn't a stalker who started recently."
A tear slid down her cheek.
"This is someone from my past."
She trembled violently.
"And they've come back for me."