Adrian POV

The car was silent except for the sound of London traffic bleeding through the windows. Elena sat as far from me as the seat would allow, pressed against the door like she wanted to melt through it and disappear into the street. Her hands were shaking. I could see them trembling in her lap even though she was trying to hide it.

I should say something. Explain. But what explanation made any of this better?

"Did your first wife kill herself?"

It wasn't a question. Her voice was flat. Dead. Like she'd used up all her emotion in the bathroom with Maya and had nothing left.

"Yes

"And you didn't think to mention that when you were making me sign a contract to marry you?"

"I told you I was married before."

"You said it ended. You didn't say she died. Her voice cracked on the last word. "And you didn't say I look exactly like her."

I kept my eyes on the road. Easier than looking at her face. "It's complicated."

"Then uncomplicate it."

The traffic light turned red. I stopped. Turned to face her. She was crying. Silent tears running down her face, and she looked about twelve years old. Nineteen. She was nineteen. What the hell was I doing?

"Her name was Sophia," I said. "We had a contract marriage. Like ours. She needed money for her mother's medical bills. I needed a wife for business reasons. It was supposed to be simple."

"What happened?"

"She fell in love with me."

Elena wiped her face with the back of her hand. "And you didn't love her back."

"No."

"Why not?"

The light turned green. I drove. Focused on the road because it was easier than this conversation. "I don't do love. I don't believe in it. My father taught me that emotions make you weak. Make you vulnerable. Sophia knew the deal when she signed."

"But she fell in love anyway."

"Yes."

"And then what? You just ignored her? Treated her like furniture?"

"I treated her with respect. I gave her everything she needed. Money. Security. Freedom to do whatever she wanted. I just couldn't give her what she wanted most."

"You."

"Yes."

Elena was quiet for a long moment. Then, "How did she die?"

"She jumped. From our balcony. Thirtieth floor." The words came out like a memorized sentence. I'd said them so many times. To police. To my father. To myself at three in the morning when I couldn't sleep. "I came home from work. Found her body on the pavement below."

"Oh God."

"The police ruled it suicide. She left a note. Said she couldn't live in a marriage where she loved someone who would never love her back. Said she was tired of being a ghost in her own life."

"That's awful."

"Yes."

"Did you feel anything? When you found her?"

I glanced at her. "What kind of question is that?"

"A real one. Did you feel anything or did you just tick it off like another business transaction gone wrong?"

"I felt guilty."

"Guilty."

"Yes. Guilty that I couldn't be what she needed. Guilty that I let her sign that contract in the first place. Guilty that I didn't see how bad it had gotten." I turned onto our street. The penthouse tower loomed ahead. "But I didn't love her. I felt terrible that she died, but I didn't love her. Is that what you want to hear? That I'm a monster?"

"I don't know what I want to hear." Her voice was small. "I just want to understand what I've gotten myself into."

"You've gotten yourself into a contract marriage with someone who can't love you back. Same as Sophia. Except you know that going in. She didn't."

"Why did you choose me?"

"You needed money. I needed a wife. The timing worked."

"That's not what I'm asking." She turned to face me fully. "Why me specifically? Out of every desperate person in London, why did you pick the girl who looks exactly like your dead wife?"

I pulled into the underground parking garage. Found my spot. Turned off the engine. Sat there in the sudden silence.

"I don't know."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the only answer I have."

My phone buzzed. I pulled it out. Text from Maya.

"She knows. This will be fun to watch."

I deleted it. Elena was watching me. "Who was that?"

"Maya. Being Maya."

"What does that mean?"

"It means she likes to stir things up. Make drama where there doesn't need to be any. She's probably thrilled she got to be the one to tell you about Sophia."

"She said she was there that night. That she saw everything that happened."

"She was there. James brought her over for dinner. Sophia was upset about something. They left early. An hour later, Sophia was dead."

"What was she upset about?"

"I don't remember."

"How can you not remember?"

"Because I wasn't paying attention. I was working. I was always working." I got out of the car. Slammed the door harder than necessary. Elena got out on her side. Followed me to the lift.

We rode up in silence. Thirty floors. Each one felt like a year.

When the doors opened into the penthouse, Elena stopped in the doorway. I'd forgotten she'd never actually been here. She'd been too drunk that I had to put her on our hotel

"It's big," she said.

"Yes."

"And empty."

She was right. The whole place was glass and steel and expensive furniture that nobody ever sat on. A showroom. Not a home.

"Do you want a tour?"

"Not really."

She walked in anyway. Moved through the living room like she was in a museum. Touching nothing. Looking at everything. When she got to the floor-to-ceiling windows, she stopped.

"That's the balcony."

"Yes."

"The one where she died."

"Yes."

Elena pressed her hand against the glass. "I can't do this."

"Can't do what?"

"Live here. Sleep here. Wake up every day and see where she died. I can't."

"You signed a contract."

She spun around. "I was drunk. I didn't know any of this. I didn't know about Sophia. I didn't know about the balcony. I didn't know I look exactly like a dead woman."

"You still signed."

"So void it. Tear it up. Let me go."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because I need you. My father is dying. I have two months to prove my marriage is real or I lose everything to James. You leave now, I lose."

"So find someone else."

"There's no time. And I've already introduced you as my wife. To my father. To James. To Maya. Everyone knows now. If you disappear, they'll know it was fake."

"It is fake."

"It has to look real."

Elena laughed. It was a terrible sound. Broken and sharp. "This is insane. This whole situation is insane. You're asking me to live in a dead woman's house, play her role, look at her balcony every single day, all so you can inherit money you don't even need."

"It's not about the money."

"Then what's it about?"

"It's about not letting James win. It's about proving to my father that I can do this. That I can be what he needs me to be."

"What about what I need?"

The question hung in the air between us. I didn't have an answer. Didn't even know what she needed beyond money and a way out of debt. Didn't know if I cared.

No. That was a lie. I did care. I just didn't want to.

"What do you need, Elena?"

"I need to not be here." But she didn't move toward the door. Just stood there, hugging herself, staring at the balcony like it might swallow her whole.

I walked past her. Unlocked the balcony door. Slid it open. Cold air rushed in. February in London was brutal, all wind and wet and gray.

"Come here."

"No."

"Elena. Come here."

She came. Slowly. Like she was walking to her own execution.

I stepped out onto the balcony. The city sprawled below us. Thirty floors of nothing but air and concrete waiting at the bottom.

"This is where Sophia jumped," I said. "Right here. She climbed over this railing and let go."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you'll see this balcony every day. From the living room. From your bedroom. From the kitchen. It's unavoidable. So you need to decide right now if you can handle that."

Elena stood in the doorway. Wouldn't come any closer. "Can you handle it?"

"I don't have a choice."

"Everyone has a choice."

"No. They don't. I chose my path years ago when I signed the first contract with Sophia. When I let my father dictate my life. When I decided business was more important than anything else. Now I'm stuck with the consequences."

"Then why am I here? Why drag me into your consequences?"

"Because I'm selfish. Because I need to win. Because you said yes when I asked."

She stepped out onto the balcony. Just one step. She was shaking. From cold or fear, I couldn't tell. Probably both.

"I hate you," she said.

"I know.

"I hate that I'm trapped."

"Are you?" I looked at her. Really looked at her. Nineteen years old. Parents dead two weeks. Drowning in debt she'd never signed up for. "Or could you walk away? Break the contract? Deal with the financial consequences? It would be hard. Brutal. But possible."

She was quiet.

"You're here because some part of you wants to be," I said. "Maybe it's the money. Maybe it's because you have nowhere else to go. Maybe it's because being here, even in a dead woman's apartment with a man who can't love you, is better than being alone with your grief. I don't know. But you're choosing to stay."

"That's not fair."

"Nothing about this is fair."

Elena walked to the railing. Looked down. I tensed, ready to grab her if she did anything stupid. But she just stood there. Looking at the place where Sophia died.

"Can I handle this?" she asked. Not to me. To herself. To the city. To the ghost that lived in this apartment whether I acknowledged it or not.

Elena POV

I couldn't sleep and the balcony was right there, just outside my bedroom window where Sophia had jumped two years ago.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her climbing over that railing and letting go, falling thirty floors to the pavement below, and I didn't even know what she looked like beyond that portrait at Richard's house but my brain was filled in the details anyway. It made her look like me because apparently that's what she did look like and that made everything so much worse.

I pushed the covers off and sat up because lying there wasn't working, wasn't helping, and the silence in the apartment was pressing against my ears until I thought I'd go mad from it.

The hallway was dark when I stepped out and I didn't turn on any lights because I didn't want Adrian knowing I was awake. He'd probably just tell me to go back to bed like I was a child who couldn't handle a little insomnia.

I walked slowly and my bare feet were cold on the floor and I realized I didn't actually know where anything was in this place. Adrian had shown me my room and the kitchen and that was it, no tour, no explanation of what was behind all these other doors.

I passed a door and then another bedroom with furniture covered in white sheets and then what looked like an office with papers scattered across a desk. I kept going because I wasn't tired and I had nothing else to do. Exploring was better than lying in bed thinking about a dead identical wife.

The hallway turned and I followed it, running my hand along the wall to guide me, and my fingers hit a doorframe that felt different from the others with heavier wood.

I stopped and looked closer.

There was a small metal plate near the handle with a name engraved on it.

SOPHIA

My heart started beating faster and I don't know why because it was just a door, just a room, but something about seeing her name there made everything feel more real. She'd lived here and slept here. She had walked these same hallways and then she had died.

I reached for the handle and tried to turn it but it was locked.

I pulled harder but it wouldn't budge and of course it wouldn't because Adrian had locked it for a reason, had locked away everything that reminded him of her, and I was standing here in the dark trying to open a dead woman's room like some kind of idiot.

"Don't."

I jumped and spun around so fast I almost fell.

Adrian was right behind me and I hadn't heard him coming, hadn't heard anything, and he was just there in sweatpants and nothing else with his hair messy like he'd been sleeping but his eyes were wide awake and cold.

"I was just looking around," I said and my voice came out too high. "I couldn't sleep and I didn't know this was-"

"Step away from the door." He said 

"Adrian, I wasn't trying to-"

"Step away from the door, Elena."

I moved back and he came closer, so close I could feel the heat coming off his skin, and he reached past me to touch the wood. Not the handle, Just the door itself. His palm pressed flat against it like he was making sure it was still there, still locked and still keeping whatever was inside hidden.

"This room stays locked," he said and his voice was different now, colder than I'd ever heard it. "Forever. Do you understand?" He asked.

"Why?" I asked. "What's in there?"

"That's not your concern." He retorted.

"I live here now so actually it kind of is my concern and-" I tried to make him understand.

"This room has nothing to do with you." He was still touching the door and his hand was shaking slightly and I realized with a shock that he was scared, actually scared. "You don't go near this door. You don't touch it. You don't ask about it. Are we clear?" Adrain emphasized.

"No, we're not clear because you're acting like there's a body in there or something and-"

"Are we clear, Elena?"

His eyes met mine and there was something in them that made my stomach drop, made all my arguments die in my throat, and I nodded.

"Say it," he said.

"We're clear."

"Good." He stepped back but he didn't leave, just stood there blocking the hallway like he thought I might try to run past him and break down the door. "Go to bed."

"I told you I can't sleep."

"Then lie there and pretend until morning."

"I keep seeing the balcony," I said and I hated how small my voice sounded. "I keep thinking about her jumping and I can't-"

"You'll get used to it." He cut me off.

"How can you say that?" The words came out louder than I meant them to. "She died there, your wife died there, and you just act like it's nothing."

"It was two years ago."

"So what? You just forgot about her? Locked up her room and moved on like she never existed?"

"I didn't forget about her," Adrian said and his jaw was tight. "But I'm not going to spend the rest of my life mourning someone who made her own choice."

"She killed herself because you couldn't love her back."

"She killed herself because she signed a contract she didn't fully understand and then changed the terms without telling me." He ran a hand through his hair. "I told her from the beginning what this was. A business arrangement and nothing more. She agreed and then she fell in love anyway and expected me to do the same."

"And when you didn't she jumped off your balcony." I completed it for him.

"Yes."

The word hung in the air between us and I didn't know what to say to that, didn't know how to respond to someone who could talk about his wife's suicide like it was just another failed business deal.

"Go to bed, Elena," he said again. "And stay away from this door."

He walked away and I heard his bedroom door close, just close quietly like he had perfect control over everything including how much noise he made.

I stood there staring at Sophia's door and the engraved nameplate and I thought about her locked inside, or her things locked inside, or her ghost locked inside, and I wondered what Adrian was so afraid of that he had to keep it sealed away like this.

I reached out and touched the metal plate, traced the letters of her name with my finger.

"What happened to you?" I whispered.

No answer.

I went back to my room and got into bed but I didn't sleep, just lay there staring at the ceiling and listening to the city outside and thinking about locked doors and dead wife and a man who are too scared to face their own past.

The clock on my phone said 3:47 AM when I heard it.

Someone is crying.

Soft at first, so soft I thought maybe I was imagining it or maybe it was coming from outside or maybe I was finally losing my mind. But then it got louder and I sat up because that was definitely crying, someone sobbing like their heart was breaking.

I grabbed my phone and turned on the flashlight and opened my door.

The hallway was dark and the crying was louder out here, clearer, and it was definitely a woman. Not just crying but sobbing, the kind of deep wrenching sobs that came from real pain.

I followed the sound and my heart was pounding because I already knew where it was coming from, already knew what I'd find before I got there.

Sophia's door.

The crying was coming from inside the locked room.

I pressed my ear against the wood and it was right there on the other side, so close, like someone was sitting on the floor just beyond the door crying and crying and crying.

"Hello?" I said.

The crying stopped then complete silence.

Every hair on my body stood up and my hands started shaking because that wasn't normal, wasn't natural, the way it just cut off like that.

"Is someone there?" I asked louder.

Nothing.

I tried the handle even though I knew it was locked and it was, wouldn't turn, wouldn't open, and I pulled harder but it didn't matter because it was sealed tight.

"Sophia?" I whispered.

No answer.

But I'd heard the sound of someone crying and I knew I'd heard it, knew it wasn't pipes or wind or my imagination because that was real crying, present tense, happening right now on the other side of this door.

Someone was in that room or something.

I stepped back and my whole body was shaking now because this wasn't possible, wasn't real, Sophia was dead and dead people didn't cry. Dead people didn't make noise. Dead people stayed buried and they didn't come back.

I should wake Adrian and tell him what I heard but what would I say? That his dead wife was crying in her locked room? He'd think I was insane and maybe I was, maybe grief and stress and everything that had happened in the past few weeks had finally broken something in my brain.

I stood there for a long time just staring at that door and waiting for the crying to start again.

It didn't.

The hallway stayed silent.

Finally I went back to my room and got into bed but I didn't close my eyes, didn't even try to sleep, just lay there staring at the wall and thinking about what I'd heard.

Real crying sounds from inside a locked room where no one should be.

Adrian POV

I heard it at 3:58 AM and at first I thought I was dreaming but there it was, crying sounds coming from down the hall where it shouldn't be coming from because that room had been locked for two years.

I got out of bed and walked toward the sound, my chest getting tighter with each step because this wasn't possible. Sophia was dead and no one had a key to that room except me and Charlotte but Charlotte wouldn't do this, wouldn't come here in the middle of the night to play games.

The crying got louder as I reached her door and I pressed my hand against the wood and felt the sound vibrating through it, and I knew that sound. I'd heard it too many times in the months before she died, that specific kind of sobbing that meant she'd been at it for hours.

"Sophia?" The word came out before I could stop it even though I knew how insane it was to talk to a ghost.

The crying didn't stop.

I pulled out my keys and my hands were shaking which was stupid because I was not meant to shake or get scared, but something about this was wrong. I unlocked the door and pushed it open and turned on the light.

Empty.

The room was completely empty but the crying was still there, louder now, and I followed it to the nightstand where her phone was sitting with the screen glowing.

Voicemail playing on loop.

I picked it up and saw it was the last one she'd left me, the one from the night she died, the one I'd never been able to delete.

Her voice came through the speaker, broken and raw. "Adrian, I can't do this anymore, I can't keep pretending I'm fine when I'm not, and I know you don't love me, I know you never will, but I thought maybe if I tried hard enough you'd see me as something other than a contract."

I stopped the playback and set the phone down because I couldn't listen to the rest, couldn't hear her saying she was done and she was sorry and she couldn't live like this anymore.

Someone had turned it on and that someone had to have been in this room.

I pulled out my phone and opened the security app, scrolling through today's footage starting from this morning. There. 2:15 PM. The door opening.

Charlotte walked into frame carrying something and went into the room, stayed for maybe ten minutes, then came back out and locked the door behind her.

I called her to confirm I was right and she answered on the third ring sounding annoyed. "Adrian? It's four in the morning, what-"

"Why were you in Sophia's room?" I asked her.

Silence and then a sigh. "I was wondering when you'd notice."

"You have a spare key."

"Dad gave it to me years ago." She said.

"That doesn't give you the right to go in there whenever you want."

"Doesn't it?" Her voice had an edge now. "You married another girl, Adrian, another contract bride who looks exactly like Sophia, and you think I'm just supposed to sit back and watch you make the same mistakes?"

"What I do is none of your business." I said to her hoping it sticks.

"It is when you're going to kill this one too."

The words hit like a punch and I closed my eyes, took a breath. "Why did you turn on Sophia's phone?"

"I didn't."

"The security footage shows you in that room and now her phone is playing her last voicemail so don't lie to me, Charlotte."

"I'm not lying." Her voice changed and got quieter. "I went in there to look for something but I didn't touch her phone, it was already on when I got there."

"That's impossible, the battery died two years ago." I said doubting.

"Then someone charged it because it was on and playing that voicemail and honestly it was one of the most horrible things I've ever heard, her begging you to love her while you just ignored-"

"I know what she said." I cut her off.

"Do you? Because it doesn't seem like you learned anything from it."

"What did you go in there to find?" I asked her to change the topic.

Charlotte was quiet for a moment and I heard her moving around, probably pacing because she always paced when she was upset. "Sophia left a letter for whoever you marry next and I found it in her desk drawer."

My chest tightened. "What does it say?"

"I don't know, I haven't read it, but the envelope says 'To be given to Adrian's next wife' so I'm guessing it's for Elena."

"Don't give it to her." I said

"Why not? It's addressed to her." Charlotte replied me.

"Because whatever Sophia wrote isn't going to help anything, it's just going to make things worse and you know it." I tried explaining to her.

"Maybe Elena deserves to know what she's getting into." Charlotte said stubbornly.

"She already knows, we have a contract, everything is spelled out."

"Does she know you picked her because she looks like Sophia? Does she know what happened to the last girl who fell in love with you?"

"Elena isn't going to fall in love with me." I said, trying to convince myself.

"That's what you said about Sophia and look how that turned out." Charlotte took a breath. "I'm giving Elena that letter tomorrow at noon and you can either be there or not but it's happening either way."

"Charlotte, don't do this."

"It's already done and you can't stop me because I don't work for you and I don't answer to you." Her voice got harder. "Sophia deserves to have her voice heard even if she's not here anymore." She completed angrily.

"She made her choice." I replied to her because that is the truth.

"She made a choice based on the pain you caused and refused to acknowledge, there's a difference."

I didn't have an answer for that because she was right and we both knew it.

"I'll be there at noon," Charlotte said. "And Adrian? You should read that letter before Elena does because Sophia was a lot angrier than you think and a lot smarter than you gave her credit for. Whatever she wrote in there, it's not pretty."

She hung up.

I stood in Sophia's room looking around at all her things I'd locked away because I couldn't deal with them, couldn't face what I'd done, and now Charlotte was going to hand Elena a letter that would probably destroy whatever trust we'd built.

I walked to the desk and pulled open the top drawer and there it was, a blue envelope with Sophia's handwriting on the front.

"To whoever he marries next. I'm sorry."

I picked it up and it was heavier than expected, multiple pages probably, and the seal was still intact which meant Charlotte really hadn't read it.

I should open it now and should know what Elena was going to see tomorrow, but my hands were shaking and I couldn't make myself break that seal because whatever Sophia had written was going to change everything.

I put the letter back and closed the drawer and left the room, locking the door behind me.

Tomorrow Charlotte would give Elena this letter and Elena would read whatever Sophia had written and then she'd leave, would tear up our contract and walk away, and I'd lose everything because I kept making the same mistakes.

I went back to my room but didn't sleep, just sat there holding Sophia's phone and thinking about her last voicemail and the letter waiting in that desk and the girl down the hall who looked exactly like her.

History was about to repeat itself and I had no idea how to stop it.