Episode 4: The Girl Who Should Have Died.

THE LAST NAME I WAS GIVEN

EPISODE 4 – THE GIRL WHO SHOULD HAVE DIED

📍Ethan's Office

The room felt suffocating.

Ava stood frozen beside the desk.

The newspaper clipping trembled in her hands.

Her mind refused to process Ethan's words.

"You were never supposed to survive."

Those words echoed inside her head again and again.

Ava: What does that mean?

Ethan remained silent.

His jaw was clenched.

His eyes never left her face.

As if he was afraid she might disappear again.

Ava: Ethan!

His name escaped her lips louder this time.

Ava: Stop hiding things from me!

Ava: Tell me the truth!

For several seconds, neither of them spoke.

Then Ethan finally sighed.

A tired, painful sigh.

Like a man carrying a burden for years.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ethan: Fourteen years ago...

He slowly walked toward the window.

Rain clouds gathered outside.

The sky looked as dark as the memories he was about to reveal.

Ethan: There was a charity event at Blackwood Lake.

Many important families attended.

Including yours.

Ava frowned.

Ava: Mine?

Ethan: Yes.

Ava: But I've never been there.

Ethan looked at her.

The sadness in his eyes was almost unbearable.

Ethan: Because you don't remember.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ava's chest tightened.

She hated how certain he sounded.

As if he knew things about her life that she didn't.

Ethan: That night, a fire broke out.

People screamed.

Children were separated from their parents.

Everyone was running.

Trying to survive.

And then...

A little girl disappeared.

Ava's fingers tightened around the newspaper.

The little girl.

The one in the photograph.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ava: You're talking about me.

Ethan nodded slowly.

Ethan: We searched everywhere.

The lake.

The forest.

The nearby towns.

Years passed.

There was no trace of you.

Not a single clue.

Nothing.

His voice cracked slightly.

Ava noticed it immediately.

For the first time...

The cold Ethan Blackwood looked vulnerable.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ava: Why do you care so much?

The question escaped before she could stop herself.

Ethan froze.

A strange expression crossed his face.

Pain.

Regret.

Longing.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Before he could answer—

📢 CRASH!

The sound of breaking glass echoed through the mansion.

Ava jumped.

Ethan instantly moved in front of her.

Protectively.

His entire body became tense.

Like a predator sensing danger.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ethan: Stay behind me.

Ava: What was that?

Ethan: Someone's inside the house.

Ava's heartbeat skyrocketed.

Someone had broken into Blackwood Manor.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

The mansion alarm suddenly started ringing.

Red lights flashed across the hallways.

The atmosphere instantly became chaotic.

Staff members rushed downstairs.

Voices echoed through the corridors.

Then another loud crash came from the library.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ethan immediately grabbed Ava's wrist.

Ethan: Come with me.

Ava: Wait—

Ethan: Now.

There was no room for argument.

His voice was cold and commanding.

For the first time...

Ava felt genuinely afraid.

Not of Ethan.

But of whoever had entered the mansion.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

They reached the library.

Books were scattered everywhere.

A large window had been shattered.

Rainwater covered the floor.

But the intruder was gone.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Then Ethan noticed something.

The library safe was open.

His expression darkened instantly.

Ethan: No...

Ava: What happened?

Ethan didn't answer.

Instead, he quickly searched through several files.

His movements became more desperate.

More urgent.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Finally he cursed under his breath.

Ava: Ethan!

Ethan: They took it.

Ava: Took what?

His eyes met hers.

And for the first time...

Ava saw fear.

Real fear.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ethan: The original case file.

Ava: What case?

Ethan: Yours.

Silence.

The room suddenly felt colder.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ava: Someone broke into your house...

To steal information about me?

Ethan nodded.

Ethan: Which means they're watching us.

Ava's stomach dropped.

Watching?

Who?

Why?

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Then—

A security guard ran into the room.

Breathing heavily.

Holding something in his hand.

Guard: Sir...

We found this near the window.

He handed Ethan a black envelope.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ethan opened it carefully.

Inside was a single photograph.

The color immediately drained from his face.

Ava grabbed the picture.

And gasped.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

The photograph showed her.

Not years ago.

Not months ago.

Yesterday.

Standing outside Blackwood Manor.

Someone had secretly photographed her after her wedding.

On the back of the picture were six chilling words:

"She should have died that night."

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ava's hands started shaking.

Her vision blurred.

Someone knew who she was.

Someone was watching her.

Someone wanted her dead.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Without thinking, Ethan pulled her into his arms.

His grip was firm.

Protective.

Possessive.

As if letting go wasn't an option.

Ethan: Listen to me carefully.

Ava looked up at him.

For the first time...

His calm mask was completely gone.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ethan: From this moment onward...

You do not go anywhere alone.

Ava: Ethan—

Ethan: No arguments.

Ava: Why?

His eyes hardened.

Then he whispered—

Ethan: Because the people who took you fourteen years ago...

Have finally found you again.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

🔥 END OF EPISODE 4

📌 Episode 5 Preview:

Ava receives a package with no sender name. Inside is a child's bracelet... and a note written in blood-red ink:

"Welcome back, Princess."

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