Chapter 137: A twisted game

Ashley’s POV

He nodded and pulled out his phone, scrolling through it with shaking fingers. A moment later, he held it out to me, the screen showing a grainy black-and-white image of a woman standing in the shadows outside a run-down hotel. It was hard to make out her features, but there was something unmistakably familiar about her—something that made my breath hitch in my throat. I couldn’t tell if it was really Ashton, or if it was just my mind playing tricks on me because I wanted it to be her.

“That’s the only image we have,” Andreas said quietly. “The investigator’s still looking for more leads, but it’s like she vanished after this. No records, no sightings, nothing.”

I stared at the screen, my emotions a tangled, aching mess. I didn’t know what to think, what to feel. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted it to be Ashton, because if it was… if it was, then everything I thought I knew was a lie, and I didn’t know if I was strong enough to handle that.

I could feel the room tilting, th