All Chapters of Rising From The Ashes: Chapter 31 - Chapter 33

The wind moaned through the naked branches of the trees, carrying the scent of snow and pine. Natalie Evans walked along the shoreline of a frozen lake, her breath misting in the cold morning air. The winter landscape stretched out before her, stripped bare and unmoving, as if the world itself was waiting with bated breath.She drew the thick woolen shawl closer around her shoulders, watching as dawn painted the sky with strokes of red and gold. Each morning here was like a dream of peace, but inwardly her mind churned like the icy water trapped beneath the frozen lake.It was three months since she vanished from the city—three months of silence, of scheming, of healing the wounds that ran much deeper than the world ever saw. The woman the world had known as Natalie Evans, the poised and polished socialite, was no more. In her place was someone darker, harder, and far more dangerous.In the cozy log cabin that had served as her home, a fire crackled to life as her visitor, Olivia Hast

There was tension in the air. Natalie Evans sat next to the top window of the library at the estate, her gaze drifting away as the rain beat softly against the glass. Outside, the sky was a deep grey, a reflection of the storm brewing within her mind. She had spent the past days trying to put together the fragments of her life that had so spectacularly fallen apart. Her history—once buried beneath glamour, deceit, and silence—was fighting its way back to the forefront, demanding attention.A pile of documents rested on the table beside her, brought by the mysterious visitor who had shown up at her mountain retreat days before—Isabel Dorne, a woman she had not seen in years but once trusted with her life. Isabel was wading deep now in whatever secrets had been uncovered during Natalie's disappearance from the public eye. She bore with her information, threats, and ghosts of the past."They never got through with you," Isabel stood silently in the room, arms folded. "You intended to wip