Chapter Twenty

CHAPTER TWENTY

THE SHIP WAS too quiet.

Not peaceful.
Not sleepy.
Just… waiting.

Waiting the way a held breath waits.
Waiting the way a stage waits, right before the curtain rises on a scene no one’s ready for.

I stepped out onto the main deck just after sunrise.
The fog had thinned—but the cold had teeth now.

Evelyn wasn’t there.

Not on the deck.
Not in the library.
Not in the music room or the hallway or the quiet corner where Ghost used to nap.

She was gone.

And for the first time in this timeline—I panicked.

I ran.

Through every hallway. Past every locked door.
Asking questions I already knew no one would answer.

“Have you seen her?”
“Miss Blackmore?”
“The girl with the green eyes—please—”

Nothing.

The ship didn’t respond.

Just creaked beneath my feet like it was carrying more weight than it could bear.

It wasn’t until I reached the observation room that I found the envelope.

Sitting on the windowsill. No name. Just a gold seal.

I opened it with shaking hands.

Inside, her handwriting:

“If I’m not there when it breaks… don’t blame yourself.
You tried. You always try.
And somehow, that’s what I remember most in every life.
Your trying.

Find me.
Again.”

There were no tears.
Not this time.

Just silence.

And the ticking of a watch that wasn’t supposed to be real.