Novels by IT_WRITES

The Years That Were StolenSerena had imagined meeting her father so many times over the years that the fantasies eventually stopped resembling one another, because some versions ended with anger while others ended with tears, and there were nights when she imagined herself asking him why he had left and mornings when she convinced herself she would simply walk away without saying a word, yet standing only a few feet from Michael Hart, watching him look at her with eyes so uncannily like her own that it almost felt as though she were staring into another version of herself, every carefully rehearsed question disappeared before she could hold onto it.Michael didn't move toward her.He seemed almost afraid to.The distance between them was scarcely more than a few steps, yet twenty years of absence stretched across that small space like an invisible ocean neither of them knew how to cross."I've spent so long wondering what I would say if I ever saw you again," he admitted, his voice ca

The Eyes She Had Seen Every MorningThe man standing in the doorway looked as though he had stepped out of a forgotten memory.Snow clung to the shoulders of his dark coat and had gathered in his hair, which was threaded heavily with silver, while the years had carved deep lines around his eyes and mouth, yet none of those changes mattered because the moment Serena looked at his face, something inside her seemed to stop resisting.She had seen those eyes every morning of her life.In mirrors.In photographs.In reflections caught accidentally in shop windows.They were her eyes.The same shade of gray.The same shape.The same strange calmness.The resemblance was so undeniable that it reached beyond logic and beyond reason and settled somewhere deeper, somewhere instinctive and ancient, in the place where children recognize their parents long before they understand why.The man was breathing hard.Not from exertion.From fear.His gaze had gone immediately to Claire.The sight of blo

The Man Beyond The DoorThe voice on the other side of the door seemed to linger in the cabin long after the last word faded, and although the fire continued burning quietly in the hearth and snow still whispered against the windows, every person inside that small room had become so still that even the sound of breathing felt strangely intrusive, because the man outside had not introduced himself, had not explained anything, and had not raised his voice, yet he had spoken to Serena with the ease and warmth of someone who had known her all his life.Claire looked as though she had forgotten how to move.Her face had gone completely pale, and the tears running down her cheeks no longer seemed connected to her illness or to the memories of the last twenty years because this grief was different, this disbelief was older, deeper, and so profound that it appeared to have reached into the center of her and stolen every word she might have spoken.Elias remained staring at the door with his h

The Man Who Shouldn't Be AliveThe words fell into the cabin so softly that for a moment Serena thought she had misheard them.He's here.Nobody moved.Nobody even seemed to breathe.Elias was still staring toward the dark window, his face having lost what little color remained in it, and the transformation was so abrupt that it sent a chill through the room because this was the same man who had just faced twenty years of grief without flinching, the same man who had stood calmly outside a cabin surrounded by armed men and secrets and dying promises.Now he looked afraid.Genuinely afraid.The engine outside continued to grow louder.Not one of the SUVs.Something else.Heavier.Older.The sound seemed to echo through the forest itself.Victor stood immediately."Who?"Elias didn't answer.His eyes remained fixed on the darkness beyond the glass."No."The word escaped him like an involuntary breath.Claire had gone still.The change in her expression was immediate.She looked confuse

The Place He Chose To DieNobody spoke.The key rested in Elias' open palm, catching the firelight as though it possessed a life of its own, its worn silver surface bearing the marks of years spent being carried, hidden, and protected, and somehow that small piece of metal seemed to contain more gravity than all the files, journals, and secrets they had uncovered during the past few weeks.Serena couldn't stop looking at it.The place where he died.The sentence kept repeating inside her head.Her father had a place.A real place.Not a story.Not a name hidden behind twenty years of silence.A place he had seen with his own eyes and chosen for his final moments.Claire's expression had become distant.Her gaze was fixed on the key, but Serena doubted she was actually seeing it. She looked like someone standing in two different years at once.Elias slowly closed his hand around the key."He made me promise I wouldn't go there unless I found you."Daniel frowned."Why?"A sad smile cro

The Last Thing He Asked ForNobody tried to stop Elias from crying.Nobody looked away either.The sight felt too human.Too painfully real.The man who had spent twenty years terrifying governments, funding covert operations, and moving pieces across an invisible chessboard with frightening precision was kneeling in the snow beside Claire, his shoulders shaking beneath his coat while tears streamed down his face because he had finally reached the end of a journey that should have ended two decades ago.The forest remained silent around them.Even the armed men stood motionless.Their weapons hung forgotten at their sides.Because some moments were simply too sacred for violence.Claire's hand remained against Elias' cheek.The gesture looked natural.Practiced.As though she had comforted him many times before.Perhaps she had.She smiled sadly."You always cry when you're tired."A broken laugh escaped him."You remember that?"She nodded."Of course I do."The answer only made him