Chapter 1
2105. Sinhle Spaceport of Europa, Jupiter’s moon.
Aiden boarded the spaceprison shuttle at Sinhle Spaceport and left Europa so he could finally meet the man who murdered his fiancée.
It had taken him two years to get here, to set everything in place. He’d changed his name and the way he looked. He was no longer Aiden Gray, the ambitious architect months away from marrying the love of his life; he wasAiden Kesley, a man who had nothing left to lose.
Squeezing the amber stone in his pocket, he looked out the window just as the spacecraft cleared the atmosphere of Jupiter’s moon. He usually liked this part, the lurch in his stomach at the awe-inspiring view of the unfolding universe, and just like always, he couldn’t look away. Whether it was the floating field of reflective rocks and metallic junk from a derelict space vessel that orbitedEuropa, or the cerulean and violet brushstrokes of a cluster of nebulae only visible due to the viewport’s enhanced glass, the dark abyss of space was a novelty that never got old no matter how many times he witnessed it.
Except that this time it lacked something, just like it had since the day his world had shattered.
Aiden caught the reflection of the interior light strips in the glass and stared at it blankly. He rubbed the stone again. He’d gotten rid of the rest of his and Claudia’s rock collection, donated their belongings, but the amber… he just couldn’t bring himself to throw away. It felt like a piece of her was with him, here to remind him of his mission so he could see it through to the end.
For a while, Aiden let his mind wander, remembering bits and pieces of the woman he loved as he stared at his reflection in the window. Her smile hurt the most, and so did the spark in her eyes.
“When I take over the DuLaurent Corporation, I’m moving the Headquarters back to Earth,”she’d said more than once, set on that from the very start.
“Why Earth?”
“Our home is here.”She’d smile then and a twinkle of amusement would give her eyes that gold-like gleam which matched the hue of the stone in his pocket.“It makes it easier to go to work than having to commute to Mars every time I need to attend some conference, don’t you think?”
Aiden had loved that decisiveness, that drive and determination. Her unapologetic ambition, her courage, the way she wasn’t afraid to challenge her father, Marcus DuLaurent, if she needed to. He and his daughter were so alike in so many things, except Claudia was ten times better, a leader in the making who would, no doubt, surpass the most influential man in the world.
None of that mattered now. Her potential was gone, her brilliance extinguished. Only memories remained, painful and suffocating. Claudia was dead and Aiden was out of tune with himself, his mind and body as if drifting aimlessly in open space with no purpose to ground them. He was a passenger with no real destination, who only had one sole purpose—to make sense of a death that, to this day, made no sense.
To punish a murderer who’d gone unpunished for too long by those supposed to uphold justice.
The spaceship tilted to one side and began its descent to the prison station, making Aiden’s stomach squeeze with nerves. His phone rang just as the shuttle slowed down and entered the docking area. He fished it out of his pocket and frowned at the name. It was Rick, his best friend.
How long had it been since they last talked?Probably too long.It had to be why Rick was calling instead of texting him.
Aiden contemplated tucking the phone away, but he was sure ignoring his friend now was only going to make Rick worry. He didn’t deserve that, just like he didn’t deserve the lies Aiden kept feeding him, so the least Aiden could do was answer the call.
A robotic voice announced the shuttle’s arrival at the Horizons’ Space Prison Facility. Aiden waited until it was quiet again and flicked his finger over the holographic screen of the phone.
“Hey. I was starting to think you wouldn’t pick up,” Rick started with, chuckling with fake amusement. “What are you up to?”
A bolt of guilt shot through Aiden as he cast his gaze around the spaceship’s interior. He was tired of lying, buthe also didn’t want to listen to reason; he was far too gone for that. He needed his resolve and that single-minded focus so he could see this mission through and find out the truth once and for all.
“I considered it,” he confessed, carefully opening the overhead compartment. “I’m just about to head to work.”
“Oh. You finally landed something?”
Aiden rubbed his forehead, suppressing a sigh. “Yeah. It’s a… construction company here on Europa. The pay isn’t amazing, but it’s a start. They’ve put me on a… renovation project for one of the local space stations orbiting it.”
There was some truth in his words, but he still hated himself for twisting the truth.
“Hey. That’s great,” Rick said from the other end. “I’m glad you are… taking steps. I really am, so don’t get discouraged. I’m sure you’ll climb the ranks in no time.”
“Wish I had half your confidence.”
Claudia’s death had broken him. The lack of justice during her murder trial haunted him. It robbed his sleep, gnawed at his sanity, made him into this new him who couldn’t move on like everyone else had until he figured out why she had had to die so suddenly.
“You do. You are simply not allowing yourself to feel it,” Rick argued with a scoff.
A brief pause followed and a foreboding sensation twisted Aiden’s stomach, making his throat dry. He knew what Rick was about to ask even before the words came through.
“How are you holding up? How’s your sleep? Please tell me you aren’t spending your nights still trying to figure out where they locked up that psychopath…”
