Abigail_Jatau

Fifteen years after her mother vanished without a trace, Amara Thorn returns to the haunted town of Thornridge to confront the past that buried her family in silence. Desperate for answers, she takes a live-in caregiver job at the secluded estate of Eli Maddox — a brilliant but emotionally withdrawn billionaire with secrets as dark as the house he hides in.

As Amara unravels long-hidden clues and tangled family truths, she finds herself pulled into a dangerous web of lies, betrayal, and forbidden desire. Eli is more than just her employer — he's a man tormented by guilt, connected to a tragedy that could shatter everything she thought she knew.

With a hidden enemy stalking from the shadows and the truth clawing its way to the surface, Amara must decide: will she follow her heart, or let vengeance consume her?

Buried in Silence is a sweeping romantic thriller about the scars of the past, the power of forgiveness, and a love strong enough to survive even the darkest secrets.

Buried in Silence

The old envelope felt like it weighed a thousand pounds in Amara's hands. Every word inside had been sealed away for over a decade, each line potentially shattering or confirming everything she thought she knew. She sat cross-legged on her bed, Eli watching from the doorway, arms folded, expression unreadable.

The letter was written on floral stationery, edges curled with time.

If you're reading this, it means the past has finally caught up to us—and that my silence is no longer keeping you safe. I wanted to protect you from the monsters that wore the faces of men you thought were friends, neighbors, even family.

I didn't die in the fire. I ran. Because if I hadn't, I'd be dead now, and so would you. I faked the fire with Nkem's help. He owed me a debt he could never repay, and he risked everything to get me out.

Your father… was not who he claimed to be. And neither was Eli's. They were brothers. Business partners. Criminals in suits.

I found something I wasn't meant to find—records, photos, a journal hidden in the wine cellar beneath the manor. They were trafficking secrets, and not just the financial kind. Secrets that could bring everything down.

I couldn't go to the police. They were in on it too.

I left this behind, hoping one day the truth would reach you in a safer world. I never stopped watching. I never stopped loving you.

Amara's hands trembled as she set the letter down. The walls around her—the emotional ones she'd built over years of grief—cracked like thin glass. Eli had moved closer without her noticing. He sat beside her, silent for a long moment.

"That journal," he said. "The one she mentioned—it's probably still in the wine cellar. My father sealed it off after the fire. Claimed it was too damaged to restore. But I always thought that was a lie."

Amara wiped her eyes. "Then that's where we go next."

That evening, they descended into the shadows beneath Thornridge Manor. The cellar door was rusted shut, the key long missing. Eli retrieved a crowbar and worked the lock until the metal gave way with a scream.

Inside, dust hung thick in the air. The air was damp and cold, and the walls dripped with condensation. Shelves of old wine bottles stood like sentinels, but behind them, something else—bricks misaligned, cement cracked. A hidden panel.

Eli pried it loose. Behind it, wrapped in layers of cloth and sealed inside a rusted tin box, was a journal.

They opened it together under the flickering light of an antique lantern.

Page after page of detailed accounts—names, dates, transactions. There were photos, too—unmistakable faces of powerful men. One photograph made Amara freeze.

Amara felt the ground tilt beneath her. Her mother had been right. They had both been sons of darkness, wearing masks of civility.

"I had no idea," Eli whispered, his voice cracked. "He told me he was building a legacy. Not... this."

"It's not your legacy, Eli," Amara said, her voice steadier than she felt. "It's mine to uncover. And theirs to burn."

Letters Never Sent