Chapter 1 THE LETTER THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

(Then the chapter content continues as before...)

The rain had just stopped, but the air was still heavy like the sky was holding back something worse. Satellite Town was unusually quiet that morning. No street hawkers. No blasting generators. Just silence.

Ada sat by the window of her aunt's apartment, her chin resting on her knee, watching water drip from the zinc roof. She wasn't thinking about anything in particular just drifting, as she always did these days. It had been two years since her father died, but the wound felt fresh.

He was her everything. A quiet man, gentle but strong, the type who didn't speak often but made every word count. His death was sudden. One business trip, one phone call, and that was it. No goodbye. No proper burial. No answers. Just a closed coffin and confusion.

She never got over it. She just learned to keep moving.

"Post!" someone shouted from the gate.

Her aunt, Mama Ifeoma, walked in holding a brown envelope.

"Ada, come. Something came for you."

Ada blinked. "For me?"

She hardly received anything. She didn't even expect her name to be on any official list-let alone a handwritten envelope.

She reached for it slowly. As soon as her eyes caught the writing, her hands froze.

It was her father's handwriting.

She tore the envelope open with trembling fingers. Inside was a single piece of paper-and an old-looking map.

My dearest Ada,

If you're reading this, it means I didn't come back. I'm sorry.

There are things I couldn't tell you while I was alive. Things I had to keep hidden. But you deserve the truth.

Go to Black Rock Island. Follow the map. Everything you need to know is there-about me, about us.

You are braver than you think.

-Dad

She read it again.

And again.

The map was drawn by hand, aged with brown edges, with "Black Rock" circled in red. It looked like something out of a movie.

Ada felt her heartbeat speed up. She didn't even know where Black Rock Island was. She didn't know how her dead father could send her a letter two years after his death.

"What is it?" her aunt asked, peering over.

Ada folded the paper and map quickly. "Nothing. Just... an old thing I forgot about."

But it wasn't nothing.

That night, she didn't eat. She didn't sleep.

She lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, her father's words echoing through her mind.

Go to Black Rock Island. Everything you need to know is there.

She didn't know where this road would lead her. But something deep in her soul stirred. A quiet, burning feeling she hadn't felt in a long time.

Hope.

Curiosity.

A call to something bigger than herself.

This wasn't just a letter.

It was the beginning of something.

And Ada knew, without a doubt-her life was no longer going to be the same.