When the Bell Tolls
The air around the Bell estate felt different that morning—thick, humming with the tension of unsaid truths and unraveling bloodlines. Calla sat at the breakfast table, her untouched tea growing cold as she reread the file Cassian had handed her the night before. A file that named her not as an outsider or orphan, but as a Bell by blood.
"Project Calla." The words bled from the top of the page, sterile and surgical. But the content was anything but.
She closed the folder slowly. Across from her, Cassian watched. Silent. Still. Bruised by truths neither of them was ready for.
"Why didn’t your father tell you?" she asked, her voice a brittle whisper.
Cassian shook his head. "Edwin Bell told no one anything he didn’t have to. He played us all. Including Dorian. Maybe
