The photo burned in Elira’s hand like a betrayal she had felt before it ever arrived.
Her mother’s face. Soft. Smiling. At ease.
Seated across from the same woman who stole her child.
It wasn’t a mistake. It wasn’t edited.
It was a message.
And it came with no sender’s name.
Just the wax seal again—the Ashbourne family crest.
Her fingers trembled.
Not from shock.
From fury.
She’d spent her whole life trying to earn her mother’s approval. Desperate to be more than the scandal-born girl who’d fallen for the wrong man. Now the truth was laid bare in front of her—her mother had never just doubted her. She’d sold her out.
You were never meant to win, the photo screamed.
She didn’t go to Soren.
Not yet.
Instead, Elira got dressed in silence, tucked the photo into her coat pocket, a
