The sun had long dipped below the horizon, leaving the sky a deep indigo as shadows crept over the city. Yet inside the dimly lit room of the ancestral mansion, Lena sat rigid, her fingers trembling slightly over the cracked leather armrest. The events of the past days swirled in her mind like a relentless storm—whispers of hidden bloodlines, the cryptic mark that bound her to a destiny she never asked for, and the man who stirred every part of her she thought was forever locked away.
Dominic.
His name tasted like fire on her tongue.
But tonight wasn’t about him. Not yet. Tonight was about what she had just uncovered—and what it meant for the fragile thread holding her life together.
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Lena's breath caught as she stared at the aged parchment spread before her. The letters were faded
