Scarlett’s POV
Jasper’s breath hitched beside me. I didn’t even look at him yet. My eyes were glued to the screen.
Then, in a voice like glass shattering underwater, he whispered…
“Eliran.”
My stomach turned.
The Eliran?
The one hidden in government red tape, the one buried under layers of secrets, the one no one had the courage to say out loud?
Not dead.
Not sick.
Walking. Alive.
My knees nearly buckled.
But it wasn’t just her that made me stumble.
It was the man walking beside her.
My father.
No mistaking it.
That stride.
That crisp white linen shirt.
That protective look on his face, like she mattered to him. Like she was family.
I stumbled backward.
“No,” I whispered.
Jasper stood frozen, his fists clenched, jaw sharp with denial, but his silence told me everything.
