*If Serena is reading this… I'm already gone.*
The words blurred as Serena's eyes filled, her mother's handwriting swimming on the page like it might vanish if she blinked. Years since the accident. Eight years of grieving a woman she thought she understood, and here was proof, in faded ink, that her mother had known this moment would come.
"Serena." Kael's hand hovered near her shoulder, not quite touching. "We need to move somewhere safer before we read further. The alarm—"
"I don't care about the alarm." Her voice cracked. "This is my *mother*, Kael. She knew. She knew I'd end up here, reading this, and she still never told me anything."
"Then let's find somewhere you can read it properly," Mira said gently, already scanning the tree line for pursuit. "Please. Grieve after we're no
