Seraphina left her mother's office carrying more questions than answers.
The rain had stopped.
Yet somehow the estate felt colder.
More watchful.
The corridors stretched endlessly before her as she walked in silence.
Her mother's words replaying repeatedly inside her head.
'Selene was extraordinary.'
'Your father loved her.'
'She offered herself for peace.'
But one detail bothered her more than anything else.
The way her mother had stopped talking.
The way fear briefly appeared when Seraphina asked about the family Selene married into.
Fear.
Not sadness.
Not grief.
Fear.
Which meant the answer still mattered.
Even now.
After all these years.
That night—
sleep refused to come.
Seraphina sat beside her bedroom window.
Moonlight illuminating scattered notes across her desk.
Dozens of names.
Family trees.
Alliance charts.
Fragments of history.
And right at the center—
one name.
'Selene.'
She stared at it for a long time.
hen suddenly remembered something.
Her mother never said Selene died.
The realization struck her instantly.
Everyone spoke around the subject.
Never directly.
Her father.
Her mother.
The missing records.
The erased history.
Nobody had ever actually confirmed what happened to Selene.
Before she could think further—
a soft knock sounded at her door.
Three knocks.
Pause.
Two knocks.
The childhood signal.
Seraphina immediately opened the door.
Dante stood there.
Looking unusually serious.
Which was unsettling.
Because Dante was rarely serious.
Without speaking—
he handed her a folded piece of paper.
Then immediately walked away.
Seraphina frowned.
Opening it carefully.
Only six words were written.
'Check Father's private archive tonight.'
'Come alone.'
Her heartbeat quickened instantly.
Because the private archive was forbidden.
Even for De Luca heirs.
Especially for De Luca heirs.
And suddenly—
the mystery surrounding Selene felt much larger than before.
*******
Midnight.
The estate slept.
Or at least pretended to.
Seraphina moved silently through dark corridors.
Avoiding guards.
Avoiding cameras.
Avoiding questions.
Years of training made the task easy.
But tonight—
something felt different.
Almost as though the estate itself was watching.
Eventually she reached the eastern wing.
The oldest section of the mansion.
Few people came here anymore.
Dust covered ancient portraits.
Forgotten chandeliers hung overhead.
Silence ruled every corridor.
At the end of one hallway stood an iron door.
Massive.
Ancient.
The entrance to Lord De Luca's private archive.
Seraphina paused.
Because something immediately caught her attention.
The door was unlocked.
Which made no sense.
Her father trusted almost nobody.
Leaving such a room unsecured was impossible.
Unless—
someone wanted her to enter.
The thought sent a chill through her spine.
Slowly—
she pushed the door open.
Darkness greeted her.
Then rows upon rows of shelves emerged from the shadows.
Ancient documents.
Private journals.
Bloodline records.
Sealed correspondence.
Information powerful enough to destroy entire organizations.
Seraphina stepped deeper inside.
Carefully.
Quietly.
Then she noticed something strange.
One shelf near the center appeared recently disturbed.
Unlike the others.
Dust covered everything around it.
Yet that section remained clean.
Someone had accessed it recently.
Very recently.
She approached slowly.
Scanning titles.
Records.
War reports.
Old alliance treaties.
Then she froze.
Hidden between several ledgers—
sat a black leather journal.
No title.
No markings.
Only a faded peach blossom embossed onto the cover.
Seraphina's pulse stopped.
The peach blossom.
Her family's symbol.
But older.
Much older.
Almost trembling now—
she reached toward the journal.
And the moment her fingers touched it—
a voice echoed softly from the darkness behind her.
"Curiosity can be dangerous."
Seraphina spun instantly.
Hand moving toward a concealed blade.
But the blade never left its sheath.
Because she recognized the voice.
And somehow—
that frightened her more.
Standing within the shadows—
partially hidden by darkness—
was Adrian.
Watching her.
As though he had been waiting there the entire time.
And for the first time in a long while—
Seraphina couldn't tell whether he was there to help her.
Or stop her.