Chapter 7 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
The possibility was unbearable.
Julian and Serena had grown up believing they were siblings.
But unlike Elias, Julian had been sent away to boarding school before the truth of Serena’s parentage was fully buried.
Had he known?
Had Serena?
The dates aligned.
Saraphina’s father could have been Julian.
Elias rejected it immediately.
“No.”
“You said you barely saw him the year before the accident.”
“He was seventeen.”
“So was Serena.”
“They thought they were family.”
“Maybe they learned they weren’t.”
Elias paced.
The situation was becoming more personal by the hour.
Saraphina watched him.
“If Julian is my father, what does that make me to you?”
“Complicated.”
Despite everything, she laughed.
Elias stared.
Then, unexpectedly, laughed too.
It lasted only a second.
But it changed something between them.
Their investigation returned to Monaco.
Saraphina refused to hide.
Instead she resumed her role with Leo.
The mansion staff whispered.
Everyone knew something had happened.
Nobody knew what.
Elias stayed closer than before.
Too close, sometimes.
Saraphina noticed.
“You’re following me.”
“I live here.”
“You’ve walked through the nursery six times.”
“I like architecture.”
“It has cartoon elephants.”
“They’re excellent elephants.”
She smiled.
Then the security alarm sounded.
Every door locked.
Elias’s expression changed instantly.
“Take Leo.”
Saraphina lifted him.
Matteo appeared.
“Perimeter breach.”
“Where?”
“East wing.”
A woman’s voice came through the hallway.
“Elias?”
He froze.
Nobody else understood.
He did.
The voice belonged to his mother.
Impossible.
Elias stepped toward it.
Saraphina caught his sleeve.
“Don’t.”
He looked at her.
“It’s bait.”
The voice came again.
“Elias, darling.”
His face tightened.
Saraphina saw the nine-year-old boy beneath the suit.
She stood between him and the corridor.
“Your mother is dead.”
He swallowed.
“Someone wants you emotional.”
That broke the spell.
Elias signaled the guards.
They traced the sound to a hidden speaker.
No intruder.
Only psychological warfare.
Then Leo spoke.
“The silver lady put it there.”
Everyone turned.
“What silver lady?”
“The one who came yesterday.”
Saraphina crouched.
“What did she look like?”
Leo pointed toward a family portrait.
“At her.”
His finger landed on Celeste.
Elias felt ice move through him.
Celeste had entered the estate openly.
Someone had allowed her inside.
Which meant the enemy was not outside the gates.
It was inside the household.
Security logs had been altered.
Staff cameras erased.
Only one piece survived.
Leo’s bedroom camera had recorded a reflection in the mirror.
Celeste standing beside someone.
The image was blurry.
Matteo enhanced it.
A man appeared.
Older.
Gray at the temples.
A familiar scar across his chin.
Elias stumbled backward.
Saraphina stared at him.
“Who is that?”
His voice barely worked.
“Julian.”
His brother was alive.
The man Elias had mourned for twenty-one years had been inside the mansion twenty-four hours earlier.
And he had arrived with Celeste.
Saraphina felt sick.
If Julian was her father—
why was he working with the woman Serena had warned her about?
A message arrived on Elias’s private phone.
One image.
Jacqueline seated in a chair.
Alive.
Beside her stood Julian.
Below it were six words:
Bring Saraphina, and I return Jacqueline.
Elias deleted the message.
Saraphina grabbed the phone.
“What are you doing?”
“You’re not going.”
“My mother—”
“No.”
“She raised me.”
“I know.”
“She protected me for twenty-five years.”
“I know.”
“And now you want me to let her die?”
Elias turned.
“I want you alive.”
Saraphina stared at him.
There was too much emotion in his voice.
Too much fear.
For one second, neither moved.
Then she whispered:
“You don’t get to protect me by becoming another person who makes my choices for me.”
The words struck him.
Because she was right.
Again.
Elias closed his eyes.
When he opened them, something had changed.
“Then we do it together.”
May you like
For the first time in his life, Elias handed someone else part of the control—and Saraphina was about to walk willingly into the trap he had spent two decades fearing.
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