LOGINCHAPTER Sixty NIn’sThe Missing PageRyan’s POVThe file remained open on my desk for hours.I had read every page.Every sentence, every detail but the more I learned, the less certain I became.The truth was no longer a straight path.It was a collection of broken pieces scattered across years of memories.I looked at the old records again.Gomez was there, that much was clear.Her name appeared in the documents, her presence was confirmed.But something was missing.The records never clearly said she was the child from my memory.They only said she was connected to that day.Connected.That word bothered me.Because for years, I had filled in the blanks myself.I had taken the pieces I knew and created the answer I wanted.I found a person.I found a name.I found a memory.And I stopped searching.But now I understood something.Finding someone was not the same as finding the truth.⸻I called my assistant into the office.He walked in carrying another folder.“You found somethin
CHAPTER Sixty Rufht The Things She Never SaidRyan’s POVI stood in the hallway for several minutes after the call ended.I didn’t move? I didn’t follow Gomez, I didn’t ask questions.I simply stood there, trying to understand what I had just heard.Because the words were simple.But the meaning behind them was not.He knows too much now.Those words continued repeating in my mind.Who was she talking about?What did she mean by too much?And why did she sound afraid?For years, I had believed my search ended when I found Gomez.I believed I had finally found the person connected to the most important memory of my childhood.But now, everything felt different.Not because I wanted to believe Gomez was lying.Because I didn’t.That was what made everything harder.If she had been cruel or obvious, it would have been easier.If she had given me a reason to doubt her from the beginning, I could have accepted it.But Gomez had memories.She had emotions.She had moments that felt real.A
CHAPTER SIXTY Seven Ryan’s POVI stayed in my office until the early hours of the morning.The piece of paper was still on my desk.The drawing was still in front of me.And the name written at the bottom was still impossible to ignore. Scarlett.I had read it so many times that I had memorized every line.The handwriting.The shape of the letters.The small marks from years ago.Everything about it felt real.But my mind refused to accept it completely.Because accepting it meant questioning everything I believed.For years, I had searched for one person.One memory.One answer.I had convinced myself that finding her would finally explain the emptiness I carried from my childhood.And now…The answer I had been searching for might have been beside me the entire time.I closed my eyes.“No.”The word came out quietly.Not because I didn’t believe it.Because I was afraid of believing it.⸻I picked up the old photograph again.The one with two children.The one I had ignored because
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVENRyan’s POVI stayed awake long after everyone in the mansion had gone to sleep.The empty screen of my computer remained in front of me.The file was gone.The information I had been searching for was gone.But the one thing I could not erase was the word I had seen before it disappeared.Scar.Four letters.Only four letters.Yet somehow, they felt heavier than everything else I had found.I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes.I tried to convince myself that it meant nothing.There were many names that could begin with those letters.It could be a coincidence.It had to be a coincidence.Because the other possibility was something I was not ready to accept.If Scarlett was connected to that day…If Scarlett was connected to the memory I had spent years searching for…Then everything I believed about my past would change.⸻The next morning, I called my assistant again.“Did you find anything about the deleted file?”His voice came through the phone.“We ar
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIXRyan’s POVI didn’t sleep much that night.The photograph remained on my desk long after the lights in the mansion had gone out.I had looked at it so many times that I could almost remember every detail.The old building in the background.The people standing nearby.The two children who were supposed to be part of a memory I thought I understood.One of them was the girl I had spent years searching for.The other was the person I had somehow forgotten.That was the part I couldn’t understand.How could I remember one person so clearly and forget another?How could someone be standing beside a memory I had carried for so long and still become invisible to me?I picked up the photograph again.My eyes moved toward the second child.There was something familiar.Not the face.The picture was too damaged for that.Something else.The way she stood.The way she held herself.A small detail that felt like a memory trying to return.But every time I reached for it, it dis
CHAPTER SIXTY FIVERyan’s POVThe question had been sitting in my mind since last night.Another child.Another person connected to that day.For years, I had remembered one thing clearly.A girl, apromise.A moment that stayed with me long after everything else from my childhood had faded.But now, for the first time, I wondered if I had only remembered the part that mattered most to me.Maybe there had always been more.Maybe I had never looked closely enough.⸻I found Dalen in the training room the next morning.He was reviewing some documents when I entered.He looked up immediately.“You look like you have something to ask.”I walked closer.“Do you remember the day we met that girl?”The moment I said it, his expression changed.It was small.Almost impossible to notice.But I noticed.Dalen closed the document in his hands.“Why are you asking?”“Because I found something.”He waited.“My assistant found records from that day.”Dalen remained quiet.“There was another child in
CHAPTER FIVE — Scarlett POVI was asleep when my phone started ringing.At first, I didn’t want to open my eyes. My body felt too heavy, and my mind was still stuck in everything that had happened over the past few days. The ringing continued anyway, sharp and persistent, until I finally forced my
CHAPTER fourRyan POVI took her home last night.Even now, sitting alone in my office, I still could not understand why.Bringing Scarlett Hayes to my pack had never been part of my plans.In fact, if anyone had asked me yesterday morning what I would be doing today, this would have been the last
CHAPTER THREE — Scarlett POVFor a moment, nobody moved.The silence in the hall after he said those words felt heavy, like the air itself had been pressed down on everyone’s shoulders.I could still feel the shock in my body and my stepmother was still holding my arm, but her grip had loosened sli
CHAPTER TWOScarlett POVToday was the announcement, I was supposed to run awayI did not run this time.Maybe I should have.Maybe if I had left before the announcement started, I could have kept pretending there was still a chance that something would change.But I didn’t.So I sat there with eve







