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SHADOWS DON’T LIE

Author: Grace Pearl
last update Last Updated: 2025-07-20 17:21:28

POV: ROURKE

I should’ve let it go. Just let the file close and move on. But something about it keeps scratching at the back of my mind.

Alina Rivers.

The name alone still hits like a hammer to the ribs. She was supposed to be one of the good ones. Smart. Quiet. Kept her head down. Never fit into the Cross world, not really. I remember thinking, the first time I saw her at one of their fundraisers, she looked like she wanted to disappear. A ghost in a room full of monsters.

Then she did disappear.

Now here I am, five years later, circling her name again. Except this time, she’s not a person. She’s a case file. A list of odd timings. A hit-and-run that never quite sat right.

I pull up Cross-affiliated security footage. Four events. Separate dates, different boroughs. All supposedly unrelated. Except they’re not. Not when I stack them side by side and start overlaying clips.

There.

Kaia.

In every single one.

Always in the background. Always hovering near Nathaniel. Never too close, never
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  • HEIRESS REBORN   TRUMP CARD

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  • HEIRESS REBORN   LINES CROSSED

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  • HEIRESS REBORN   FRACTURES

    POV: ALINAI don’t even make it ten steps into the Cross Foundation gala before someone tries to rip the skin off my name.“You are Kaia, right? The one from Ashen?”I turn towards the voice and see it is a senator I.know about but have never met. Salt-and-pepper hair. Teeth like veneers. Eyes like he can't decide if hates me or if he wants me.I nod, slow. “That is right. How do you know about me?”He smirks. “Ruthless in heels. That.is what they are saying about you.”Oh. So that is how we.are playing tonight.“Then they should probably say it to my face,” I reply, matching his smile with one of my own. Sharper. Cleaner.He laughs, but it dies halfway out of his mouth as I move past him before he can say more.They.are all watching me. I feel it in the tilt of a shoulder, the hush of a conversation when I walk by. Elena’s whisper campaign is working overtime. I expected that. What I didn’t expect was how many of them would want it to be true. The vultures don't even know meThe soc

  • HEIRESS REBORN   SHADOWS DON’T LIE

    POV: ROURKEI should’ve let it go. Just let the file close and move on. But something about it keeps scratching at the back of my mind.Alina Rivers.The name alone still hits like a hammer to the ribs. She was supposed to be one of the good ones. Smart. Quiet. Kept her head down. Never fit into the Cross world, not really. I remember thinking, the first time I saw her at one of their fundraisers, she looked like she wanted to disappear. A ghost in a room full of monsters.Then she did disappear.Now here I am, five years later, circling her name again. Except this time, she’s not a person. She’s a case file. A list of odd timings. A hit-and-run that never quite sat right.I pull up Cross-affiliated security footage. Four events. Separate dates, different boroughs. All supposedly unrelated. Except they’re not. Not when I stack them side by side and start overlaying clips.There.Kaia.In every single one.Always in the background. Always hovering near Nathaniel. Never too close, never

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