Chapter 19

Darius stepped closer and frowned. “Let me see.” Lucienne handed him the letter without protest. Darius read it once, then again, his brows knitting together. Suddenly, his expression changed. He flipped through the bundle before looking up. “Where are mine?” he asked quietly.

Lucienne looked at him in confusion. “What do you mean?” Darius searched through the remaining letters himself, his movements becoming faster with every passing second. “These are all addressed to you.” He held one up. “‘To my son, Lucienne.’” He grabbed another. “This one too.” His voice dropped. “They’re all for you.”

Silence settled over the room.

Darius let out a bitter laugh. “So even after leaving… Father still remembered only one son.” He placed the letters back onto the table with more force than he intended. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“Darius…” Lucienne began.

“No.” Darius shook his head, forcing a smile that failed to hide the hurt in his eyes. “It’s fine.” He looked away. “I spent years convincing myself he had a reason for disappearing. Now I find out he wrote every year…” His voice cracked. “…and not once did he write to me.”

Luna Alara’s face filled with guilt. “That’s not true.” Darius looked at her immediately. “Then where are my letters?” She hesitated. “Your father loved both of you equally.” Darius laughed again, this time more painfully. “Love is easy to claim. These letters are proof.” He pointed toward the bundle. “And the proof doesn’t include me.”

Lucienne stepped in front of his brother. “If Father only wrote my name, then there’s a reason.” Darius’s jaw tightened. “You’ve always believed there’s a reason for everything.” His eyes glistened. “Maybe this time… there isn’t.”

Selena quietly moved beside Darius. “I don’t believe a father who sacrificed everything for his family would forget one of his sons.” Darius looked at her, his expression softening only slightly. “Then explain this to me.” Selena couldn’t. She simply lowered her eyes.

Lucienne untied the ribbon completely and searched through the bundle himself. Between two folded pages, something slipped onto the floor. It was a smaller envelope, worn with age, hidden so carefully that none of them had noticed it before.

Darius bent down and picked it up. His name was written across the front in familiar handwriting.

His breathing caught.

For several seconds, he simply stared at it.

Lucienne smiled faintly. “Looks like Father didn’t forget you after all.” Darius ran his thumb across his name, his eyes already filling with tears. “Then… why was it hidden?” Luna Alara slowly shook her head. “I don’t know. I swear I never saw that envelope before.”

Darius held it tightly but didn’t open it. “Not yet.” He looked at Lucienne. “If we’re reading Father’s words… we read them together.” Lucienne nodded without hesitation. “Together.”

The brothers shared a quiet look, and for the first time since the truth began unraveling, the distance between them seemed a little smaller.

Lucienne carefully gathered the letters and tied the ribbon again. “These can wait until tonight.” He turned toward Luna Alara. “You’ve carried enough guilt.” His voice softened. “Thank you… for finally trusting us with the truth.”

Relief flickered across Luna Alara’s face, though sadness still lingered in her eyes. “I only hope it isn’t too late to mend what was broken.”

Lucienne became thoughtful for a moment before looking toward the door. “There’s something else I need to do.” Selena tilted her head. “What is it?” He drew a slow breath. “Seraphine confessed to framing you. She stayed because she accepted the punishment.” He paused. “But she’s also the only one who tried to tell us someone else was manipulating her.”

Darius folded his unopened letter carefully. “You’re thinking of releasing her?” Lucienne nodded. “Not without conditions.” His voice remained firm. “She’ll remain under guard, but a prison cell won’t help us uncover the truth. And…” He glanced briefly at Selena. “She’s still your sister.”

Selena’s eyes widened. She hadn’t expected those words from him. A small, grateful smile touched her lips. “Thank you.”

The prison tower was quieter than usual. Seraphine sat beside the narrow window, staring at the fading sunlight when the heavy iron door slowly creaked open. She didn’t bother looking up. “If you’ve come to question me again, I’ve already told you everything I know.”

“It’s not another interrogation.”

Seraphine froze.

She slowly lifted her head to find Lucienne standing in the doorway, with Selena beside him and Darius just behind them. For a long moment, none of them spoke.

Lucienne finally broke the silence. “I’ve ordered your release.”

Seraphine blinked in disbelief. “What?”

“You’ll remain inside the palace under guard,” Lucienne continued. “You won’t be allowed beyond the gates without my permission. But you won’t stay in this cell any longer.”

Seraphine laughed bitterly. “After everything I did to Selena… you’re letting me walk free?”

Lucienne looked at her calmly. “No. I’m giving you the chance to become someone better than the woman who walked into this tower.”

Her eyes slowly shifted to Selena.

“You asked him to do this… didn’t you?”

Selena nodded gently. “Keeping you here won’t heal either of us.”

Seraphine lowered her head, ashamed. “I don’t deserve your kindness.”

“No,” Selena admitted quietly. “But maybe you deserve a second chance.”

Tears welled in Seraphine’s eyes as the guards unlocked the chains around her wrists. She rubbed them absentmindedly before taking her first step out of the cell. The corridor suddenly felt brighter than she remembered.

As they walked back through the palace, servants stopped what they were doing to watch. Some whispered. Others looked away. Seraphine kept her head lowered, unable to bear their stares. Selena quietly moved closer until they were walking side by side.

“You don’t have to walk alone,” Selena whispered.

Seraphine glanced at her sister, her throat tightening. For the first time in years, she didn’t know how to answer.

Later that evening, Lucienne and Darius sat together in Lucienne’s chambers with the bundle of letters resting between them. Selena quietly poured tea before sitting nearby, while Seraphine remained by the window, choosing not to interrupt.

Lucienne untied the faded ribbon again and smiled faintly. “Ready?”

Darius held up his own unopened letter. “Only if we read them together.”

Lucienne nodded. “Together.”

They unfolded the first letters at the same time. Within moments, Lucienne chuckled.

Darius looked up. “What’s so funny?”

Lucienne laughed softly. “Father wrote that I used to hide vegetables inside my boots because I hated eating them.”

Darius burst into laughter. “He caught you?”

Lucienne grinned. “Apparently Mother found carrots in my boots for three days before she realized what I’d been doing.”

Even Selena couldn’t stop herself from laughing.

“I wish I’d seen that.”

Darius shook his head, still smiling. “You deserved every punishment you got.”

Lucienne looked at him. “Read yours.”

Darius cleared his throat before reading aloud. “‘To my stubborn son… if you’re still climbing the palace walls instead of using the stairs, then I hope you’ve learned how to fall properly.’”

Lucienne stared at him before laughing loudly.

“You never told me Father knew!” “He knew everything,” Darius admitted with an embarrassed smile. “I thought I’d been clever.”

“You weren’t.”

For several precious minutes, laughter filled the room instead of arguments.

Then everything changed. Lucienne unfolded another letter.

His smile slowly disappeared.

He read the page once… then again… before his voice became almost a whisper.

“He says…” Lucienne swallowed hard. “‘There isn’t a single night I don’t wonder whether my sons still remember the sound of my voice.” Silence fell over the room.

Darius lowered his own letter. Neither brother spoke.

Selena watched as Lucienne quietly covered his eyes with one hand. Across from him, Darius blinked rapidly, trying to hold back tears.

“I remember,” Darius whispered.

“So do I,” Lucienne answered.

Neither of them realized they had spoken at the same time.

Seraphine quietly looked away, giving the brothers the privacy of their grief. Selena reached over and rested her hand on Lucienne’s. Without looking up, he intertwined his fingers with hers.

Darius smiled sadly at the sight.

“I think…” he said softly, “…Father would be happy seeing this.”

Lucienne nodded, carefully folding the letter against his chest.

Outside the chamber, Luna Alara paused in the corridor after hearing their laughter… followed by their quiet tears. She closed her eyes and smiled through her own tears. It was the first time in many years that the palace had echoed with the sound of a family beginning to find its way back to one another.