6

Elara’s Pov

The hospital room was so quiet that I could hear the loud, steady beating of my own heart.

I stared down at the old, faded photograph resting on the white blanket, my fingers trembling as if the paper might burn me. The little girl in the picture looked back at me with dark, wide eyes, wearing a tiny pink dress and clutching a silver bird pendant that looked exact—pixel for pixel, scratch for scratch—like the one hanging around my own neck.

My chest felt tight, like a heavy stone was sitting right on top of my ribs.

"This doesn't mean anything," I whispered, my voice sounding small and fragile in the bright, sterile room. I looked up at Kael, fighting hard against the sudden, terrifying hope that was trying to claw its way out of my chest. "People can buy the same necklace. People can have similar pendants. The nuns at the orphanage told me... they told me my parents left me on the front steps wrapped in a dirty blanket with only this chain. They said nobody wanted me. They said I was nobody."

"They lied," Kael said. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a fierce, heavy weight that made the air in the room feel thick. He stepped a little closer, his dark eyes shining with a raw, painful emotion that men like Darian never showed. "You were never nobody, Elara. You were our world. You were the little sister I held in my arms when I was twelve years old, promising I would protect you forever."

I shook my head, tears burning hot behind my eyelids. I was so used to being unwanted. For eight long years, I had lived in a cold mansion where my husband treated me like furniture and my mother-in-law treated me like a mistake. The thought that a powerful, wealthy family had spent twenty-four years looking for me—crying for me, searching every corner of the earth for me—felt too big, too bright, like staring straight at the sun after living in a dark basement for a lifetime.

"I don't understand," I cried out, a sob finally breaking past my lips as I pressed my hands against my face. "If you were looking for me... why did it take twenty-four years? Why didn't you find me sooner? I spent my whole childhood wondering why nobody came. I spent my whole life feeling like a broken toy!"

Kael didn't back away. Instead, he knelt down right beside my hospital bed, bringing his face level with mine. He reached out slowly, his large, warm hand covering my shaking fingers where they gripped the blanket. His touch wasn't cold or distant like Darian's. It was steady, protective, and painfully gentle.

"Because someone hid you very well, Elara," Kael whispered, his jaw tight as anger flashed across his stormy eyes. "Whoever took you didn't just drop you off at an ordinary orphanage by accident. They wiped your records. They changed your name in the local registries. They made sure every search path led to a dead end. For years, we chased dead ends because the people who stole you knew how to cover their tracks."

A cold shiver raced down my spine. Someone had hidden me? It wasn't just an abandoned child story?

Before I could process the terrifying thought, Kael reached up and gently touched his fingers near the collar of my hospital gown. "Our mother always told us that you had a tiny, moon-shaped birthmark right near your right shoulder," he murmured softly. "Just like a little crescent moon painted on your skin."

My breath hitched. My hand moved on its own, sliding under the cotton fabric of my gown to touch my right shoulder. My fingertips brushed against the exact shape he had just described—a secret mark I had hidden my whole life, thinking it was just a weird freckle.

"How..." I whispered, my eyes wide with shock. "How could you possibly know that?"

"Because you are my flesh and blood," Kael said, a sad, bittersweet smile touching his lips. He let out a long breath and stood back up, looking down at me with absolute reverence. "Let me call my brothers, Elara. Let Silas run a proper DNA test. You don't have to believe me right now, and nobody is going to force you to pack your bags and walk into a stranger's house. But please... give us a chance to show you the truth."

I swallowed hard, the lump in my throat so big it choked me. Part of me wanted to scream at him to leave, to let me stay in my misery where things made sense. It was easier to be the neglected, unloved wife who was dying of a broken heart than to be a lost princess of a powerful dynasty. Being an heiress sounded like a fairy tale, and fairy tales always ended with a cruel awakening.

"Okay," I whispered, the word barely escaping my lips. "Call them. But... but don't expect me to call you my family just because of a picture and a necklace."

Kael gave a slow, respectful nod. "I wouldn't expect anything less from a Veyne," he muttered quietly.

He turned on his heel and walked out of the hospital room, closing the door softly behind him. The sudden silence rushed back in, heavy and suffocating. I sat there in the middle of the white sheets, staring at the little girl in the faded photograph. Could it really be true? Could I really have brothers who cared? Could I really belong somewhere?

For the first time since my car crashed into the stormy night, a tiny, fragile spark of hope flickered inside my chest. It scared me to death. What if it was all a lie? What if I woke up and found out I was still trapped in that cold, miserable life with Darian?

The door clicked open again only a few minutes later.

I looked up, expecting Kael to tell me that his brothers were busy or that the test would take days. But when I saw his face, the air froze in my lungs. Kael looked pale, his eyes wide, and a nervous tension wrapped tightly around his shoulders. He walked back to the side of my bed faster than before, his phone clutched tightly in his hand.

"Elara," Kael said, his voice shaking just a little bit.

"What?" I asked, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. "What happened? Did your brothers say no?"

"No," Kael answered, shaking his head slowly. A look of overwhelming emotion crossed his face—a mix of deep relief and profound fear. "Ronan and Silas dropped everything. They are already on a private jet heading this way. They'll be here in a few hours."

"Oh," I breathed out, panic fluttering in my stomach. "Hours? That fast?"

"That's not all," Kael added, his voice dropping to a low, breathless whisper as he stared down at me. "When I called Silas... our mother overheard the conversation."

My eyes widened. "Your... your mother?"

"She has spent twenty-four years crying herself to sleep, wondering if her little girl was cold, hungry, or even alive," Kael said, his own eyes shining with unshed tears. "When she heard about the pendant, when she realized her baby had finally been found... she dropped the phone and started packing her bags before anyone could stop her. She's coming with them."

I gripped the edge of my blanket so hard my knuckles turned pure white. My mind spun in a dizzying circle. A mother? A real mother who actually cared? Who had spent decades crying for me?

Kael saw the terror written all over my face, and he gently reached out, placing his warm hand over my white-knuckled fingers once more. He leaned down, his voice thick with a lifetime of longing and sorrow, and delivered words that froze every drop of blood in my veins.

"My mother has waited twenty-four years to hold you again, and she doesn't know whether you'll let her.”