LOGIN~ ALLISON ~The heavy hum of the cab's engine was the only sound accompanying the storm brewing inside my mind.I leaned my head against the cool glass of the window, watching the city streets blur past. My mind was racing, sifting through memories from thirty years ago like a chemist analyzing a corrupted formula.It didn't make sense. None of it added up. The timeline Harriet presented felt completely fractured and suspicious.Looking back, Harriet and I shared a long, deep history. We had known each other since our university days when we were getting our master's degrees under the guidance of our mentor, Professor Morris. Back then, I was still putting the shattered pieces of my identity together.When I was eleven years old, a horrific field trip accident separated me from my biological parents and left me with temporary amnesia. I was taken in by the Reed family and brought to Chicago. Growing up, they were the ones I believed were my real parents. They fed me well and sent me t
~ ISLA ~The heavy silence in the room was the first thing that greeted me the moment I opened my eyes.For a brief, naive second, my mind was mercifully blank. I stared up at the familiar white ceiling of the hospital room, feeling the slow, rhythmic rise and fall of my chest. But then, like a flood bursting through a dam, every single memory from last night came crashing down on me all at once. The grand banquet hall. The whispering crowds. The dark, suffocating revelation that had shattered our world into pieces.Siblings.The word felt like a physical strike to my entire being, stealing the air right out of my lungs. It was a sick, twisted joke. A nightmare I was desperately praying to wake up from—except the cold air against my skin and the steady, agonizing beat of my heart proved I was wide awake.My hand flew instinctively to my lower stomach, my fingers trembling as I cupped the fragile, silent life growing inside me. A sudden, violent wave of panic surged through my blood, f
~ ALISTAIR ~I didn’t care what five high-tech laboratory machines printed out on those papers. I didn’t care that ten of the best geneticists in New York had looked me in the eye and delivered the same sentence.I refused to accept that Antonio Vitale’s blood ran through my veins. The math of it was too convenient. The timing was too sharp. My mother had spent thirty years letting hatred rot her from the inside out, obsessed with destroying Vitale and anyone related to him. A woman who had faked her own death and built a life in the shadows didn't just leave things to chance.She had done something. She had engineered this nightmare to drag us all to hell with her, and if anyone knew the truth behind this biological curse, it was the monster who created it.That was why I was standing outside the high-security holding facility, breathing in the stale, damp air of the underground interrogation wing. The heavy iron door groaned on its hinges as the guard unlocked it.Inside, the once-f
~ ALISTAIR ~My vision blurred, dark spots dancing at the edges as the bold, ruthless words on the paper stared back at me.Anger and sheer desperation tangled brutally in my chest, threatening to burst out of me like an explosion. My brain refused to process the cruel reality. How was this possible? How could Isla and I turn out to be siblings? How could the woman who held my entire heart, my soul, and my future share the exact same blood as me?Without realizing it, my hands tightened around the document. The thick paper crumpled, tearing down the middle under the pressure of my trembling grip. My eyes darted up, locking onto Dr. Williams with a lethal, desperate glare."Did you do this right?" my voice scraped out, raw and thick with rising hysteria. "Are you sure of this?"Henry stepped forward, his expression grave and deeply solemn."I watched over the lab myself, Alistair," he confirmed softly, his voice heavy with grief. "I repeated the test three times just to make sure there
~ ALISTAIR ~The grand banquet had ended in absolute ruin.The moment Isla collapsed in my arms, the noise of the crowd, the flashing cameras, and the whispers vanished completely. Nothing else mattered except the pale, delicate weight of the woman I loved in my arms.I didn't wait for security or an ambulance. I carried her straight out of the ballroom to my car and sped to the hospital, with Allison and Vitale following right behind us.Now, the sharp smell of disinfectant filled the quiet VIP room.I stood beside Isla's bed, staring down at her pale face. Her breathing was steady now, her hand warm beneath mine, but the color hadn't fully returned to her skin.Turning to the physician beside me, I asked in a low, tight voice, "How is she? Is the baby safe?"The attending doctor checked the monitors one last time before looking up at me, his expression grim."She and the baby are stable for now, having survived the immediate shock, but her condition is extremely fragile," the doctor
~ ISLA ~The silence in the grand hall was so terrifying that I could hear the faint, uneven rhythm of my shallow breathing. The world felt like it was crumbling into dust right before my eyes.Siblings? Brother and sister? The words spun endlessly in my head, turning my mind into a suffocating, chaotic fog.Before I could even process the horror twisting in my gut, a dark, heavy shadow moved past us. My father crossed the distance between the podium and the guards in long, explosive strides. His face was a mask of murderous wrath—a storm so powerful that the guests nearby scrambled backward in terror. Without a second of hesitation, he reached out and seized Harriet’s jaw, his broad fingers digging into her skin with immense, crushing force."What did you just say?" my father snarled, his voice dropping into a dangerous, gravelly register that shook the air around them. "Say it again. I dare you."Despite his excruciating grip, Harriet didn't even wince. She didn't bat an eyelid, nor







