เข้าสู่ระบบLena “Hello, Damien.” The words left my mouth. But they weren't mine. I knew that immediately. I felt my lips move. I heard my own voice. Yet the tone was wrong. Too calm. Too cold. Too familiar. Damien stared at me. His face had lost every trace of color. “Lena?” I wanted to answer him. I tried. Nothing happened. My body wouldn't move. My throat wouldn't obey me. My mind screamed his name, but my mouth remained perfectly still. Then I heard the founder's voice inside my head. Do you remember me now? I squeezed my eyes shut. Get out. A quiet laugh answered me. You still don't understand what I gave you. I opened my eyes. Damien was still standing in front of me. His gun was lowered. He wasn't looking at the founder. He was looking at me. “Lena,” he whispered. I tried again. “Damien…” This time, my own voice came out. Weak. Terrified. His eyes immediately changed. “You're there.” I nodded. The founder smiled. “Of course she's there.” Damien lo
LenaI screamed.There was nothing beneath my feet.One second I was standing beside Damien, staring at my grandfather.The next, the floor disappeared.Darkness swallowed us.My stomach rose into my throat as I fell.Then something caught me.Damien.His arms wrapped around my waist, and his body twisted beneath mine.“Hold on!”I grabbed his jacket.“I am!”The darkness seemed endless.We kept falling.Then—Crash!We hit something hard.Pain shot through my shoulder.I heard Damien grunt beneath me.For several seconds, neither of us moved.Then his voice came.“Lena?”“I’m here.”“Are you hurt?”“I don't think so.”He exhaled.“Good.”I lifted my head.We were lying on a metal platform suspended over a massive underground chamber.Above us was nothing but darkness.Below us—I couldn't see the bottom.There were lights along the walls, though.Thousands of them.Small white lights arranged in circles.Like stars.I slowly stood.Damien remained beside me.“Where are we?”I shook m
Lena The man at the bottom of the stairs smiled. “I've been waiting nineteen years for you to remember me.” My blood turned cold. The gun in his hand was identical to the one from my memory. The same black metal. The same silver line along the barrel. The same tiny symbol engraved near the trigger. I knew that gun. I'd seen it before. In my nightmares. In fragments. In the memory I had spent my entire life trying to understand without even knowing I was searching for it. My fingers tightened around Damien's. He immediately stepped in front of me. “Put the gun down.” The man laughed. “You really think you're in a position to give orders?” Damien raised his weapon. “Yes.” The man looked at him. Then his eyes returned to me. “Still protecting her.” Damien's jaw tightened. “You know me?” “I knew you before you knew yourself.” I felt Damien stiffen. The man slowly lowered his gun. “My name is Victor.” My heart stopped. Victor. The name echoed through my mind
Lena “Welcome home, daughter.” The voice came from behind the door. My entire body went still. It was Antonio's voice. My father's voice. But Antonio was standing beside me. Alive. Breathing. His face had turned completely white. “No,” he whispered. Damien immediately moved in front of me. “Stay behind me.” I didn't argue. For once, I couldn't. My eyes were fixed on the doorway. The darkness beyond it seemed to breathe. Then a figure stepped forward. My heart stopped. He looked exactly like Antonio. Not similar. Not close. Exactly. Same dark hair. Same eyes. Same scar above his eyebrow. Same crooked line of his mouth. Even the small mark near his temple that I remembered from childhood. I looked at the man beside me. Then back at the stranger. My mind couldn't understand what my eyes were seeing. Antonio whispered: “Marcello.” The stranger smiled. And suddenly I understood why the name felt like a nightmare. Marcello. Damien's biological father. T
Lena“Your real father has finally come home.”The words echoed through the underground chamber.For a moment, I couldn't breathe.I stared at the man standing across from me.He wore the founder's ring.The same black metal ring with the strange symbol engraved into it—the symbol that had followed me through photographs, memories, hidden rooms, keys, and nightmares.The man looked at me with an expression I couldn't understand.Pride.Possession.Something that felt dangerously close to affection.But there was nothing familiar about him.Nothing that made my heart recognize him.And yet he had called me daughter.I felt Damien's hand close around mine.Firm.Warm.Real.“Don't listen to him,” Damien said.His voice was low, controlled.But I knew him well enough now to hear the danger underneath it.The stranger smiled.“Still protecting her.”Damien stepped in front of me.“You're going to have to get through me first.”The man laughed quietly.“You still don't understand, Damien.”
Chapter Thirty Lena Someone had entered the mansion. I could hear footsteps above us. Slow. Unhurried. Almost confident. Whoever it was wasn't afraid. That was what terrified me. Everyone else who had come after us had rushed in with guns, threats, and chaos. This person didn't need any of that. He knew we were here. He knew we couldn't escape. And he was walking through my home as if it belonged to him. Damien stood in front of me, gun raised. Lucian was beside the wall, watching the staircase. My mother was trembling. "Who is it?" Damien whispered. My mother shook her head. "I don't know." "You said he was here." "I said I knew the person." "Then tell me who." She looked at me. "The man from the hospital." My stomach twisted. "The doctor?" She nodded. "His name is Gabriel." Lucian's expression changed. "Gabriel." Damien looked at him. "You know him?" "I've heard the name." "Who is he?" Lucian's eyes darkened. "The founder's right hand." Silence.







