Chapter four

Serena read the first line over and over again.

“If you are reading this, then the time has finally come for you to learn who you really are.”

Her fingers tightened around the letter.

Who had written it? How did they know her?

And what did they mean by who she really was?

She searched the page again. There were no other words…just that single sentence.

It should have been impossible.

Yet those few words unsettled her more than everything that had happened at the banquet.

She barely slept.

Whenever she closed her eyes, she saw Damien placing a kiss on Elena’s hand. Kieran smiling at Rosaline. Lucien standing beside Selene.

Then the sentence from the letter echoed through her mind, morning arrived, but it brought no answers.

She forced herself through another day at the bakery. Smiling when customers expected it. Speaking only when necessary.

The village buzzed with excitement over the upcoming weddings of the three Alpha heirs. Everywhere she turned, people talked about decorations, gowns, and celebrations.

Serena felt like she was walking through someone else’s life.

By the time she returned home that evening, exhaustion weighed heavily on her shoulders.

As she stepped onto her porch, something caught her eye.

An envelope rested against the front door.

She froze.

It had not been there that morning.

Slowly, she bent down and picked it up. The handwriting… It was the same.

Her heartbeat quickened. She hurried inside, locked the door behind her, and broke the seal.

Inside was another letter.

“Serena,

I know you have questions. About your past. About your family. About who you truly are.

I cannot explain everything in a letter. But I can tell you this… your mother loved you. She never abandoned you, she had no choice.

If you truly want the answers, meet me at Moonfall Cliff tomorrow at dusk.

Come alone, trust no one.”

Serena read the letter again and again. Her mother, someone was claiming she had a mother who loved her. Someone was claiming everything she had believed for twenty years was a lie.

Every instinct told her to throw the letter into the fire. To forget it, to pretend she had never seen it.

But one sentence refused to leave her mind.

Your mother loved you.

She lay awake that night staring at the ceiling.

If the letter was a trap… she could die but If it was real…it could change everything.

By dawn…she had made her decision. She was going.

The following evening, Serena waited until the village had grown quiet before slipping out of her cottage.

The path to Moonfall Cliff twisted through the forest, lit only by the fading light of sunset. The wind grew stronger the closer she came to the cliffs, her heart pounded with every step.

Finally, the trees opened. Moonfall Cliff stretched before her, a lone figure stood near the edge. Wrapped in a dark cloak that billowed in the wind.

He slowly turned as she approached. For reasons she could not explain, something about his face made her tense.

“You came,” he said quietly. His voice was deep and rough, as though he had spent years speaking to no one.

Serena stopped several feet away. “Who are you?” she asked. “Why have you been sending me these letters?”

The man maintained eye contact. “My name is Marcus.” He paused. “And I made a promise to your mother.”

Serena gasped. “My… mother?”

Marcus nodded. “She asked me to protect you. She made me swear that when the time was right, I would tell you the truth.”

Serena’s whole body stiffened. “What truth?”

Marcus looked at her with an expression that was almost sorrowful. “You were never abandoned, Serena…“you were hidden.”

The world seemed to stop. “What are you talking about?”

Before Marcus could answer, a sharp crack echoed through the trees, then another.

Marcus’s head snapped toward the forest. His expression hardened. “They found us.”

Dark figures emerged from between the trees. One, then five…then ten. Within seconds they surrounded the clearing. Each wore a black mask.

One of them stepped forward, his eyes fixed firmly on Serena.“So it’s true,” he murmured.

Another laughed. “The lost heir is alive.”

Serena’s heart nearly stopped.

Lost heir?

Marcus immediately stepped in front of her. His voice became cold. “Run!!!”

“I don’t understand!” Serena cried. “You don’t have to.”

More masked figures appeared from the darkness. Marcus never looked away from them. “Run, Serena!”

She hesitated only for a heartbeat then she turned and ran. Branches whipped across her face, thorns tore at her dress, roots caught at her feet as she stumbled through the forest.

Behind her, steel clashed. Men shouted. The sounds of battle echoed through the night, she did not dare look back…not once.

She ran until her chest ached and every breath felt like fire. Only then did she collapse against the trunk of an ancient tree.

Her entire body trembled. The masked men had called her…the lost heir. Marcus had claimed he had promised her mother.

She had not been abandoned, she had been hidden.

Serena pressed a trembling hand against her chest.

If all of that was true… Then who had she been all her life?