Vows he doesn't remember

The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be DeadIRIS:I knew the moment I said her name that everything would change.Seraphine.Even after three years, the name still tasted like ash in my mouth.Callum’s face paled. His jaw clenched. The tremor in his hands betrayed him, even if his voice remained composed.“She’s dead,” he said, not asking—declaring.I shook my head once. “You thought she was. We both did. But someone in this house made sure you believed the lie.”He stared at the journal like it might bleed. Then he snapped it shut, and the sound echoed like a gunshot in the dead study.“Why are you telling me this now?”Because I had to.Because I was running out of time.“Because if you don’t remember who she really is—what she’s capable of—she’ll make you forget everything again.”---The truth was, I had seen her.Three nights ago.I’d heard something in the servant tunnels. A voice humming a lullaby I hadn’t heard since the fire.I followed it.And there she was.Standing in the shadow

The Girl Who Refused To Disappear IRIS:I had imagined a hundred ways I’d see Callum again.But none of them included screaming through bloodied lips as I watched him fall.The gunshot echoed like thunder down the corridor.His body hit the ground with a sickening finality. For a second, I didn’t move. Couldn’t.Callum.I crawled to him, my hands slippery with blood. He was alive—but barely. The bullet had torn through his shoulder, dangerously close to his chest.Ezra pulled him back, one hand pressing down on the wound. “Keep pressure here. Don’t let go.”I nodded, dazed, shaking.Seraphine stood at the end of the corridor, gun still raised. Her eyes weren’t just wild. They were certain. Like she’d been waiting for this moment her whole life.“I warned you,” she said calmly. “He’s not yours.”“You shot him!” I screamed.She didn’t flinch. “He’ll live. Long enough to remember what you did to him.”I froze.“What are you talking about?”She stepped closer, slow and deliberate. “You d

The Forgotten Heir (Callum POV)The wind whipped through the courtyard as Callum stood at the edge of the estate’s hidden garden, a place he once frequented but now barely recognized. Everything was at odds with the truth he'd been fed for months—the truth that Iris was a stranger, that his life had been a carefully curated lie. But the small lavender flower she left, the tremble in her voice, and now, the truth about Noah... it shattered the final walls of doubt around his heart.Ezra stood beside him, unusually silent. For once, the lawyer had no arguments, no legal jargon, only a weighted glance at the wrought-iron gates beyond which the boy waited."He's five, Callum," Ezra said finally, his voice low. "Smart. Observant. Looks like you."Callum couldn’t speak. His hands, cold and clenched, ached from holding the edge of the stone bench. He hadn't slept since Iris's confession. The image of her broken, terrified face haunted him. And now, a son?A child he'd never held.A child he

The Trial of the Thorne EstateCallum: Rain lashed the tall courthouse windows as the Thorne family name echoed through marble halls like a curse. Cameras flashed, reporters swarmed, and I stood at the center of it all—not as a puppet of the Thorne legacy, but as its executioner.Beside me, Iris walked with her chin high, dressed in black. Regal. Defiant. Not as my secret wife, not even as Noah’s mother. As herself.Lysandra walked ahead of us, folders in hand. Ezra flanked my left, jaw set like stone. The team had worked all night to gather every ounce of evidence—fraud, blackmail, abuse of power, the illegal memory erasure contract.And the footage.The video of Lenora and Seraphine threatening Iris. My own voice, hidden in background recordings, pleading for the truth. And the forged guardianship document Seraphine filed against Iris’s name.This wasn’t just a case. It was a reckoning.Iris:Inside, the courtroom pulsed with heat. Every glance burned. Every breath was too loud. I

The Final Betrayal Iris:Just before midnight, I got a text from an unknown number.Meet me in the old library. Come alone. If you want answers.I didn’t tell Callum about that.Not because I didn’t trust him—but because I wasn’t sure he could survive one more fracture in what we were trying to rebuild. Not after Ava. Not after the flash drive. Not after everything.At midnight I slipped out, moving so slow not to make a sound or to let any body know, my fingers wrapped tight around the pendant Callum had given me—his mother’s. It rested heavy over my chest like a promise I hadn’t earned ready to face whatever is ahead of me.The old library was exactly as I remembered it: ruined and haunting. Moonlight splintered across the broken glass ceiling. Dust floated like ghosts. I slipped inside, only to find Seraphine there.Seraphine stood waiting, elegant and cruel, leaning against the cracked wood shelves like she belonged there."You came," she said with a knowing smirk. "Didn’t think