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Chapter 23: The Blood in Her Name

Author: JDHWS
last update Last Updated: 2025-08-10 18:13:27

The room was dark except for the glow of Splice’s monitors, casting a ghostly hue on everyone’s faces.

Elara sat motionless.

The file titled Birthright.exe hovered in the center of the screen like a blinking omen.

“Are we sure it’s clean?” Marcus asked, arms crossed.

Splice had already scanned it through four decryption layers, firewalled it twice, and even ran a mock system breach in a closed environment.

“It’s clean,” she confirmed. “Whoever sent this wanted it opened.”

“Or,” Damien said darkly, “they wanted you to open it, Elara.”

Elara didn’t flinch. “Then let’s see what they wanted me to know.”

She tapped the spacebar.

The file opened into a single video—grainy, timestamped, and clearly recorded on a surveillance camera.

A room with sterile lighting.

A hospital, or perhaps a lab.

A woman lay on the bed, connected to an IV, her face pale and weary.

She looked barely thirty.

But what caught everyone’s attention wasn’t her condition…

It was her face.

Elara leaned in.

“I’ve never see
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  • Wounded Rose of Garden Metro   Chapter 40: Fractures in the Web

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  • Wounded Rose of Garden Metro   Chapter 39: The First Strike

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  • Wounded Rose of Garden Metro   Chapter 37: Blood in the Bargain

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  • Wounded Rose of Garden Metro   Chapter 36: Cracks in the Queen’s Throne

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  • Wounded Rose of Garden Metro   Chapter 35: The Poison in the Walls

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