All Chapters of My Father's Rival Is My Lover : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

It wasn’t the wind that woke Nova.It wasn’t even the distant howl of Rome’s night or the uneasy stillness that had wrapped the Ashford estate like a funeral shroud.It was Cassia.The little girl stood in her crib, her amber eyes wide, glowing like they held a sun behind them.“She’s here.”That’s all Cassia said.And the moment those two words passed her lips, the flame sconces lining the hallway outside their bunker guttered, and died.Every flame in the house went out.Except for one.Nova’s heart pounded as she turned toward the entrance.Kael was already there, his eyes glowing faintly. “Stay here. Protect her.”Nova handed Cassia to Liam, her voice firm but quiet. “Don’t leave this room. No matter what happens.”“I should go with you,” Liam started.But Nova shook her head. “Not this time.”She stepped through the heavy door, sealing it behind her.The corridor was lit only by the flickering gold of the protective sigils.The silence was thick.Then… a footstep.Not hurried.No

The wind at the top of the Eiffel Tower didn’t howl. It whispered.Like the voices of thousands of Flameborne ancestors, watching the girl with silent judgment.Cassia stood alone on the glowing sigil drawn across the floor, her hair rippling in the wind like ink across silk. She didn’t flinch when the first challenger stepped forward, a woman with skin the color of frost and eyes like burning stars.“Name yourself,” Nova called from the edge.“I am Seraphine the Tempest,” the woman replied. “Sentinel of Ice, Guardian of Silence.”Cassia’s tiny fingers curled.“I’m Cassia,” she replied, voice strong. “I’m six. I like peanut butter. And I’m not afraid of you.”Laughter echoed around the platform, mostly mocking, mostly male.Seraphine raised her hands, and the air turned bitterly cold.Nova stepped forward. “She’s a child! This is a death sentence.”Dorian stood unblinking. “This is legacy.”Liam had to hold Nova back with one arm while keeping the other hand clenched over the golden s

The air in Thornhaven was heavier than Nova remembered.Not with dust or decay, but with memory. With truth.She walked the stone halls of the fortress alone, torches flickering in the sconces like they recognized her. Like they whispered, Welcome home, daughter of secrets.Her mother had lived.Had lied.Had died in silence to protect a truth that Nova was only now unraveling.“Verdance,” she whispered into the shadows, and the name felt like acid on her tongue.Her mother was one of them.She tried to breathe, to reason, but her heart felt caged in a box of thorns. The prophecy… her daughter… the truth…All of it was tangled.Elsewhere, Liam stood watch over the sea wall, eyes trained on the horizon.He didn’t like the calm.Not after what they’d learned.He wasn’t just protecting a child anymore. He was protecting a myth. One that both Flameborne and Verdance would kill to control, or destroy.Cassia was inside the Hall of Memory now, with Rhea and the girl from Verdance, whose nam

The light from the pedestal still shimmered in Cassia’s eyes.Nova watched her daughter like a hawk, every breath, every flick of her fingers, every twitch in her brow. There was power humming around her, ancient and sentient, crawling into the marrow of their bones and whispering secrets in the air.But the voice they had just heard, it lingered.Her mother’s voice.After decades of silence, after betrayal and war and loss, it returned like a dagger wrapped in silk.Nova knelt before the pedestal. “What is this place really?”Kael’s voice came from the side, low and reverent. “This was the cradle of the split. The first flames were drawn here. The first betrayals too.”“I know,” Nova whispered. “Because that was her voice. Lady Maelora Ashford.”Elyra stiffened.“She never told you.”Nova’s jaw tensed. “Told me what?”Elyra looked at Cassia, then at the flickering flame on the pedestal.“That the woman who raised you wasn’t just your mother… she was the Mother of Flame. One of the th

Nova didn’t sleep that night.She paced the east tower long after the rest of Thornhaven had gone quiet, her bare feet whispering over the cold stone floor. The war council had ended hours ago. The alliances were forming. The Houses were aligning behind Cassia.But her mother’s heart was uneasy.Cassia had spoken with the voice of a queen. Of a visionary. Of a warrior. She had stood before ancient Houses and not flinched. She had owned her fire. Claimed her legacy. Inspired even the cold-blooded Kaelen Velstra to ride with them.But Nova couldn’t shake the image of her daughter as a baby, wrapped in silk, eyes glowing, her cries little more than warm steam in the winter air.Now that baby stood at the center of a war that Nova had spent half her life trying to outrun.“She’s stronger than we ever were,” a voice said behind her.Nova turned.Liam stood at the threshold, still wearing his day armor, though the blade at his hip had been unbuckled. His dark hair was tousled from the wind,