Semua Bab The Billionaires 10th Bride: Bab 81 - Bab 90

Valerie's POVThe screen went black, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from it.It felt as though the darkness staring back at me was alive, waiting for me to blink first. My pulse slowed instead of racing, and somehow that frightened me more. I had spent so much of my life chasing answers that I never stopped to wonder what would happen when they finally stood in front of me.Now I knew.The truth wasn't comforting.It was heavier than grief.The man's final words echoed through my thoughts again and again."You spent your entire life searching for who destroyed your world, Valerie. Now you will discover who created it."Created it.Not destroyed.Created.There was a difference.A terrible one.For years, I believed my life had fallen apart because everything that could go wrong simply had. My father's murder. The collapse of the Sergio empire. Mike's betrayal. The impossible contract that forced me into Silas's life. The Blood Oath. The curse.I thought those tragedies were separate

Valerie's POVThe key wasn't supposed to glow.I knew it before Silas spoke.Silver light seeped through the grooves of the old brass key, spreading like liquid beneath the metal instead of across it. Symbols emerged one after another, not carved into the surface but rising from somewhere deep inside, as though the key had been asleep for centuries and had only now remembered its true purpose.Neither of us moved.The library, silent only moments earlier, felt different. It wasn't simply quiet anymore. It felt aware.The hidden staircase beyond the open wall disappeared into complete darkness. Even the morning sunlight spilling through the glass dome refused to travel beyond the first few steps, as though the shadows below belonged to a place light had forgotten.Silas lifted the key slightly."It's reacting to something."My eyes never left the silver glow."No," I whispered. "I think it's recognizing something."The distinction settled heavily inside me.The key wasn't responding to

Valerie's POVThe moment the footsteps echoed above the archive, I knew the peace we had found was over.For a short time, this hidden place felt like the first place in my entire life where the truth existed without someone trying to twist it. Every journal, every photograph, and every forgotten record had given me pieces of a history that had been stolen from my family.But the sound moving through the abandoned estate reminded me of one thing.Secrets never remained buried forever.I looked toward the darkness beyond the shelves, my body becoming tense as I tried to understand who could have found us.This place was hidden.Protected.Forgotten by the world.Yet someone had entered.Someone knew exactly where we were.The guardian of the archive watched the entrance with a calmness that unsettled me. He wasn't surprised.That frightened me more.He explained that the archive had always attracted two types of people.Those who searched for the truth.And those who wanted the truth d

Valerie's POVThe moment I heard my father's voice from beyond the hidden door, everything inside me stopped.For years, I had convinced myself that I had accepted his death.I told myself I no longer waited for answers.I told myself I had moved forward.But the truth was different.A part of me had always been searching for him.Every secret I uncovered, every hidden message, every piece of the puzzle left behind by Roody Sergio carried the same hope.Maybe he knew something.Maybe he left something for me.Maybe there was still a part of him waiting to be found.And now I was hearing him.My father's voice.Inside the heart of the Continuum.My first instinct was to move forward.To believe.To finally allow myself one moment where I wasn't fighting against impossible truths.But the guardian stopped me with a warning.The Continuum did not only preserve memories.It could recreate them.It could rebuild moments.Voices.People.It could give someone exactly what they wanted most.

Valerie's POVThe question remained inside my mind long after the Continuum spoke.Who will you choose to forget?I expected fear.I expected anger.I expected the same helpless feeling I had carried since entering the Vane family and discovering how much of my life had been controlled by other people's decisions.But instead, I felt something different.Understanding.For the first time, I realized the Continuum was not only asking me about memory.It was asking me about choice.For generations, everyone connected to the Blood Oath had misunderstood sacrifice.The brides sacrificed because they were forced to.They entered marriages they did not choose.They carried burdens they never asked for.The Vane heirs sacrificed parts of themselves because they believed duty mattered more than happiness.My family sacrificed truth because they believed hiding it would protect the people they loved.Everyone lost something.But nobody truly chose.That was the difference.A sacrifice taken fr