CHAPTER 2: THE MOMENT THE WORLD STOPPED LYING
CHAPTER 2: THE MOMENT THE WORLD STOPPED LYING
The world didn’t move.
Not for Victoria.
Not for Rosalie.
Not for anyone in that ballroom anymore.
Only the necklace seemed alive—catching the chandelier light like it was trying to speak.
Rosalie took a small step back.
“I… I don’t understand,” she whispered. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Victoria didn’t answer immediately.
Because if she spoke too soon, everything inside her might break completely.
Her voice finally came out uneven.
“Turn your head slightly,” she said softly.
Rosalie hesitated.
“…Why?”
“Please.”
Something in Victoria’s tone—something not commanding, but desperate—made Rosalie obey.
She turned.
Just enough.
The crescent-shaped birthmark behind her ear was visible.
Perfect.
Undeniable.
Victoria’s breath left her body like it had been waiting twenty-five years to collapse.
She reached out—but stopped mid-air.
Her hand shook violently now.
Not from fear.
From recognition too powerful to survive comfortably.
“Where did you say you were found?” Victoria asked.
Rosalie swallowed.
“…After a fire,” she said. “They told me I was the only child they recovered from the estate.”
A sound broke somewhere behind Victoria.
A glass slipping from someone’s hand.
Shattering on marble.
No one reacted.
Because no one understood what was happening yet.
But Victoria did.
Estate fire.
Ashford estate.
Twenty-five years ago.
The night she lost everything.
Her voice dropped.
“What estate?”
Rosalie’s lips parted slightly.
“I… I don’t know the name,” she admitted. “They never told me.”
Victoria closed her eyes for a second.
When she opened them again, something in her was no longer controlled.
May you like
It was human.
“I did,” she whispered.
