CHAPTER 1: THE NAME THEY TRIED TO ERASE
CHAPTER 1: THE NAME THEY TRIED TO ERASE
The ballroom did not recover from those four words.
“She is my sister.”
It should have been impossible.
Yet the young heir, Adrian Vale, was still kneeling on the marble floor, holding the silver crest like it was something alive. His fingers trembled as his gaze stayed locked on the little girl.
Behind him, the woman in the blue gown—Lady Cassandra Vale—had gone completely still.
Not shocked.
Not confused.
Terrified.
Because she knew exactly what that crest meant.
And more importantly… she knew what it could expose.
“This is absurd,” she finally snapped, forcing laughter that didn’t sound real. “That child is clearly mistaken. Adrian, you’re being manipulated.”
But Adrian didn’t look at her.
He slowly stood, turning the crest so every guest could see the engraving more clearly now—the ancient twin-lion sigil of the Vale bloodline, a mark sealed away after a scandal the family had buried for twenty years.
A scandal involving a missing child.
A child named Elara Vale.
The little girl flinched when her name was spoken by someone in the crowd.
Adrian heard it.
His voice dropped. “What is your name?”
The girl hesitated.
Then whispered:
“Elara.”
The ballroom went cold.
Cassandra’s perfectly composed mask cracked for the first time.
May you like
Because she remembered that name too.
And she remembered what she had done the night that child disappeared.
