The chamber smelled of old paper and secrets.
Ana stood frozen before the board, her name written in careful black ink beside Hayden's. Strings of red thread bound them like fate—intertwined with names she barely recognized. But two names stood out, circled in the center like twin suns at the heart of a dying galaxy.
**Maria Nicholas.**
**Isabella Moretti.**
The woman—Elena, she had finally introduced herself as—watched her in silence.
"I don't understand," Ana whispered, tracing the line from her mother to Hayden's.
"You were never supposed to," Elena said. "Your mother tried to protect you from this. But protection can only last so long."
Ana's voice cracked. "She knew Hayden's mother?"
"They were best friends," Elena said, her words like a blade. "And then they became enemies."
Ana turned. "Why?"
"Because of love. Because of betrayal. Because the line between them blurred until it was impossible to tell one from the other."
Elena moved to a metal cabinet in the corner and pulled out a weathered folder. She handed it to Ana.
Inside were letters—dozens of them, handwritten and dated more than twenty years ago.
She opened the top one and read:
> **Dear Bella,**
> *I saw him again today. I know you warned me, but I can't stop. Enzo has a fire in him that draws me like a match to gasoline. I'm not sorry. And I know what it might cost us…*
> *—M.*
Ana's stomach dropped.
"Enzo…" she whispered. "Hayden's father?"
Elena nodded. "They both loved him. But he only married Isabella."
Ana's heart beat faster. "You're saying my mother—"
"Had an affair with the man who would become her enemy. Yes."
Ana backed away. "But she hated him. She—she blamed him for everything."
Elena nodded slowly. "That's what happens when love turns into a weapon. When Enzo chose Isabella over Maria, it broke something inside her. And when Enzo's enemies came for him… Maria knew exactly how to hurt him."
Ana sat down, clutching the letter. Her mother hadn't been innocent. None of them had.
"She helped orchestrate the attack," Ana whispered.
"She didn't light the match," Elena said gently. "But she handed someone the gasoline."
Ana blinked hard. "Then Hayden's mother…"
"She wasn't the target. But she died anyway. And your mother carried that guilt until the day she vanished."
Ana thought of Hayden. Of the way he looked at her with both fire and ice. Of how he'd whispered her name like a vow and a curse.
He didn't just hate her because of what her father did.
He hated her because of her mother.
Because she carried the blood of the woman who destroyed his family.
She stood, dizzy with the weight of it. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"Because you were never supposed to meet him," Elena said. "Fate had other plans."
Ana moved back to the board, tracing the red thread between names.
"Did Hayden know?"
Elena hesitated. "Not everything. But enough to fall into the same trap his father did."
Ana turned to her. "Then I need to find him before someone else does."
Elena raised an eyebrow. "You still trust him?"
Ana didn't answer right away. Her chest ached with too many truths.
"I don't know if I trust him," she said. "But I love him. And that might be worse."
Elena gave her a small, sorrowful smile. "Then go. But take this."
She handed Ana a thin folder labeled **Project: Artemis**.
"What's this?"
"The real reason your families were hunted. The secret they killed to keep hidden. Read it when you're far from here."
Ana tucked the folder into her satchel. The letters too. She turned back toward the stairs.
Outside, the morning light was colder than before.
The wind had picked up, and in the distance, she thought she heard the hum of engines—men moving. Searching.
She had hours at most.
But she had what she needed.
The truth.
Now she just had to decide what to do with it.