Chapter 1 Chapter 1

SERA

It has been eight years and I somehow managed to make it back.

Somewhere beyond this dock and the noise of shouting dockworkers and crashing crates, is the life that was taken from me.

My darling husband. My child that I never got to know.

I raise my hand and wave down a taxi. The driver slows, then hesitates when he sees me, but I’m already pulling the door open and sliding in.

“Ariston Crest Estate,” I say in a voice I don’t recognize.

The driver stares at me through the rearview mirror before he starts driving. His gaze lingers on my slightly soaked clothes and my tangled hair.

“You don’t look like someone going there,” he says finally.

I close my eyes briefly, completely exhausted, “Just drive…please.”

He persists annoyingly. “That estate isn’t for people like you. So what business do you have there?”

“I said just drive.”

The silence goes on for a moment, thick and uncomfortable, and suddenly, he sniffs and grimaces. “You smell like fish.”

A humorless laugh escapes my throat before I can stop it but I bite back my tongue from giving a snarky reply. Afterall, he isn’t wrong.

I spent the last two months trying to make it back home, holed up and smuggled in in a fucking fish trawler. So yeah. I smell like fish.

“I know,” I reply in a clipped tone.

He doesn’t ask anything else after that, but the hesitation in his eyes linger.

By the time we reach the estate, my heart is beating so fast that it feels like it might give out.

Ariston Crest remains exactly as I remember. Its tall gates and beautiful gardens are untouched. It’s as if the world inside those walls kept moving for eight years while I was locked up somewhere else.

I step out of the taxi and ask for the fare, but the driver only shakes his head before driving off without a word. I purse my lips, grateful, yet surprised at his generosity.

My heart stumbles again as I turn to the gates of the estate.

Each step I take toward them feels heavier than the last, like I’m walking into something I can’t undo…

Eight years, no contact, no communication and no idea what happened to me.

A security guard steps forward immediately, blocking my path. “Stop there.”

I swallow, forcing my voice to stay steady. “I…I live here.”

He looks at me over slowly, his expression is impassive before it turns dismissive. “No, you don’t.”

My fingers curl slightly at my sides, my heart thumping. “I’m Seraphina Ariston.” My own name feels strange now, like it belongs to someone else.

The guard blinks once, then bursts into a short laugh. “You should leave before I throw you out myself.”

“I’m not lying.” I say with a frown.

“Then you should know Mr. Ariston just left,” he says, folding his arms with a smug look on his face. “With his wife.”

The words land quietly, but they hit my heart deep. For a split second, I don’t react. My body freezes, letting them settle into my breaking heart.

His wife?

He remarried?

The thought hurts more than I expected, but I push it down to my stomach quickly. I didn’t come all this way just to fall apart at the gates. Before I can respond, a burst of laughter drifts toward me from inside the estate.

It’s a light, carefree laughter, melodic enough to make my head turn instinctively. A little girl runs across the garden, her steps quick and uneven as a young woman chases after her, calling for her to slow down.

“Slow down! You might get hurt!” The young lady calls.

The girl turns slightly as she runs, and the moment I see her face, my heart almost stops. The resemblance….it is unmistakable.

My heart begins to pound furiously as I step closer to the gate without thinking, my fingers wrapping around the cold metal bars. The sound of her laughter sends a shiver through my bones.

My breath catches in my throat, unable to believe my eyes. I can’t be…It’s like I am staring at myself as a little girl.

This little girl is my baby, taken away from me before I even held her for twenty four hours.

A strange warmth rises in my chest, fragile and aching at the same time. I think of all the times I could have been with her, raised her and my heart only aches with regret and hurt but a flood of relief washes over me too and my eyes leak tears.

“Elara.”

The name is called sharply, cutting through the moment. The little girl stops immediately and turns back, running toward a nearby car.

I repeat it silently in my head. “Elara.”

So, that’s the name they had chosen for her. My heart yearns to call for her, but the car door opens and a woman steps out.

Lady Octavia Ariston. My grandmother-in-law!

“Oh, thank goodness,” I breathe with a surge of relief in my chest. “Octavia!” I yell with a newfound hope, brushing past the guard and waving at her. The guard may be new and not recognize me but surely now, it will all be settled.

Her eyes meet mine and suddenly she freezes. For a brief moment, a white look of shock crosses her face.

I’m not surprised by her reaction. I half expected it. I have been gone for so long but the shock wears off her expression as she approaches the gate and what looks like disdain takes over.

“You should be dead,” she says, her voice oozing with awe.

Dead? Is that what they thought all these years I've been gone?

“I’m not—I —”

“It doesn’t matter,” she cuts in sharply, her eyes rolling and her tone makes me confused.“You should have stayed that way.” The coldness in her voice makes my chest tightens with fear. This isn’t the same woman I remember.

“I came back for my family—”I say, my voice trembling with shock.

“You were never family,” she interrupts, her tone laced with disdain. “You were a mistake. A foolish girl who trapped my grandson with a pregnancy.”

My jaw drops. How can she say such a thing to me?

I blink at her, wondering if this is the same woman who had nursed me like an egg while I was with that same pregnancy.

Before I can respond, she turns slightly. “Throw her out.”

The guard grabs my arm. For a moment, I refuse to believe what is happening. Octavia had always been so sweet—she…she wouldn’t do this to me. But reality hits the moment the guard drags me away.

“Let go of me,” I say, struggling with him. Panic rises quickly in my chest now, sharp and threatening to escalate. “Let me go!”

The little girl glances back briefly, but before our eyes can meet, a car pulls up behind me. The guard immediately releases me and rushes to open the gate.

I turn toward the sound slowly and the car door opens and I stare at the approaching.

Cassian. My husband!

I feel a spark of hope yet again.

He looks older, more defined, but it’s still him. The same man I held onto in my thoughts for eight long and lonely years.

“Seraphina?” he says, his voice filled with disbelief, his eyes even more.

Relief floods through me so suddenly it almost hurts. My husband remembers me at least.

The sudden urge to rush into his warm arms again overwhelms me, but before I can take a step toward him, another door opens.

A woman steps out of the car. She’s elegant, composed, her hand resting gently on her stomach. She is pregnant. She moves to stand beside him, close enough that there’s no mistaking her place.

“Honey,” she says softly.

Slowly, her fingers slip into his hand and that’s when I see it.

My ring.

The one my husband gave me eight years ago, now resting on her finger. The truth doesn’t need to be said and my world doesn’t tumble or crash, it simply…empties.

It feels like those eight years never just happened…like I never existed.