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The driveway of the Raina Mansion was dead silent, save for the sound of the wind whistling through the iron gates. Victor stood there, his expensive lawyer's suit looking wrinkled and old, his face breaking apart with a grief he had carried for twenty years. Raina stood frozen, her crimson jumpsuit glowing like a warning sign under the dim afternoon sun.
The Orphanage Files
"I have been searching for her all these years," Victor said, his voice cracking as the first tear escaped. "Finally... I found her. My younger daughter. Your sister, Scarlet."
Raina's breath hitched. She remembered that name. It was a name they weren't allowed to speak in this house.
"I didn't have a single clue for two decades," Victor continued, looking at the ground. "But three weeks ago, a lead came in. The lost child from the park... she ended up at St. Jude's Orphanage. I didn't believe it at first. But I saw the records, Raina. I saw the old photo of the two-year-old they took in. It was her. It was our Scarlet."
He took a shaky breath, his hands trembling. "I asked them how she got there. They told me she was a victim of human trafficking. The monsters who took her from the park tried to move her to another state, but they were caught at a border checkpoint. The older kids could speak; they told the police who their parents were. But Scarlet... our Scarlet was only two. She couldn't tell them her name or where she lived."
Victor looked up at Raina, his eyes red and swollen. "They published news reports, but because of the state line jump and the chaos of the investigation, we never saw them. Months later, she was handed over to the orphanage. And then... a lady came and adopted her. That lady was Roselette. Gabriella's mother."
Raina's knees felt weak. The gun in her hand felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.
"Our Scarlet... is Gabriella," Victor whispered, the tears now streaming down his face. "That's why I tried so hard to stop you. I tried to stop the revenge. I never expected fate to be this cruel—to turn two sisters into enemies."
Raina didn't say a word. The fury that had fueled her for months—the desire to see Gabriella suffer—suddenly turned into a cold, hollow ache in her chest. She had been hunting her own blood. She had tried to kill the baby she used to share her toys with.
Raina turned away, her face a mask of stone as she wiped a stray tear from her cheek. She walked toward her car with a new, terrifying focus.
"Where are you going?" Victor called out, panic rising in his voice. "Raina, stop!"
Raina didn't look back. She opened the car door, her engine roaring to life like a caged beast. "St. Jude's Orphanage," she said, her voice low and dangerous.
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The Orphanage of Lies
The basement of St. Jude's Orphanage smelled of rotting paper, damp stone, and forgotten lives. Dust motes danced in the thin beams of light from the high, barred windows. Raina moved like a ghost through the aisles of rusted filing cabinets. She was still wearing her blood-red jumpsuit, but it was now covered in a fine layer of gray dust. Her heart drummed a frantic rhythm against her ribs.
Raina finally found the crate labeled "Archives: 20 Years Ago." She began tearing through the yellowed folders, her eyes searching for the name "Scarlet" or any trace of the park kidnapping.
Suddenly, the heavy iron door creaked open. Raina froze.
"Who are you? What are you doing in here?" a sharp, elderly voice demanded. It was the In-charge Lady, her face pale with shock.
In a lightning-fast motion, Raina reached into her bag and pulled out her matte-black handgun. She leveled it at the woman's chest, her gaze steady and terrifying. "I need information," Raina commanded, her voice like cracking ice. "If I get what I want, I won't hurt you. Open the record books."
The lady's hands trembled as she pulled a massive, leather-bound ledger from the shelf. Minutes passed in suffocating silence, the only sound being the ticking of a clock and the gun's steady aim.
"Why do all of you want information on the same baby?" the lady whispered, her voice shaking.
Raina's eyes widened. "Who else was here?" she asked, thinking it might have been her father, Victor.
"A young lady," the woman said, blinking in fear. "Around 20 or 22. Long, black wavy hair. Very beautiful, but very sad."
Raina pulled out her phone and shoved a photo of Gabriella in the woman's face. "Is this her?"
The lady nodded quickly. "Yes, that's her."
Raina's mind spiraled.Does she know she's the heir to the Royal Group? My sister? NO Way...
"She asked for information nicely," the lady whispered, looking at the gun. "But you... you're terrifying me."
"Find the page!" Raina barked.
The lady flipped to a date marked twenty years ago and gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. "Oh no... I thought there was only one child admitted that day. But look... there are two entries."
Raina leaned in, her eyes narrowing. "What?"
"Two children were brought in together," the lady explained, pointing at the ink. "One was a two-year-old girl. The other was an infant—a baby girl."
Raina felt the world tilt. "Which file did you give to Gabriella?"
"I gave her the two-year-old's information," the lady stammered. "But she was asking about the infant. I didn't notice the age difference in the records back then... she must have walked away with the wrong history!"
Raina scoffed. So Gabriella thinks she's the infant? That's why she thinks she is Kevin's sister! "Give me the adoption details for both," Raina ordered.
The lady's finger traced the lines. "The two-year-old girl was adopted by Roselette. The infant girl.. he was adopted by the Tyson family. His name was Zen Tyson."
Raina's breath stopped. "What? Zen Tyson?"
Raina's head throbbed with the weight of the truth. If Gabriella was the two-year-old, she was the lost Royal heiress—Raina's biological sister. So,the infant was Kevin's sister.
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The Shadow in the Cell
The air in the City Central Prison was heavy with the smell of damp concrete and rust. It was a world away from the luxury of the mansions. Richardson sat on a thin cot in his cramped cell, his expensive suit now wrinkled and pathetic.
The silence was broken by the sharp, rhythmic thud of leather boots echoing down the corridor. Richardson scrambled to the bars, his eyes wide. "Han? Is that you? Did you get the lawyers?"
But it wasn't his son. Felix stepped into the dim light, looking lethal in a sharp, midnight-blue overcoat. He didn't look like the helpful husband anymore; he looked like a predator.
Felix chuckled, a sound so cold it felt like a horror movie soundtrack. "The evidence is ironclad, Richardson," he said, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper. "You aren't getting bail. You're trapped."
Richardson's face turned ghostly pale. "Felix... what are you saying?"
"The evidence? I collected it myself. Straight from your private study," Felix smirked. "Did you forget that night we shared a drink? While you were bragging about your power, I was downloading your life."
Richardson roared, reaching through the bars to grab Felix's collar. "BETRAYER! How dare you?"
Felix didn't flinch. His face shifted into a mask of cold fury. "Betrayer? No, Richardson. Open your eyes. Look at me closer." He leaned in until they were inches apart. "I entered your family for one reason: Revenge. Six years ago, you tarnished everything my family owned. You destroyed our property and our lives in a single night. I was that young agent you couldn't catch."
Richardson's eyes darted back and forth as the memory hit him like a physical blow. "I did it because you were hunting me! You wanted to destroy my legacy!"
"Your illegal legacy," Felix corrected, scoffing. "You ordered your assistant to burn everything, but you didn't even bother to remember my name, you fool."
Richardson let out a guttural sound of outrage, but Felix wasn't finished. "You aren't just a criminal to the government; you're a cheat to your own blood. Jannet and Marina... I know about both of them."
Richardson's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "How... how do you know about Marina?"
"As a secret agent, finding your dirty laundry was the easy part," Felix mocked.
Richardson groaned, his head hitting the bars. "If I had known, I never would have let you marry my niece, Gabriella."
"Oh, stop acting like a 'good man,'" Felix hissed. "You're the reason Mr. Fredrick was arrested for money laundering 2 years ago. You hid the truth. You didn't help your own sister's family when they were drowning. You're a jerk, Richardson."
Richardson's fists tightened, and he slammed them into the stone wall in a fit of powerless rage.
Felix straightened his coat, his eyes narrowing into slits of ice. "And there's one more thing. You're the one who killed my parents, aren't you?" Richardson stared at him, frozen. Felix leaned in one last time. "I'm already digging up the truth. If I find your name on that file... I won't just leave you in a cell. I'll make sure you never see the sun again."
He turned on his heel and walked away, the sound of his boots echoing like a funeral march.
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To be Continued....
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