Chapter 4 They stopped in front

The Avarelle Estate was silent in the early hours of morning, its grand halls steeped in shadows. Every ticking second of the ornate grandfather clock echoed like a warning. Celestine led Seraphina through a narrow side corridor, her bare feet padding silently on the marble floor. She didn't speak, didn't glance back, but Seraphina could feel the tension radiating from her like a storm cloud.

They stopped in front of a wall lined with oil paintings-generations of the Avarelle bloodline, regal and cold. Their faces stared down with an eerie stillness, like sentinels guarding secrets buried too deep.

"Do you know what you're looking for?" Seraphina asked, her voice low.

Celestine hesitated. "Not exactly. But there's a room-my father's study. He keeps it locked. No one's allowed in."

Seraphina raised an eyebrow. "So how are you going to get in?"

Celestine pulled a small, silver key from a chain around her neck.

Seraphina blinked. "You stole it."

Celestine didn't reply. She stepped forward, brushing her fingers against a portrait of her grandfather. The wall behind it clicked, and with a soft creak, a hidden door slid open.

A concealed entrance.

Seraphina felt a chill crawl up her spine. "Of course there's a secret passage. Rich people and their secrets."

Inside, the study smelled like old wood, ink, and secrets. The desk was pristine, every paper stacked perfectly, every pen aligned. But Celestine went straight to the cabinet in the corner-one she had seen him open only once, late at night, when he thought no one was watching.

She used the key. It clicked.

Behind the doors were boxes. Dozens of them. Each labeled by year.

Celestine's fingers trembled as she reached for one marked 2005-the year they were born.

Inside, files. Photos. Medical documents. A single ultrasound scan, labeled with a name: Elira Marelle Avarelle. Her heart stopped.

"Elira?" Seraphina leaned over, reading the name upside down. "That's not you."

Celestine's throat was dry. "No. It's you."

The next page revealed it all. Birth certificates-two of them. One with the name Celestine Avarelle. The other with Elira Marelle Avarelle. Twins. Both registered at birth. But only one name had been erased from the family record.

There was a red stamp on Elira's certificate. "INVALID – RECORD VOID."

Seraphina stared at the paper as if it were a betrayal made physical.

"Someone deleted me," she whispered.

Celestine turned the paper over-and found a handwritten note tucked behind it. Just two lines, scrawled in harsh, hurried ink:

One must be sacrificed. The name will not survive.

-H.

Seraphina's fingers clenched the edge of the desk. "Sacrificed?" she hissed. "They knew. They planned this. I wasn't thrown away by accident."

"'H,'" Celestine muttered. "It's him. Howard Avarelle. My grandfather."

The head of the family. The man whose portrait hung in the main hall, his smile stiff and cruel.

Seraphina's voice was shaking. "So they just chose you. Like you were worth more. And me? I was just... disposable."

"No." Celestine turned to face her, eyes blazing. "That's not what this means. They used me. Just like they erased you. We're both products of their decisions. But now-we decide what happens next."

Seraphina wanted to scream. She wanted to burn the paper, smash the glass frames, rip down the lies from every wall. But instead, she swallowed the rage, clenching her jaw until it hurt.

"I want more," she said hoarsely. "Not just names and documents. I want to know why. Why did they choose me to be discarded? What made me unworthy of breathing the same air as them?"

Celestine's hands were already moving-grabbing the rest of the files, scanning quickly. "There's something else. A letter. Look."

She pulled out an envelope, brittle with age. It was addressed to Seraphina, but it had never been sent. The handwriting was delicate. Feminine. And trembling.

Seraphina took it slowly, her fingers grazing the faded ink.

My daughter,

If you're reading this, it means the truth has reached you. I wanted to keep you. God knows I tried. But they took you from my arms. Said one child was enough. That the second would bring shame, questions. I screamed. I begged. They told me you died. That you never breathed. I believed them because it was easier than believing you were out there, crying without me.

Forgive me. I didn't know. I didn't know.

-Your mother, Annaliese.

The letter dropped from Seraphina's hands. Her knees buckled and she sank to the floor, tears spilling from her eyes before she even realized she was crying.

Celestine kneeled beside her, unsure if she should reach out or give her space.

"My mother didn't abandon me," Seraphina choked out. "She... she was lied to. They stole me."

Celestine nodded, her voice soft. "They destroyed us both."

The fire inside Seraphina roared now-fueled by betrayal, grief, and something else.

Vengeance.

"I want it back," she said, her voice steel. "Everything they took. My name. My family. My place."

Celestine looked at her, her own face pale. "If you come back, if you reveal yourself-it will destroy them."

"Good," Seraphina snapped.

"And me," Celestine added, quietly.

Their eyes locked.

For the first time, they understood each other not as rivals, not as replacements-but as two broken girls thrown into a life neither of them chose. Bound by blood. Torn by fate.

"I don't care anymore," Seraphina said. "They ruined my life. I won't be silent."

Celestine's voice was barely a whisper. "Then we bring it all down. Together."