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    Caitlin turned her gaze on her mother. She didn’t want to think she was paranoid, but after years apart, something about this reunion felt off.

    It was as if Kelly were hiding things from her, avoiding truths she should have spoken. And without those truths, Caitlin’s search for answers was growing painfully slow.

    She wanted more. She wanted something real from her mother’s lips.

    Kelly’s face paled slightly. After a pause, she said, “I don’t know either. Maybe the poisoner wasn’t targeting me at all. Maybe they kept me alive only to use me against you. That’s probably why I wasn’t poisoned.”

    “You’re right,” Caitlin nodded. “If Do?a Dolores went to such lengths to capture you but never harmed you, then she must have intended to use you as leverage. And their ultimate goal must be tied to Yun’s Aromatic Codex.”

    Kelly sighed. “If I had known how valuable the codex was, I would have died before letting Hector take it. I failed to protect it. You must find the missing half quickly.”

    “Don’t me yourself, Mom. I’ll find it. First, I need to learn everything I can about this Hector.”

    Kelly nodded, then asked carefully, “The upper half of the codex–it’s still with you, isn’t it? Could you let me. see it once more?”

    Instead of answering, Caitlin countered, “Do you know where I found the upper half?”

    “Where?”

    “Buried under the cherry tree at Blossom Ridge.”

    Kelly’s expression shifted into sudden understanding. “So that’s where it was. No wonder. It must have been so long Ipletely forgot. My memory isn’t what it used to be.” She gave a soft, weary sigh.

    Caitlin said nothing, only stared at her. Inside, her doubts felt like cracks in a riverbank: the more questions she uncovered, the wider the cracks grew. And once the cracks dipped below the waterline, suspicion would burst forth like a flood, swallowing everything.

    But outwardly she showed none of it. Smiling, she took her mother’s arm. “I got you some new clothes. Come, try them on.”

    They spent the next while with Kelly trying on dresses. Kellyughed, pleased. “My sweet girl’s all grown up, so thoughtful, so caring. It makes me so happy.”

    “As long as you’re happy. Harrison and I only wish you a good life, for us all to stay together as a family. Harrison was torn away from us so young. Now that I finally have him back, I just want him well again. I don’t ever want us to be apart.”

    “Yes,” Kelly echoed softly. “Never, apart again.”

    Caitlin studied her for a moment before adding with a gentle smile, “I do still want to know who our real

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    father is. But since you don’t want to tell me, I won’t force you. Maybe one day, when you’re ready, you’ll tell me yourself. Right?”

    Kelly nodded.

    At DanCa Estate, Caitlin left people behind to watch over Kelly and Harrison. They stayed through lunch, then in the afternoon she and Sebastian took the children back to Vanderbilt Manor.

    When they returned, Sebastian shut the bedroom door before asking, “Caitlin, earlier you said you had something to tell me. What is it?”

    She met his eyes. “Do you remember what I said at the hospital? About the Shard of Life–that I had questions I wasn’t ready to share yet?”

    “And now?”

    “Not clear, notpletely.” She took his hand and drew him to sit on the bed. “Here’s where we stand. To cure my brother, we have to find this so–called Shard of Life. But to even begin, we need the missing half of the codex, which means finding Hector in D–country. Only with both halves can we uncover the path to Antis. Right?”

    “Yes.”

    “And that’s the problem. I can’t shake the feeling we’re being drawn into a trap. A giant web, stretched out around us.”

    Sebastian frowned, listening carefully.

    “Think about it,” Caitlin continued. “I pressed ck Hawk for information, I found my mother, and we should’ve been done. We could have lived in peace. But suddenly my brother is poisoned. Tell me that isn’t too much of a coincidence.”

    “You’re right. That does sound far too neat.”

    “And then there’s this. Alicia told me Scentbane was created by Aurelius’s first disciple, Quarta. Aurelius’s cure for Harrison included the Shard of Life. Doesn’t that imply someone else was poisoned before? That this treatment had been used before? Otherwise, how could such a prescription even exist? And if the Shard is nearly impossible to find, how was its medical value proven in the first ce?”

    Sebastian nodded slowly. “That’s true. Every proven cure in history exists because it was tested again and again. Aurelius’s recipe… it seems untested, almost theoretical.”

    “Exactly. That’s the key. If not for Princess Nevaeh’s poisoning, I might never have doubted. But Aurelius treated her Scentbane without any Shard of Life. Why is it only my brother who suddenly needs it?”

    “You think Aurelius gave you that prescription just to send us searching for the Shard of Life?”

    “Yes. And that’s not all. The biggest problem of all… is my mother.”

    “What about her?” Sebastian asked, startled.

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    “I don’t know if she’s who she says she is.”

    Sebastian stared. “What do you mean?”

    Caitlin’s face grew tight with unease. “She feels… different. Her look, her voice–it’s more than just the years apart. At first I told myself it was just time, but the more I talk with her, the more like a stranger she seems.”

    “Maybe you’re being too sensitive?” Sebastian suggested, hoping she was only imagining things.

    “No. I trust my instincts. When I asked who our father was, she wouldn’t tell me. Fine. That could be grief, or secrets too painful to share. But then I asked her about the past. Some things she recalled with detail, like the Yuncey family’s history. But when I asked who helped Grandma escape Departure City, she imed she didn’t know. How could she not know?”

    Caitlin’s voice grew sharper. “And when I told her I found the codex under the cherry tree, she actually agreed. But it wasn’t true. She entrusted it to Xavian, and it passed through ke’s hands before reaching me. She should never have gotten that wrong.”

    Sebastian listened in silence, doubt now rising in his own mind. “So you think… she might not be your mother at all?”

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