Chapter 393 The Ne

    Chapter 393 The Ne

    It had to be a coincidence–just another trick of fate.

    After all, imitation flooded every market stall; someone could have lifted the Fane family’s ne and reproduced it, stone for stone, chain for chain.

    The original piecest seen fifty years ago–vanished the same night Everett’s younger sister disappeared into the dark. For half a century, the Fane family had scoured continents, hunting both the woman and the ne that bound her story to theirs.

    The logic was simple: find the jewels, and just maybe they would find the girl, Violet Fane, whose absence still hollowed every family gathering.

    Legend said Lady Margaret Fane had intended the ruby ne as part of her dowry, but Violet had fallen in love with it–clutching the glittering thing until the matriarch fastened it around her own neck. Its design was bespoke–a singrmission no jeweler had ever duplicated, at least not officially.

    Laura stood behind Quinn, fingers gentle against the chain. “Wait a second, Quinn, I think there are some words etched on the link right here. It’s tiny–can’t quite tell what it says.”

    “It’s the word ‘Gurney,” Quinn said, smiling slightly. “My granddad found my mother wearing this ne the day he discovered her–so they used that character as her surname.”

    “I see,” Laura murmured, remembering that Quinn’s mother had grown up an orphan.

    Orphans were heartbreakinglymon in those years, yet Arlene had been spared a life of wandering thanks to the Bridger family’s open door.

    Across the room, Serena overheard the exchange, and a storm detonated behind her poised expression.

    The name ‘Gurney‘-of course. That was Lady Margaret Fane’s maiden name.

    Which could mean only one thing. The ne before her eyes was the very heirloom the Fane family had chased for generations.

    iAnd /iiQuinn’s /imotheri… /iicould /iishe /ibe iViolet/i?

    Color drained from Serena’s cheeks, reced by a sickly gray.

    If that were true, then Leander Fane would be her biological cousin, and the Quinn she

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    Chapter 393 The Ne

    disdained would rise overnight to Fane royalty.

    Everett had never married, had fathered no heirs.

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    Ironically, the Bridger siblings might prove the closest blood sessors to the entire house.

    Once a DNA test confirmed it, the hierarchy would shift forever.

    Her own dreams of leveraging Leander’s influence would vanish, and Quinn would have every right to stand on the very pedestal Serena coveted. No. She could not, would not, allow that future to unfold. She had to find a way to erase the ne–erase the evidence.

    Meanwhile, Leander’s gaze lingered on Quinn, radiant in her evening gown, the ruby ne burning against her skin. For an instant, another figure ovepped hers–a girl in a simple flowered dress,ughing warmly at him and his toddler sister, the same rubies glittering at her throat.

    “Is it beautiful?” the voice asked.

    “Beautiful,” the little boy who had once been him murmured.

    The present crashed in. A white–hot throb exploded behind his temples, as if an unseen dam had cracked and memories were surging for release.

    “Ugh…” Leander sped his skull with both hands. Beads of sweat gathered on his brow, rolled down, and vanished into his cor.

    In the vision, he was no longer a man but a gangly adolescent, standing on scorched earth that still smoked from artillery. His mother knelt amid the rubble and pressed a ruby ne into the palm of a foreign soldier.

    Even then, he understood–the ne was her dearest possession, proof of who she truly was, a slender thread that might one day lead her back to the parents she had never met. Yet desperation had forced her to trade thatst fragment of identity for a sack of bread and a vial of medicine. In that moment, the boy vowed that someday–somehow–he would reim the ne for her.

    “Rowan! Rowan, talk to me. What’s wrong?” Quinn’s frantic cry drowned every other sound.

    He gritted his teeth against the stabbing inside his skull and pried his eyes open. Through the haze, he saw her skidding to her knees beside him, concern etched in every line of her face.

    It was Quinn–his sister.

    “I… I think pieces areing back,” Leander murmured, staring at the pendant. “I remember

    Chapter 393 The Ne

    Mom wearing this. Quinn, luckily, you recovered the ne.”

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    “You remember? Do you really remember?” Quinn froze, hope ring iso /ibright it almost hurt.

    “Yes–some of it,” Leander said, wrapping her in his arms. “I’m sorry. I forgot too much. I came home far toote.”

    He had arrived sote that he missed their parents‘ burial,te enough that, before that, he had kept denying who he was. Late enough that his sister had stepped in front of a bullet meant for him–while he had done nothing to protect her.

    “Toote? No, never.” Quinn buried her face against his chest, tears of joy soaking through his shirt. “You’re here now, and memory or no memory, you’ll always be my brother.”

    As long as her brother was still alive, that was enough for her.

    Serena stood nearby, her expression curdling as she watched the reunion. She clenched a silent vow: Quinn would never be allowed to im the Fane bloodline.

    Night had settled over the apartment when Laura eyed the evening gown Quinn had just hung on the wardrobe door. “Your brother is amazing. The instant he realized you loved that dress, he bought it for you on the spot.”

    Quinn smiled. Rowan truly did treat her well, and today, the sight of their mother’s ruby ne had coaxed a few more fragments of his past back into the lig