Elena didn’t know how she made it back to her room without collapsing. The weight of Xavier’s confession, the truth of her bloodline, and the bitter sting of betrayal crashed over her in relentless waves. She pressed her back against the door, heart thudding, and slid down to the floor.

Everything she’d believed—every tender moment with him—felt like a carefully spun lie.

But was it?

His words echoed in her mind.

“I never used you. I loved you.”

She wanted to scream. To cry. To erase every memory that made her chest ache with confusion.

Instead, she curled into herself, arms around her knees, as a single, broken sob escaped...