106 Chapter 106 She Is Alive
“Yes.”
“If that’s what you want,” he murmured against my hair, “then we go now. We’ll drive straight there and tell Elena the truth.”
I laughed through my tears as he painted vivid pictures of the daughter I’d never known. But with each story-each detail about five years of scraped knees, bedtime rituals, and childhood laughter-a sharp ache settled deeper in my chest. Five years of her life I’d missed. Five years of memories I’d never shared. Every beautiful detail he gave me was also a reminder of everything I’d lost.
A tender smile transformed Julian’s face, chasing away the shadows. “If I start talking about how special that little girl is,” he warned, his eyes warming, “we might be up all night.”
He shook his head, pain flickering across his features. “You’re an incredible mother, Seraphina. Look at how you raised Theo-he’s the most amazing boy I’ve ever known. Elena is going to be so lucky to have you. I promise you, she’ll see your heart. She’ll know how much you love her.”
The pain twisted into cold rage. My hands clenched into fists. “Roxanne is going to pay for this, Julian. She’s going to pay for every single moment I missed with my daughter. No one is going to stop me from making her suffer.”
“But what do we do now?” I asked, feeling lost. “We can’t just burst in and announce we’re her real parents. We can’t shatter her entire world like that.”
“I don’t think now is the time for this conversation,” I said softly. “All I can think about right now is our daughter.”
I pulled back slightly, looking into his face as shame burned through me, “I’m a terrible mother, Julian. When I met her-when I looked into her eyes-I didn’t even recognize my own child. What kind of mother doesn’t know her own daughter?”
He pulled me closer, his lips brushing my forehead. “You’re going to have to learn to trust me, Seraphina. For your peace of mind, for us, for our family. And I need to learn how to reassure you better, every single day. I’m the reason you question everything about us.”
I had already failed that little girl once. I couldn’t traumatize her further.
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“I used to dream about this moment,” I whispered, my voice breaking into jagged pieces. “Meeting her, holding her for the first time-it was always so beautiful in my mind. Emotional, yes, but perfect. This… this feels like torture. Roxanne has been raising my baby. She-”
He described how Elena loved drawing magical creatures with wings, her favorite bedtime stories about brave princesses, her endless questions about why stars twinkled. He shared sweet moments and little quirks that made her uniquely herself.
We settled on the bed and I curled into his side, my head finding its place on his chest where I could hear his heartbeat. Then he began to tell me about our daughter.
But Julian was right. Elena had to come first. Always.
I gripped his arm, genuine laughter bubbling up from somewhere deep inside me despite everything. “I don’t care. I don’t want to sleep tonight. Not when she’s so close, even if she feels so far away.”
My breath caught. He was right about the insecurity. For years, I’d believed his feelings for Roxanne were real, that I was just a substitute. It was an old wound that had festered in the darkness of my mind.
“Tell me about her,” I pleaded, my voice barely a whisper. “Tell me everything about Elena. What she’s like, what makes her happy, everything.”
“I didn’t think you believed me,” I admitted, the words tasting bitter. “Because of everything that happened between us.”
He cupped my face in both hands, his thumbs wiping away the wetness on my cheeks. “Don’t ever say that again, Seraphina. Roxanne used powerful dark magic, an illusion designed to fool us. You couldn’t have seen through it. Even I… I couldn’t recognize our little girl.”
The unfairness of it made my chest ache. This should be the happiest moment of my life-discovering my daughter was alive, planning to hold her-but instead I had to think about protecting her from the very truth that could reunite us.
The single word from Julian’s lips destroyed everything I thought I knew. My grief, my desperate hope, the fragile peace I had built around my loss-it all collapsed in an instant. Shock slammed into me like a physical blow, stealing my breath. Disbelief followed close behind, whispering that this couldn’t be real, that surely I was trapped in some cruel dream. But beneath the chaos, buried under layers of pain, something
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else stirred-happiness. My daughter. My Elena. She was alive.
Julian sighed, his hand stroking through my hair. “I know, Seraphina. But there’s something we need to address first, something you keep bringing up. You need to
know the truth.”
He nodded slowly, understanding creasing his brow. “You’re right. My first instinct was to rush in and take her immediately. But you’re absolutely right-we can’t confuse her or hurt her. Roxanne isn’t the villain in Elena’s eyes yet. We know how much she loves her, and we have to approach this delicately. We’ll have to tolerate Roxanne for days, maybe longer, until we figure out how to bring Elena home without breaking her
heart.”
Seraphina’s POV
“The only thing I want right now is to go to Roxanne’s house,” I said, desperation clawing at my throat. “I need to hold my daughter, Julian. I need to-”
His voice grew quiet, almost confessional. “I have never cared for Roxanne the way you think I did. She was always just an annoying girl to me, until she became obsessed. But I never looked at her that way. I need you to understand that. Stop feeling insecure about her, because I promise you, Seraphina-I want her to pay just as much as you do.”
Tolerate Roxanne. The thought made my stomach clench with cold fury. How could I tolerate the woman who had stolen five years of my daughter’s life from me?
His words hit me like ice water. I jerked back from his embrace, panic flaring fresh in my chest. “No! Wait, Julian. She’s only five years old. In her world, she already has parents. How could a little girl possibly understand that Roxanne isn’t her real mother?”
That joy lasted only seconds before guilt crashed over me like a tidal wave. My head reeled as I pressed my palms against my temples, trying to stop the spinning thoughts.
Julian’s hands found mine, his fingers intertwining with my trembling ones as tears streamed down my face.
Before I could finish, his arms encircled me, pulling me against his chest in an embrace that felt both anchoring and overwhelming. I buried my face in his shirt, breathing in his familiar scent as I tried to steady myself,
“I know,” he replied. “But when we face Roxanne, we’re going to have to play a very careful game. In that game, you’re going to have to trust me completely. Trust that I
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feel nothing for her except hatred.”
Julian’s eyes held steady on mine, filled with a sorrow that matched my own. He reached up to brush tears from my cheek. “Seraphina, what matters right now is that we know where our daughter is. She’s alive. She’s safe. And we’re going to bring her
home.”
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