AURORA
The moment I closed the door behind me, the dam broke. I slid down to the floor, gasping for air, tears streaking my face.
How could I have been so blind? I gave him my love, my trust, my future. And all along, he had been orchestrating my downfall.
But the pity party didn’t last long.
I wiped my face and stood, determination hardening my resolve. I couldn’t allow myself to drown in despair. There were too many questions that needed answers. My phone buzzed again, the mysterious message from earlier still glaring at me:
[Miss Herrera, it’s time to come home. He knows who you are. Your father needs you now more than ever.]
I stared at the words, my heart pounding. Who had sent this? And how did they know where to find me?
I hadn’t been Aurora Herrera since I was ten years old. For eighteen years, I had lived as Camila Alvarez, carefully erasing every trace of my past. Yet here it was, clawing its way back into my life.
I tapped on the message, my fingers hesitant. After a moment’s pause, I typed a reply:
[Who is this? How do you know who I am?]
The response came almost instantly:
[This is Gabriel. Your father’s lieutenant. He’s dying, Aurora. You need to come home.]
Gabriel. The name stirred something deep in my memory—a tall man with a gruff voice who had always stood by my father’s side. My mother used to whisper about him, calling him Ricardo’s shadow. If Gabriel was reaching out, it could only mean one thing: the Herrera Clan was on the brink of collapse.
My fingers hovered over the screen. I wanted to ignore it, to shut the door on this part of my life forever. But Matteo’s voice echoed in my mind again.
Ricardo Herrera is still alive, and I’m not done with him yet. The assassination attempt failed, but I’ll deal with him soon enough.
I couldn’t ignore this. Not anymore.
I typed another message:
[Where should I go?]
The reply came quickly:
[There’s a car waiting outside. We’ve been watching over you. It’s time to come back.]
I froze, my pulse quickening. They had been watching me? For how long? And why now?
My instincts screamed at me to run, but I knew there was no escaping this. If I wanted answers, I would have to face the past I’d been avoiding.
With shaky hands, I grabbed a duffel bag and threw in a few essentials. Jeans, a jacket, my mother’s necklace—the only thing I had left of her. As I stepped out of the apartment, the weight of what I was about to do hit me like a freight train.
A sleek black car idled at the curb, its tinted windows gleaming under the streetlights. The driver stepped out as I approached, a stern-looking man in a tailored suit. He opened the door without a word, and I slid inside, clutching my bag like a lifeline.
The ride was silent, tension thick in the air. The city lights blurred as we sped through the streets, heading toward a destination I couldn’t begin to predict. I tried to steel myself, but nothing could prepare me for what was waiting.
We pulled up to a gated estate, the kind of place I hadn’t seen in years. The wrought-iron gates swung open, revealing a sprawling mansion that loomed like a shadow against the night sky.
Memories flooded back—running through these halls as a child, my mother’s laughter echoing in the distance, my father’s stern but loving gaze. It all felt like a lifetime ago.
Gabriel was waiting at the entrance, his face as weathered as I remembered. He nodded as I stepped out of the car, his expression unreadable.
“Aurora,” he said, his voice gravelly. “You’ve grown.”
I didn’t respond. Words felt impossible in the face of everything. Instead, I followed him inside, the weight of the past pressing down on me with every step.
The mansion was just as I remembered—grand, imposing, and filled with an air of power. But there was something different now, a sense of decay and desperation that hadn’t been there before. It was a kingdom on the brink of collapse.
Gabriel led me to a dimly lit room at the end of a long corridor. The air was heavy with the scent of antiseptic and something else—something metallic and faintly sweet. My stomach churned as I stepped inside.
There he was. Ricardo Herrera. My father.
He looked nothing like the man I remembered. The powerful, unyielding figure who had ruled over the Herrera Clan with an iron fist was now frail and pale, his once piercing eyes sunken and clouded. A nurse hovered nearby, adjusting an IV, but she quickly stepped aside as Gabriel and I entered.
“Aurora, my baby…” my father rasped, his voice barely above a whisper. “You came...”
I swallowed hard, my throat tight. For a moment, I didn’t know what to say. The last time I saw him, I was ten years old, clutching my mother’s hand as we fled in the dead of night. And now, here he was, a shadow of the man he used to be.
“Why did you call me?” I finally managed, my voice trembling.
His lips curved into a faint smile, one that didn’t reach his eyes. “Because you’re the only one who can save us.”
Save us. The words hung in the air, heavy with expectation and dread. My heart pounded as the reality of what I had stepped into began to sink in.
This wasn’t just about Matteo’s betrayal or my father’s impending death. This was about reclaiming a legacy I had abandoned.
And I wasn’t sure if I was ready for what that would mean.
