CHAPTER 2 — THE CREST THAT SHOULD NOT EXIST
The ballroom didn’t move.
Not after those words.
“She’s my sister.”
The young man still knelt on the marble floor, his fingers locked around the silver crest.
Like he was afraid it would disappear if he let go.
The woman in the blue glittering dress let out a sharp laugh.
“Your sister?”
She pointed at the child.
“This thing?”
A few guests shifted uncomfortably.
But the man didn’t look at them.
He only looked at the engraving.
His breathing grew heavier.
“This crest…” he whispered.
“It was lost.”
The little girl stepped back slightly.
“I didn’t steal it,” she said quickly. “My mommy gave it to me.”
That word—mommy—hit him harder than anything else.
His hand trembled.
“What’s your name?” he asked softly.
“Lily.”
A pause.
His expression tightened.
“That’s not possible.”
The woman in blue crossed her arms.
“Security, remove both of them.”
Two guards stepped forward.
But the man suddenly stood.
“Don’t touch her.”
His voice changed.
No longer confused.
Commanding.
The guards stopped immediately.
The crowd felt it too.
Something about him had shifted.
He turned the crest over.
The back side revealed a tiny fracture line.
A break only someone from his family would recognize.
His throat tightened.
“I broke this,” he whispered.
“When I was ten.”
The ballroom went silent again.
The woman in blue narrowed her eyes.
“You’re lying.”
But the man didn’t respond.
Because his memories were starting to return.
A younger sister.
A disappearance.
A funeral that never showed a body.
His voice dropped.
“Where did you get this crest?”
The girl hugged herself.
“My mommy said it would bring me home one day.”
His breath stopped.
“Home…”
he repeated.
And for the first time…
he looked afraid.
Not of the crowd.
May you like
Not of the woman in blue.
But of what he might be about to remember.
