Chapter 212: She remembers

Aria was back home at the Cross mansion. But being home did not mean she was okay. Every corner of the house reminded her of her parents. The living room where they used to sit together.

The dining table where they had shared meals. Even the quiet hallway brought back memories she wasn’t ready to face. Aria had barely spoken since returning.

She stayed in her room most of the time and refused to come downstairs. She didn’t want to see anyone. Not even Sienna. Sienna understood that grief could not be forced. Still, she refused to give up on her.

Every day, she checked on Aria. Sometimes she would sit outside her bedroom door and talk, even when Aria didn’t answer. Sometimes she left food outside. Sometimes she simply sat there in silence.

She wanted Aria to know that she was not alone. But while Sienna was trying to help her friend heal, she was also quietly continuing her own investigation.

She had gone deeper into Don Konstantin’s past. Much deeper. Viktor had warned her to stop. He had told her to leave Don Konstantin alone.

Sienna ignored him. She needed answers. She needed something, anything that could bring that man down. The deeper she went, however, the stranger everything became.

Records disappeared. Names had been erased. Old companies no longer existed. People connected to Don Konstantin seemed to vanish from public records as if they had never existed.

It was frightening. But Sienna kept digging. Late one afternoon, she came across an old photograph. It had been posted online twenty-six years earlier. The original post had been deleted long ago.

But Sienna had learned how to find things that people thought were gone forever. She opened the photograph. And froze. There were three people in it.

Two men who looked almost identical stood beside each other. And between them was a beautiful blonde woman wearing a white dress.

Sienna stared at the woman. Her breathing changed. She knew that face. She had seen it before. Not in a photograph. In her dreams. The same woman. The same eyes. The same smile.

Sienna slowly touched the screen. "Who are you?" A sharp pain suddenly struck the side of her head.

She gasped. Her hand went to her temple. The room blurred. Then everything changed. She was no longer sitting at her desk.

She was somewhere else. Somewhere from long ago. She was small. Very small. A little girl wearing a white dress was running across a garden, laughing. She could hear herself laughing.

Her tiny legs carried her as fast as they could. Behind her, a blonde woman was running after her.

"Stop running, Kat!" The little girl turned around, laughing even harder. "Catch me!" The woman smiled. "I’m going to catch you!"

A man’s voice came from behind them. "I’ll catch you first." The little girl laughed. "Daddy!" The man stepped forward, smiling.

For one beautiful moment, everything was perfect. Her mother. Her father. Her. A family. Then the memory changed. The happiness disappeared. The garden was gone.

People were shouting. Hands grabbed her. "No!" The little girl screamed. She reached for her mother.

"Mummy!" Her mother’s face was filled with fear. "Kat!" Someone pulled the little girl away. She fought. She cried. She screamed for her mother. But no one listened. Then everything went dark.

Another memory came. She was somewhere cold. A laboratory. Her father was there. She remembered sitting quietly while adults moved around her. She remembered waiting for her mother.

But her mother never came. Days passed. Then they had to leave. Her father held her hand as they hurried through somewhere she didn’t recognize.

Then men came after them. Her father told her to run. "Keep going, Kat!" She ran. She didn’t stop. She could feel the burning in her little legs. Her lungs hurt. Her feet hurt. But she kept running.

She remembered looking behind her. Nobody was there. She kept running anyway. Then the memory became dark again. She was alone. Cold. Weak. Barely conscious. Two days.

She had been missing for two days. Two days before someone finally found her. Sienna gasped and opened her eyes. She was back in her room.

Her breathing was heavy. Tears had gathered in her eyes without her realizing it. She looked at the photograph again. The blonde woman. The man beside her. The little girl. "Kat..." The name escaped her lips.

Her hand trembled as she remembered. Her name, her real name, not Sienna Vale but Katalia Ivanou.

Sienna stared at the screen. Her heart began pounding. "No..." Katalia Ivanou. Her fingers went cold over the keyboard. The little girl. The woman in her dreams. The laboratory. The men chasing her.

The missing years. The blood. Everything suddenly came together. She covered her mouth.

"My name..." Her voice broke. "Katalia." She looked at the photograph again. And then the final piece fell into place.

Don Konstantin Ivanou. Her father. Sienna pushed her chair back. She needed to stand. She needed to breathe. She needed to understand what had just happened to her entire life.

But the moment she stood, the room spun violently. Her knees gave way. She reached for the door. Her hand never made it.

Sienna collapsed beside the doorway. Her head struck the floor lightly before everything went black. Minutes later, footsteps approached. Manuel appeared at the door.

"Sienna?" He stopped. She was lying unconscious on the floor. "Sienna!" He rushed toward her and knelt beside her. "Sienna, wake up."

There was no response. He carefully lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed. After placing her down, he immediately reached for his phone. There was only one person he could call.

Viktor. The call connected. "Hello?"

"Boss," Manuel said urgently. "You need to come home." Viktor’s voice changed immediately.

"What happened?"

"It’s Sienna." A brief silence. "What happened to my wife?"

"She collapsed. I found her unconscious." Viktor was already moving.

"I’m on my way." Manuel looked at Sienna lying motionless on the bed. He had no idea what she had discovered. He only knew that whatever had happened before she collapsed had left her shaken.

And somewhere on her computer, the photograph was still open. Three people. Two identical men.