Chapter 223: You married such a monster

"I see," Aria said, nodding slowly. "That’s smart."

Helena turned back to Sienna, and this time her voice dropped lower, quieter, softer than before. "Baby," she said.

"When he took you, I couldn’t protect you. I was weak. But I let myself become strong for you. Believe me, you are very much loved."

Sienna pulled her hand back slowly. Her chest felt tight, like something inside it had cracked open and could not close again.

"You married such a monster," she said, her voice breaking on the word. "How can I believe that?"

Her heart felt broken in a way she had not expected, because every quiet theory she and Aria had built together the night before, every hopeful guess about warmth and captivity, had just come apart in front of her. It was far from what they had imagined. It was worse.

"Princess," Helena said, reaching for her hand again, holding it even as Sienna’s fingers stayed stiff and unwilling inside hers, "believe me when I say you are loved. There is more to all of this than you know. It’s not only the DNA mutation, sweetheart." She stopped, and something firm settled over her face, a decision already made.

"But that is enough truth for one day. After what you pulled with Konstantin, I cannot trust you with any more information right now. Someday, much later, I will tell you the rest of the story, from the very beginning. But now I have to go. I only came to see you, and to tell you not to put yourself in any more danger. Don’t go after him, alright, baby."

Sienna stared at her. "What is that supposed to mean?" she said. "You think I’m still five years old?"

"Yes, baby," Helena said, and there was no anger in it, only a tired kind of certainty. "You acted like one yesterday, and it would have put your life in danger. So yes. You know enough."

Something in Sienna finally broke loose. "I know enough," she repeated, her voice rising now, sharp with everything she had been holding since the night before.

"You think you can protect me, Mother? Do you know how many times I had to run? How many men came after me while you were nowhere to be found? I fought for myself. I survived by myself. And now, after twenty years, you show up to tell me how much truth I’m allowed to know, whether I can handle it or not?"

Helena did not flinch away from the words, though they landed hard. She let the silence sit for a moment before she answered.

"Yes," she said quietly. "You’re right, baby. I couldn’t always be there in time to save you. Not in any obvious way. But I always left you something." She paused, watching Sienna’s face carefully now.

"I spoke to Dr. Deon. To Mr. Andrew. To Melon. All those people who showed up in your life, one way or another, who taught you everything you know today. Traditional medicine. Acupuncture." Her voice grew softer still.

"I knew I couldn’t be your shadow forever. I knew there would be moments I couldn’t reach you in time. So instead, I made sure the right people found their way onto your path."

Sienna had no answer for that. The words simply took the fight out of her, one piece at a time, and left her standing there in the quiet that followed.

And slowly, as she stood there, it all began to make a strange kind of sense. The man she had randomly met on the street once, years ago, who had stopped her and asked, almost out of nowhere, if she wanted to learn medicine, because she had looked pale that day, sick.

The man who had shown her the first basics of hacking, just enough to open a door, the rest built afterward by Sienna’s own hands and her own mind.

She had always believed those moments were chance, small strange gifts life had handed her at just the right time. Now she understood. None of it had been coincidence at all.

Helena let out a deep breath, long and slow, like she was setting something heavy down.

"I know how this makes you feel," she said. "And I’m sorry it had to be this way. It’s all I could do at the time. It’s all I can do now." She reached out and gently pushed a strand of hair back from Sienna’s face, the way a mother does without even thinking about it.

"We can’t be together, not with Konstantin still out there. But you can send me coded messages, my darling princess. My little shadow hacker." A small, proud smile touched her lips. "You are simply brilliant."

Something in Sienna loosened at that, just slightly. A small smile pulled at the corner of her mouth despite everything, because her mother had said it so plainly, so certainly, that she already knew. She knew Sienna was the famous invisible shadow hacker, a name whispered about in rooms Sienna had never even been in. It was a secret Sienna had believed only she and Aria carried.

Aria, who had been quiet for a little while, watching the two of them, finally spoke, her voice lighter now, trying to soften the weight sitting in the room.

"Well, this is kind of sweet," she said. "I wish my mother could come back from the dead and be like, hi baby, I’ve been watching, so I can also be hungry at her." She meant it as a joke, something to make the room breathe a little easier, but the words caught in her own chest as she said them, and for a second the pain of it showed plainly on her face before she pushed it back down.

Sienna understood what Aria was doing. She was not jealous. She was reminding her, gently, in her own way, that life was short, that anything could happen to anyone at any moment, and that this was not the time to stay angry at a mother who was, even now, about to leave again.

"I’m sorry about your parents," Helena said to Aria, her voice soft.

Aria smiled, a small, honest smile. "I’m getting better," she said. "And of course you knew. Watching over Sienna means keeping an eye on the people around her too."

"Yes," Helena said. "Well. I have to go." She turned back to Sienna. "Take care of yourself, alright?"

She pulled Sienna into a hug.