CHAPTER 2: THE NAME THAT WAS ERASED
The man knelt down fully now, lowering himself to the girl’s level.
“What’s your name?” he asked gently.
The girl hesitated.
Then whispered:
“…Lina.”
The crest trembled in his hand.
That name had never been recorded in official documents.
Because she had disappeared before paperwork could even be completed.
The woman in blue stiffened.
“That’s impossible,” she said quickly. “The child died in a carriage accident. The royal investigation confirmed it.”
But the man wasn’t listening anymore.
Because the girl—Lina—was pointing at her now.
“She was there,” Lina said softly.
The woman froze.
“I remember her voice,” the child continued. “She told the driver to go faster.”
Gasps erupted in the crowd.
The man slowly stood up.
His voice dropped dangerously low.
“What did you just say?”
The woman forced a smile, but it didn’t hold.
“This is a traumatized child inventing—”
“Search her,” the man ordered.
Two guards stepped forward.
The woman stepped back instantly.
“You have no right—!”
But one of the guards grabbed her wrist.
And something fell from her sleeve.
A broken carriage seal.
The same symbol used on royal transport vehicles.
The ballroom erupted in shock.
The man’s face darkened.
“You were in that carriage,” he said.
The woman’s composure shattered.
“You don’t understand—your father—he ordered—”
She stopped too late.
The silence became suffocating.
The little girl’s voice broke through it.
“He said I shouldn’t survive.”
The man turned slowly toward her.
“What else do you remember?”
Lina’s eyes filled with tears.
“…A second person pulled me out before the crash finished.”
Everyone froze.
“A woman,” she whispered.
May you like
The man’s breath caught.
“…My mother.”
