Chapter 33 — Lies in the Blood
Ava couldn't move.
The letters lay scattered at her feet like fallen verdicts. Her breath came in shallow gasps as Juliana's words echoed in her mind:
You and Dominic share the same father.
Dominic's voice cracked the silence.
"That's not true," he said, not to Juliana—but to himself, like a prayer. "It can't be."
Juliana didn't blink. "I had the DNA results buried. I didn't want to believe it either, but I had to know the truth. And now… you both do."
Ava stumbled backward, as if distance might change what she'd heard. Her voice broke. "All this time. You let us get married. You watched us fall in love."
Juliana's lips curled. "You think love makes it better? You two were built on lies. This was never a love story. It was a tragedy waiting to happen."
Dominic turned on her, voice rising. "Why would you do this to us?"
"I didn't do this," Juliana snapped. "Your father did. He created this mess. Clara just gave it a heartbeat. I tried to fix it the only way I knew how."
Ava looked between them, her skin crawling. "By marrying us off? By covering it up?"
Juliana's voice grew quiet. "By giving you a name. A family. Power. Everything Clara died trying to give you."
A heavy silence settled in.
Then, suddenly, Dominic grabbed one of the letters and shoved it in front of Juliana. "If you knew, then what's this? You called Ava 'an opportunity.' You called her 'a final chance to cleanse the bloodline.' What does that even mean?"
Juliana's eyes darkened. "It means I was trying to break a curse."
Ava frowned. "A curse?"
Juliana turned to her slowly, her face ashen. "This family—our legacy—it's soaked in betrayal. In secrets. Clara wasn't the first to be swallowed by it. She just… tried to outrun it. But you, Ava… you were the one person who could rewrite everything. I thought if Dominic married you, if I could control the story—maybe it would end differently this time."
Ava shook her head. "You think we're some twisted prophecy? This isn't a novel, Juliana. This is our life."
Juliana's eyes gleamed. "And yet… it reads like fiction, doesn't it?"
Dominic backed away, hands on his head. "I need to see the results. I want the truth. Not your twisted version of it."
"I destroyed the documents," Juliana said softly. "To protect you."
"No," Ava whispered. "To control us."
Juliana said nothing.
Dominic turned to Ava. "We'll do another test. Ourselves. We'll find out if it's true."
Ava nodded, but her voice was hollow. "And if it is?"
Dominic didn't answer.
Because love wasn't supposed to be born in darkness. And now, they had no idea what kind of blood really bound them—or whether they could survive knowing the truth.