EMMA
The musty air of the records room clung to my lungs. I scanned the room as a heavy dread coiled low in my stomach.
Maybe there was nothing left to find.
I had been here before—hours spent combing through ledgers and contracts, searching for something, anything, that would explain the truth about my family. Stefan had gone through them too, and if there was one thing I trusted, it was his meticulous eye.
It still can't hurt to try, Moon whispered inside my mind, her voice carrying both hope and quiet insistence.
I swallowed hard and began with the same shelf where I'd uncovered the hidden box last time. This time, only ordinary papers stared back at me: ledgers filled with numbers, treaties inked with elaborate signatures, stacks of accounts detailing little more than grain shipments and border patrol expenses.
My frustration mounted with each wasted minute, my fingers trembling as I flipped through the pages.
