Page 42 of Lost in Fire

I study her face, reading the genuine regret in her expression. The fear that I’ll walk away. The desperate hope that I’ll stay.

“I don’t hate you,” I tell her, surprising us both with the truth. “I’m angry. Confused. Hurt. But I don’t hate you.”

Relief flickers across her features.

“But I need to know something.” I step closer, close enough that she has to tilt her head back to meet my eyes. “If I do this—if I help you save her—what happens to us?”

She swallows hard. “What do you want to happen?”

“I want honesty. No more secrets between us. No more lies.” I reach up, touching the side of her face gently. “I want to know if there’s anything left of what we had. Anything real beneath all the roles you’ve played.”

Her breath catches at my touch. “There is. There’s always been something real, Hargen. Even when everything else was a lie.”

The admission hangs between us, fragile and precious.

“Then we start there,” I say. “With the truth.”

She’s quiet for a long moment, staring out at the forest where shadows are lengthening with the approach of evening. When she speaks, her voice is strained.

“I don’t know if I remember how to be just Vanya.”

“Then I’ll remind you.”

She looks at me then, really looks at me, and her eyes soften.

“She’s going to love you,” she says quietly. “Ember. She’s going to love you so much.”

“What will you tell her? About who I am? About why you’ve kept us apart?”

Vanya moves to the window, her fingers tracing patterns on the glass. “The truth.” She pauses, looking back at me. “Finally.”

I nod. “That’s the right thing to do.”

“I know,” she says simply. She turns and heads back to the door. “I’ll be back soon.”

I watch as she returns to her car and drives away from the house. I don’t stop watching until the sound of the engine fades completely. Soon, she’ll drive back into the city to collect our daughter. Soon, I’ll meet the child I never knew I had.

And everything will change again.

I settle into a chair by the window and wait for my world to expand beyond anything I ever imagined possible.

Chapter 16

Vanya

The drive home feels endless. Every red light stretches into eternity. Every familiar street corner mocks me with its false normalcy.

Everything feels like it’s weighing down on me. Vex’s enhanced protocols breathing down our necks. Hargen’s face when I revealed the truth about my staged execution. The countdown until they discover what Ember really is.

I pull into the driveway of our little home and cut the engine. The Shadowhand mask sits in my passenger seat, its silver surface catching streetlight. I can feel its weight even without touching it—decades of deception made manifest. Tonight, for the first time in years, I’m leaving it behind.

The house ahead looks smaller somehow. More fragile. The Tudor-style architecture that once seemed so solid now feels like a theater set, all facade and empty spaces. Warm light spills fromthe living room windows where Ember waits, unaware that her entire world is about to shift.

I force my breathing to steady. Practice at emotional compartmentalization. The ability to be multiple people simultaneously.

I can do this.

Ihaveto do this.

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