The realization felt a little ridiculous, yet sohow it made perfect sense. Esperanza nodded right away, then wrapped her little arms around his neck. "Finally, Daddy," she said, patting his shoulder in a dramatic way. "You are catching up."
Corvine burst out laughing, and even Seraphine couldn’t hold back a smile. Voren didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
His daughter had just managed to insult and complint him at the sa ti, and the fact that she sounded so serious about it made it even better.
After a mont, another important thought crossed his mind. He gently rubbed her back. "About the test..."
Before he could finish, Esperanza interrupted him. "It’s okay, Daddy." The confidence in her voice instantly drew everyone’s attention. "What you and Mommy decide is best."
Voren stared at her, once again completely caught off guard. One day she wanted nothing to do with human school, and the next she was trusting him and Seraphine to make huge decisions for her.
The difference was obvious. Esperanza finally looked happy, truly happy, and a lot of that happiness seed tied directly to Seraphine. Voren exchanged a quick glance with Seraphine, and neither of them missed it.
After a few seconds, Voren returned to the topic that had been weighing on all of them. "Tell sothing," he said, his expression growing serious. Esperanza nodded. "After Corvine gave you to that woman, how did you end up with Coco?"
At this point, Voren was ready to believe just about anything she said. Too many details had already proven impossible for a child her age to know otherwise. Esperanza’s little face scrunched up in concentration. "I didn’t go to Coco imdiately."
The answer surprised everyone. "You didn’t?"
She shook her head. "The woman took to her realm first." The room instantly fell silent as every adult froze, their full attention now locked on her. Esperanza kept speaking as casually as if she were talking about a toy she saw in the mall. "I stayed there for a whole year."
Seraphine’s heart skipped a beat. A year?
"What was it like?" Corvine asked quietly.
Esperanza tilted her head. "It was peaceful. She took care of ." The little girl smiled softly. "I drank her milk."
The statent stunned everyone. Then she added another detail. "Every ti she showed Mommy’s picture, she would tell the sa thing."
Seraphine unconsciously leaned forward. "What did she say?"
Esperanza’s blue eyes settled on her. "She always told that my mommy didn’t know I was away." The words hit Seraphine like a wave. "She said if Mommy knew where I was, she would find ."
Silence swallowed the room. Seraphine felt completely dazed. The information created way more questions than answers. A realm? Not the human world. Not the werewolf world. Then where?
Her mind imdiately jumped to one possibility. The Moon Goddess. Could it have been her? The question burned on the tip of her tongue. She wanted to ask. Needed to ask.
But before she could open her mouth, Esperanza continued speaking. What followed left every adult in the room utterly speechless. The little girl began recounting events in remarkable detail, describing things no child her age should have been able to rember. And with every new revelation she shared, the room grew quieter and quieter.
Esperanza kept telling her story like she was just chatting about an ordinary day at the park.
anwhile, every adult in the room sat completely still, hanging onto her every word. The little girl swung her legs lightly under the chair as she continued. "Then there was a war in her realm."
The casual way she dropped that bomb made it hit even harder. Corvine nearly choked on his coffee. "A war?"
Esperanza nodded. "Yes." She frowned a little, like she was rembering sothing unpleasant. "The woman got really worried. She told that if I stayed there any longer, I might never be able to reunite with Mommy."
The room fell quiet again. Voren exchanged a quick glance with Seraphine, but neither of them interrupted. They didn’t want to risk breaking her train of thought.
Esperanza’s lips ford a cute little pout that looked way too adorable for the wild information she was sharing. "She said I was different. Unlike everyone else, they couldn’t erase my mories."
Her words sent a chill through the room. Seraphine felt her heartbeat pick up. "What do you an?"
Esperanza gave a small, innocent shrug. "As long as people go there, they have to lose their mories before coming back. The woman told that was the rule."
A thoughtful look crossed her face. "She said if she had known I would rember everything, she would’ve never sent there."
Nobody knew what to say. The more Esperanza talked, the less normal her story sounded, and yet every piece sohow kept fitting together perfectly.
Voren felt a heavy wave of regret building in his chest as he looked at his daughter.
If only he’d taken her seriously from the very beginning. If only he’d listened sooner.
How many clues had she already given them? How many chances had he missed? Maybe he could’ve found the truth earlier. Maybe he could’ve found Seraphine sooner.
The thought hurt but dwelling on it wouldn’t change anything. What mattered was right now.
"What happened after that?" he asked, his voice softer this ti.
Esperanza looked right at him. "She brought to the human world, told that once my mommy never lost hope, we shall reunite. Then she left at the coffee shop with Coco, and never ca back."
Seraphine’s eyebrows rose. Esperanza nodded. "The woman said Coco would help find my new daddy." A smile spread across her face as she pointed straight at Voren. "And my new daddy would bring Mommy to ."
The words landed differently for each of them. For Seraphine, they felt like fate. For Voren, they felt like redemption.
For Corvine, they felt like proof that sothing much bigger than any of them had been pulling the strings all along.
A heavy but thoughtful silence settled over the room as everyone tried to process what they’d just heard and connect years of mysteries together.
The quiet stretched on for several minutes until another voice finally broke it. "She told sothing strange once."
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