In his line of work, intimidation could be a liability. No negotiation would succeed if the other party felt crushed before it even began.

For Daemon and Gage, however, that same presence worked in their favor. As a lawyer, Daemon could use it to pressure opposing counsel, while Gage, as a soldier, embodied it without needing to hide it. Archivalt, on the other hand, existed largely outside of such interactions; his world didn’t demand that kind of adjustment, and he had never cared enough to try.

But none of that mattered now.

Because the truth was right there, in Apollo’s hands.

As Apollo began opening the envelope, Ace instinctively stepped back, positioning himself just behind Aunt Lavinia. The five brothers, all towering well over six feet, could have easily crowded the space, but someone had to yield, and without a word, they did.

It was an unspoken agreement, a quiet gesture of respect as they let her stand at the center, giving her the clearest view.

The moment the document was pulled free, all six of them leaned in at once, necks craning, sharp gazes scanning the fine print with barely restrained urgency. It didn’t take long. Their eyes locked onto the number almost immediately.

99.99%.

The reaction was instant. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Aunt Lavinia broke first, a sob escaping her as her composure shattered on the spot. The others didn’t fare much better; their expressions tightened, eyes reddening, years of restrained emotion cracking through the surface. It was raw, unguarded... overwhelming.

From where she sat, Ashley could only watch.

She tilted her head slightly, trying to make sense of it. From her perspective, their reaction looked like devastation, like the kind that came from hope being crushed. She was too far to see the result herself, the paper turned away from her, the small print impossible to read even with her sharper senses. And so, she drew the only conclusion that made sense to her.

It must have been negative.

A quiet sense of relief began to rise in her chest, subtle but undeniable. After everything that had just spiraled through her mind, all the questions, the doubts, the near unraveling of her identity, this result felt like an escape.

But the breath of relief never fully left her.

Because the next second, Aunt Lavinia suddenly rushed forward, closing the distance in an instant, her sobs breaking free as she reached Ashley’s bedside.

"My lady... you really are our missing princess..."

Aunt Lavinia’s voice broke on the words, choked with emotion as she dropped to her knees beside the bed, clutching Ashley’s hand as if afraid she might disappear again. Her grip trembled, tears spilling freely that she could no longer hold back.

Behind her, the brothers stood in silence, their eyes rimmed red, the composure they had carried earlier now stripped away. Ace didn’t even try to hide it as tears had already fallen, his expression raw with relief and something long buried finally breaking free.

And Ashley...

It felt like something detonated inside her mind.

For a split second, everything surged, every thought, every question, every doubt colliding all at once, before it all abruptly cut out. Silence followed. Her thoughts vanished, leaving behind nothing but a hollow stillness, while a faint ringing filled her ears, growing louder, sharper, until it was the only thing she could hear.

"Little sister... what’s wrong?"

Ace was the first to notice. Her face had gone faintly pale, yet her expression remained eerily blank, as if something inside her had simply... shut down.

When she didn’t respond, the others hesitated, uncertainty flickering across their faces. To them, it looked like distance, like she still didn’t trust them, like she thought this was some elaborate deception.

Ace didn’t argue. He simply turned, took the document from Apollo, and walked back to her side. Without a word, he placed it gently on her lap.

Ashley’s gaze dropped to it, slow and mechanical, as though her body was moving without her.

And there it was.

99.99%.

The number stared back at her, cold and undeniable, the sibling index, clear proof laid out in stark, clinical certainty.

Whatever fragile denial she had been clinging to... shattered.

Because what would they even gain from lying to her?

Her eyes lifted, sweeping over them again, their tailored suits, the precision in every detail, the quiet wealth and authority they carried without effort. People like them didn’t need to fabricate something like this. Not for someone like her.

She had nothing.

No status. No power. Nothing to offer.

So why would they lie?

"I... I..."

The words caught in Ashley’s throat, breaking apart before they could form into anything coherent. She wanted to respond, needed to, but her mind was still reeling, too overwhelmed to grasp even a single thought long enough to speak it aloud.

Because in that moment, something else had quietly fallen into place.

A truth she hadn’t dared to consider before.

If this was real, if they were truly her brothers, then it meant she might not be a werewolf at all.

The realization settled in slowly, almost cautiously, before sinking deeper. It explained everything. Why she had never shifted. Why her coming-of-age ceremony had ended in silence instead of transformation.

For weeks, she had carried that weight, the belief that she was defective, something incomplete, something that had failed to become what she was supposed to be.

And now...

That weight began to lift.

Not all at once, but enough for her to feel the tightness in her chest loosening, the quiet suffocation easing into relief.

But it wasn’t simple.

Because alongside it came uncertainty, disbelief, and a lingering resistance that refused to fully let go.

Could she really be human?

After living her entire life among werewolves... after shaping her identity around something she might have never been?

The thought felt unreal, like stepping onto ground that looked solid but might give way at any second. And so she sat there, caught between release and disbelief, her voice still trembling on words she couldn’t quite bring herself to say.

But just as that fragile sense of clarity began to settle, another thought surfaced; it was sharper and more insistent. It coiled in her mind, demanding answers she could no longer ignore.

If everything they said was true, then why had their mother run? Why hide in werewolf territory of all places, a place that would have been dangerously hostile for a human woman, let alone a child?

The pieces refused to fit, no matter how she tried to arrange them, and the more she thought about it, the more it gnawed at her, an uneasy pressure twisting deep in her gut.

She couldn’t stay in the dark like this.

"Now that you’ve confirmed I’m your sister..." Ashley began, her voice careful, measured, still threading through the limits of her supposed amnesia. She couldn’t sound too certain, couldn’t reveal more than she should. "...can you tell me where our father is... and why our mother went missing? Or how she ended up... where I was?"

The question was deliberately vague, but the weight behind it wasn’t. It lingered in the air, quiet but pressing, as she watched them, waiting, this time not just for reassurance, but for answers she needed to make sense of everything unraveling around her.