The message arrived just after sunrise.
Seraphina was sitting in the breakfast room of the Ashford residence with a cup of coffee and a tablet displaying the day's schedule. Lucien sat across from her, reviewing reports from the legal department. The quiet morning felt ordinary, something she had once believed she would never experience again.
Her phone vibrated, and she glanced at the screen. The sender's name made her pause.
Adrian Hawthorne.
She did not open the message immediately; Lucien noticed the change in her expression.
"Is everything all right?" he asked.
She turned the phone over before answering. "It is Adrian."
Lucien remained calm. "He wants to meet."
She looked at him with mild surprise. "You knew?"
"I guessed." He said.
She sighed softly. "He sent only one sentence." She unlocked the phone and read it aloud. "One final conversation. No lawyers. No business. Just the truth."
Silence settled between them.
