Chapter 528:More and more questions.

Chapter 528: 528:More and more questions.

One evening, near the end of the second week of disciplinary restriction, Silver found Ravenna sitting alone beside the academy’s western gardens.

The weather was cool.

A gentle breeze moved through the trees and the distant lights of Alpha Three illuminated the surrounding pathways.

He approached quietly.

"Mind if I join you?" He asked.

She looked up and smiled faintly.

"Since when do you ask?"

He sat beside her.

"Trying something new."

She laughed softly.

For a while, they remained silent, then Silver looked toward her.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

Ravenna considered it before responding.

"Strange," she quietly said.

He nodded.

"Strange how?"

She looked toward the garden.

"I thought I’d feel happy."

Silver remained quiet.

"When Shirley was expelled, I thought I’d finally feel like something had been settled. And when the financial investigation started exposing what my father had done, I thought I’d feel relieved." She lowered her gaze. "But I don’t."

Silver waited.

Ravenna continued.

"I keep thinking about when I was little." Her voice softened. "There was a time when I used to wait near the front door whenever my father came home. I’d run to him and show him whatever I’d done that day. Sometimes it was a drawing. Sometimes it was something I’d learned. Sometimes I just wanted him to pick me up."

She smiled sadly.

"He used to do that, you know."

He looked toward her.

"He did?"

She nodded.

"Before my mum died. I remember him carrying me around the house. I remember him laughing." Her eyes became wet. "Then everything changed."

Silver remained silent.

Ravenna continued.

"After mum died, he became distant. Then Marissa arrived. Then Shirley became the center of everything." She swallowed. "And I spent years wondering what I’d done wrong."

Silver reached for her hand.

Ravenna looked toward him.

"Now I’m wondering whether he was ever my father at all."

His expression softened.

She laughed bitterly.

"Isn’t that ridiculous? I spent years wanting him to love me, and now I’m not even sure we share the same blood."

He shook his head.

"It’s not ridiculous."

She lowered her gaze.

"I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel."

He considered, then quietly answered, "You don’t have to decide."

She looked toward him.

He continued, "You can be angry about what they did. You can feel relieved that they’re no longer controlling your life. And you can still grieve the family you wanted them to be."

Ravenna just stared.

He smiled faintly.

"Those feelings don’t cancel each other out," he quietly said.

For several seconds, she remained silent, then she leaned against his shoulder.

He wrapped an arm around her.

Ravenna whispered, "Do you think my mother loved me?"

He looked toward the distant lights.

He thought about Selena Serenity, the research records, the strange inconsistencies and fhe possibility that she’d hidden something important.

Then he answered carefully.

"I don’t know everything about her."

Ravenna closed her eyes.

He continued.

"But I know she left behind questions worth answering. And I know you deserve to hear the truth from evidence, not from people who used your uncertainty against you."

She nodded slowly.

He looked toward her.

"And whatever we discover, you won’t have to face it alone."

She smiled sadly.

"Promise?"

He nodded.

"Promise."

She closed her eyes and quietly whispered, "Thank you."

Three days later, Ravenna received a package.

It had been forwarded through the attorney handling Selena’s estate. Inside was a small collection of personal belongings recovered from an old storage account that had remained untouched for years.

There were several photographs, a damaged research notebook, a silver pendant and a sealed envelope addressed to Selena.

Ravenna opened the package inside her dormitory while Silver sat beside her.

She examined the pendant first. It was simple; a small silver ornament shaped like a crescent moon.

Ravenna stared at it, then whispered, "I remember this."

He looked toward her.

"Really?"

She nodded.

"My mother used to wear it."

Her fingers trembled.

She held it carefully, then placed it against her chest.

For several seconds, she remained silent. Eventually, she opened the photographs.

Most showed Selena at different stages of her life. Some were taken inside research facilities, pthers showed her standing beside colleagues, and one depicted a much younger Selena holding a small white-haired child.

Ravenna froze.

Silver looked toward the photograph.

Selena was smiling and the child in her arms was laughing.

Ravenna slowly touched the image.

"That’s me."

Silver nodded.

"Looks like it."

She stared at it.

For several seconds, her expression remained unreadable, then tears appeared in her eyes.

Silver didn’t speak.

Ravenna carefully placed the photograph on the desk and opened the final image.

Her expression changed.

The photograph showed Selena standing beside a tall man inside what appeared to be a research facility.

The man’s face had been deliberately obscured. Someone had physically altered the photograph.

She frowned.

"Silver."

He leaned closer.

"What?"

She pointed toward the man.

"Look."

Silver studied the image, his expression changing.

"Someone removed his face," he quietly said.

She nodded.

She turned the photograph over.

Tgere were several words written on the back; a date,a location, and a short note.

[Research Facility: North Sector - Site 096.]

Ravenna froze.

Silver stared.

For several seconds, neither spoke, then she whispered, "Zero-nine-six."

He looked toward her.

"The same designation?" He asked.

She nodded slowly.

Her heart began beating faster as everything she had been reading about came to the fore front.

And now there was a photograph of Selena standing beside an unidentified man at a facility associated with the same designation.

Ravenna looked toward the envelope.

Her fingers trembled as she opened it. Inside was a single sheet of paper, most of the writing had faded but one sentence remained clearly visible.

If anything happens to me, do not let them take Ravenna.

She stared at the words.

Silver’s expression hardened.

For several seconds, neither moved, then Ravenna slowly lowered the paper as her eyes filled with tears.

"Silver..."

He looked toward her.

She swallowed.

"Who?" Her voice trembled. "Who was she afraid of?"

Silver didn’t answer because he didn’t know. But as he looked at the photograph, the obscured face, and the reference to Site 096, one thing became increasingly clear.

Selena Serenity hadn’t simply been a researcher involved in a classified experiment. She had been hiding something, or someone. And whatever she’d been trying to protect Ravenna from might still exist.

Far beyond the academy walls, the abnormal beast migrations continued spreading through the wilderness.

The escaped Tier Seven creature remained missing.

Several research facilities had gone silent, and inside Alpha Three’s restricted archives, the surviving records of Project 006 were gradually disappearing.

Ravenna stared at the letter and slowly clenched her fists.

For years, she’d believed her mother had simply died and left her behind. Now, for the first time, she began wondering whether Selena had been trying to keep her alive.

And whether the family she’d spent her childhood trying to please had been hiding the truth from her all along.