Layla's POV
The streets looked the same, but everything inside me had changed.
Noah dropped me off a block away from Ace's house. I didn't want to pull up with an audience, didn't want to see all their faces through a car window before I was ready to face them.
Before I was ready to face… who I used to be.
I stood across the road for a second, hands buried in my jacket pockets, heart racing like it wanted out of my chest. The porch light was on. Shadows moved behind the windows. They were already here.
Waiting.
My feet felt like cement. I stared at the house like it might swallow me whole. For three years, I dreamed about this moment in nightmares, in daydreams, in everything in between. Now that I was here, it felt unreal. Like I was stepping into someone else's life.
But no. This is mine. This is the life I left behind.
I walked to the door, every step heavier than the last.
Before I could knock, it opened.
Ace stood there.
His face was unreadable… jaw tight, eyes shadowed, arms crossed over his chest like a wall built just for me. The kind of wall that used to let me in without asking.
Now I wasn't so sure.
"Hey," I breathed, my voice cracking.
He stepped aside wordlessly.
Inside, the air was thick with silence.
Everyone was already seated — Valerie perched on the armrest of the couch, arms folded tightly; Sofia and Summer sitting close, eyes wide and guarded; Noah lingering by the hallway, uncertain; and Aster, leaning against the far wall with that same unreadable calm he always wore when things were about to go bad.
No one said a word.
I walked in slowly and sat on the edge of the armchair like if I sank too deep, I'd disappear into it.
Deep breath.
"I know I owe you everything," I started, voice shaking. "An explanation. Answers. Something. I've rehearsed this a thousand times, but nothing makes it easier."
Still silence.
I glanced at each of them. Valerie's eyes were glossy but hard. Sofia and Summer looked somewhere between hurt and confused. Noah gave me a small nod of encouragement. Aster didn't move. Ace… still unreadable.
So I spoke anyway.
"I left because I was breaking. I was spiraling and I didn't even know how to say it out loud."
They all shifted slightly, like they hadn't expected that.
"I don't know when it started exactly. But I felt it — this… presence. Like I was being watched. All the time. Even in my sleep. I started getting these nightmares that didn't feel like dreams. They felt like warnings. Like I was in danger. Like my family was."
I paused, swallowing the lump in my throat.
"I thought I was losing my mind. I was anxious, paranoid, I couldn't sleep, couldn't eat. I was seeing things out of the corner of my eyes. I felt like someone was always there, just behind me. I tried to act normal, but I was drowning and none of you deserved to watch me fall apart."
Sofia looked down. Valerie blinked fast, jaw clenched.
"So I ran," I admitted. "I thought if I got far enough… if I started over somewhere no one knew me, I could finally breathe again. That's why I left. No goodbye, no message. I was terrified. Not of you — of me. Of what was happening to me. I thought something was wrong with me. And maybe there was."
Ace's eyes narrowed, but he stayed quiet.
Aster moved — just slightly, arms loosening at his sides.
I looked at all of them, barely holding myself together.
"I ran to the U.S. thinking I could escape the fight, the blood, the chaos, the enemies our family made. I thought I could outrun the shadows."
A beat passed.
"But the shadows followed me."
Their expressions changed — something sharper, something heavier.
"I came back because something changed. Noah found something. Something we weren't supposed to see."
I reached into my bag and pulled out the printed photos and pages Noah had given me. I spread them slowly on the table in front of us — one by one.
Old black-and-white photos of my mom in a palace. Family portraits. Royal crests. Her as a child in ceremonial robes. Confidential files with names circled in red.
And then… us.
Surveillance photos of Lily, Lara, Lev. Me.
Each shot was dated. Locations. Coordinates. Movement logs.
"They were tracking us," I whispered. "All these years."
Gasps. Someone cursed under their breath.
"That's… that's you," Summer said quietly, pointing at a photo of me outside a coffee shop in Beverly Hills.
"They knew where we were. Who we were. They've been watching for a long time. And I think it's because of my mother's past. She wasn't just anyone."
I looked up.
"She was born into something dark. Royal. Dangerous. And she ran from it when she chose to be with my dad. And now… they've taken her, i think as far as i know."
Valerie covered her mouth. Sofia reached for Summer's hand.
"And your Dad?" Ace asked , in a voice low.
I nodded, pain blooming in my chest. "He knows something. I confronted him. I saw it in his eyes. But he won't say anything. He won't tell me the truth."
Then I looked at Aster.
"And I'm done running."
.....