Darkness.
A void of nothingness that stretched endlessly. Jasmine floated between fragments of memory—faint colors, soft laughter, a mother's warm embrace, a father's stern yet protective gaze. Her heartbeat echoed in her ears, slow, unsteady.
She saw herself as a little girl again, running through sunlit gardens, chasing butterflies that never seemed to land. She heard the faint hum of a lullaby her mother used to sing, each note like a whisper from a life she'd lost. But the images were hazy, slipping through her fingers like smoke.
"Jasmine… stay with us," a gentle voice whispered.
Her eyes flickered open—or maybe it was a dream within a dream. The sterile white of a hospital room replaced sunlight and gardens. Machines beeped steadily, monitors hummed softly. Nurses moved quietly around her bed, their murmurs brushing against her consciousness.
"Her condition has stabilised, but her burns… they're severe,"
"Sir her facial reconstruction surgery will begin a month later," one nurse whispered. Another replied, "Boss will want to see her. She has potential. Strong will."
A shadow moved closer, tall, calm, radiating authority and warmth she could feel even without fully seeing. His presence filled the room, not with light, but with assurance.
"I failed her," the man said softly, kneeling beside her. His voice was low, melodic, filled with something she couldn't yet name. "I failed to protect her, I've been searching for her ever since I learned the truth. Your mother… we loved each other. But she had to marry another, and she… she hid you from me, why?."
"Because I couldn't protect our promise to be together?, tell me why exactly," the voice asked with trembling admist tears
Jasmine tried to speak, but only a faint groan escaped. Her mind clung to his words, desperate to make sense.
"Your father …" he continued, eyes distant, almost lost in memories, "he was forced to leave. But I kept my promise to her, her last wish. I've watched over you, even from afar. Even when i didn't know you were mine,"
Memories stirred—a mother's smile, a father's absence, the house that never felt fully hers. Her chest tightened, grief and confusion mingling. The life she thought she had been living—the love, the trust, the golden façade—it had all been borrowed, twisted, controlled.
"I found you after the fire," the man whispered, voice trembling with both grief and relief. "Barely alive, yet so strong. You've carried pain for years, and yet… your spirit never broke. You are more than they ever imagined, Jasmine. You are… yourself."
Images flickered behind her eyelids: a birthday party she barely remembered, a woman she never knew who smiled at her with warmth and pride, moments of laughter stolen by fate.
Her heart ached. Questions clawed at her mind. Why had her mom hidden the truth? Why had her life been manipulated by Irish and Leo? Who was this man, whispering stories of love and sacrifice, of debts owed and promises kept?
"Your life," he continued softly, "was never yours to understand… until now. And now… it begins again."
Jasmine felt a warmth she hadn't known in years. A flicker of hope, fragile but persistent, took root. Somewhere deep within, a small flame ignited—an ember that refused to die.
She tried to move, to open her eyes fully, to speak. The room hummed around her: whispers of nurses, the soft beeping of machines, and the steady presence of the man at her side.
"I'll tell you everything," he promised, "but first… you need to awaken. There is no much time left. You need to see the truth with your own eyes."
A tear slipped down her cheek, though she could not yet move. But in the quiet, in the mist between dreams and reality, Jasmine understood something essential: she had survived, she had to wake up to meet him, her biological father, what a strange feelingthat word bore.
And when she did, nothing—not Irish, not Leo, not anyone—would stand between her and the justice she was destined to claim.
Somewhere deep within, the whisper of a vow echoed louder than the machines:
"I stood still regardless of the pain, i survived the torture, I fought against the keeper of the gate of hell to return alive. And this time the will pay with their lives. A life for a life."