Iva stood frozen, her heart hammering against her ribs like a caged bird desperate for escape. The red thread pulsed before her eyes, connecting her mother's chest to the unknown man by the fountain, and she felt the weight of this revelation pressing down on her like a physical force. The world around her seemed to blur—the music, the laughter, the clinking of glasses—all of it faded into a distant hum as she grappled with the magnitude of what she had just discovered.
Her mother.
After everything Rana had endured—the years of a loveless bond, the pain of watching her daughter suffer, the courage it had taken to leave the only life she had ever known—the Goddess was offering her a second chance. A chance to find love. A chance to heal. A chance to build a future that was truly hers.
“A
