Dorothea Caddel, is born into a wealthy family that can easily give her a plane or a planet to her wishes but what if something deep is hidden in the mask of a perfect family, a devil that she fears but soon learns to accept as love. That story chan...
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The memory wavered before them, a ghostly projection of the past playing out in eerie silence. In the center of it, Aro cradled Dorothea's limp form in his arms, moving through the grand halls of Volterra with a deliberate, measured pace. He was neither hurried nor hesitant, his crimson eyes locked forward, unreadable as ever, though something about the way he carried her—possessive, almost reverent—sent a chill through the ones watching.
Dorothea's body looked frail, lifeless, her pale skin even paler under the dim torchlight. There was no struggle, no resistance. Just stillness. A haunting kind of surrender.
The room where they stood in real-time was eerily quiet. No one spoke, no one shifted. Even the ever-playful Emmett remained uncharacteristically solemn, his normally easygoing expression now drawn into something thoughtful. It was rare for them to witness Aro in such an intimate, almost vulnerable moment.
The silence stretched until Emmett scoffed, tilting his head as he analyzed the scene before him. His tone broke the heavy atmosphere, though it carried an edge of intrigue rather than humor. "Hold up—what about Caius and Marcus? I wanna see their reaction to you." He leaned forward slightly, resting his arms on his knees, a glimmer of curiosity in his golden gaze.
Dorothea, standing beside him in the present, blinked once, her expression unreadable as she watched her past self being carried away. A soft hum left her lips, the sound almost absentminded, before she finally spoke. "They didn't know about me until a week after my awakening."
That caught everyone's attention. A few heads turned toward her in unison, eyes flickering with questions yet unspoken. The idea of Aro—one of the most cunning, controlling beings they had ever known—keeping something hidden from his own brothers was almost unthinkable. The Volturi operated as a unit, always in careful balance with each other. And yet, Dorothea had been a secret, her existence concealed even from those closest to Aro himself.
Bella's brow furrowed, disbelief evident in the sharpness of her voice. "A week?" Her fingers tightened slightly around Edward's hand, as if grounding herself in the strangeness of it all.
Edward, ever composed, regarded Dorothea with calculating eyes, his mind already piecing together the implications. "Aro kept you hidden?" His voice was steady, but there was a note of intrigue behind it, a rare moment where even he seemed caught off guard by the layers of deception woven into the Volturi's history.
Dorothea merely nodded, her gaze still distant, as though she were slipping back into that very memory. "Only a few guards knew. Felix, Demetri, Jane, Alec... Just enough to ensure I didn't go on a rampage."
Zafrina, who had been watching with quiet intensity, stepped forward slightly, her piercing gaze unyielding as she studied Dorothea's face. There was something unreadable in her expression, an unspoken understanding of what was left unsaid. "Shall we continue then?" Her voice was smooth, expectant.
