Heiress Unmasked: Shaking the World With Geomancy novel Chapter 2127

Amid the swirling snow, a stiff figure trudged slowly through the drifts. Step by step, she walked. No one knew when she had left the palace behind.

Somehow, she had wandered into the soft glow of spring, where the trees were green and the sun was warm.

In that gentle sunlight, she seemed to glimpse two tiny figures, once huddled together within the cold stone walls of the palace.

"There now, no more tears, Grace. If Madam Lovell punishes you again, I will take the beating for you next time," the young Serena declared proudly, thumping her little chest with righteous bravado.

Grace's tear-streaked little face turned toward her companion, sniffling. "But… If you do that, you will be the one who gets hurt…"

"That does not faze me! Pain does not fear me! Now, you mustn't cry. I promise you I will take the punishment for you next time."

Those childhood moments felt so close that Grace could almost reach out and touch them. But in the blink of an eye, the little girl in front of her had changed.

That night, Grace had been shoved hard into the well. The cold pierced her bones like knives.

She remembered looking up and seeing Serena, the girl who used to be her closest friend. She had wanted to cry out, to tell her how much it hurt, and how cold she was.

She thought she would say something, anything like before—maybe even promise to take the pain for her. But instead, she had just looked at her… then turned away without a word.

Grace could never understand how the friend who once held her hand so tightly could become someone so unfamiliar. If she couldn't understand it, she would simply let it go.

Maybe the Serena of their childhood, and the Serena who walked away that night, were never the same person to begin with.

The frigid memories faded.

At last, Grace's lips curved into a gentle smile—not cold or twisted, but light and unburdened. Smiling, she took one step, then another, toward the little Serena waiting beneath the spring sunshine.