It wouldn't be an understatement for Aurora to say that the last person she would have ever expected to be standing in front of her was Rowan Ravenstein, her supposedly dead father.
But gazing at Aurora's reaction—her eyes wide open, her whole form trembling as she clasped her hands together in front of her in complete disbelief—it was plenty obvious that those last words were non-existent in her mind.
The figure standing in front of her was undoubtedly a perfect replica of her father. His commanding presence that seemed to demand the attention of the space, his piercing red eyes which scrutinized Aurora with such intensity that made her feel as though the entirety of her secrets were laid bare.
Everything to the last detail.
"D-dad?" Aurora stammered, her form trembling as she gazed at the figure in front of her in complete disbelief.
"Aurora," Rowan's firm voice sounded as he suddenly called her name, and Aurora couldn't help but flinch as she heard him.
'It sounds exactly like him.'
"No no no, This can't be possible," Aurora shook her head frantically as she kept on backing off, not wanting to believe what she was currently seeing.
Could this really be her father?
Seeing Aurora backing off, Rowan suddenly stopped, his face contorting in displeasure.
"Aurora, is this how you greet your father? This is not how I raised you."
Aurora's form abruptly stopped. "Father…" she muttered, not believing her ears.
And in the next instance, it was as though all the pent up emotions from the months of abuse she had to endure suddenly erupted.
Aurora screamed,
"You? Father!? You were supposed to be my family! Someone who would love and care for me! Someone I could rely on, but instead…" Aurora's voice suddenly reduced in intensity, her tone becoming soft as tears streamed down her face.
"You hurt me," Aurora muttered under her breath as she sucked in the mucus threatening to drip from her nose.
"Aurora," Rowan's voice suddenly turned soft as he took a step closer to her.
"Don't come any closer!" Aurora instantly screamed as she backed up further. But after backing up for a few meters, Aurora turned and saw she had reached a dead end, her back against the wall.
She turned her gaze back forward and saw Rowan, whose gaze had already turned soft.
Rowan sighed,
"Aurora, I had to do it for your sake. I wanted you to become strong enough so that what happened to your mother wouldn't happen to you,"
Tears kept steaming down Aurora's eyes as she listened every words coming out of Rowan's mouth.
"Aurora," Rowan suddenly called out once again, taking a step closer to her,
"I am your father. The only family you have left in this world. I only want what's best for you, you have to believe me,"
Rowan closed the distance between them in a few steps, standing only a few meters in front of her.
He continued,
"You will always be my little princess," Rowan's voice turned soft as he stretched his hand in front of Aurora.
Aurora gazed at Rowan's stretched hand for a few seconds without saying anything, her hands still clasped against her chest, trembling.
Aurora knew deep down that what she was currently seeing was a lie.
Despite how bad this man had treated her, she had still cried for a long time when she heard that he died.
She could still remember how devastated she felt when she heard about his death, her only family was gone.
That was the reality
But something kept pushing down the reality, trying to bury it. She knew that everything coming out from his mouth was a lie but Aurora wanted to believe it.
Aurora's clasped hand seperated as she suddenly started stretching her right hand towards Rowan's outstretched hand, her hands trembling.
She wanted her father back.
Rowan's lips seemed to curl up into a wide grin as he saw Aurora reaching out her hand, but unfortunately Aurora's gaze was too focused on his arm to notice anything.
Just as Aurora's hand was about to touch Rowan's,
"No,"
Aurora's hand abruptly paused in the air, making Rowan's earlier smile contort into a frown.
Why Aurora had paused was because of one reason, the figure of a certain white haired boy had suddenly appeared in her head.
'Atticus,'
Aurora suddenly took her hand back as she fixed her piercing red gaze which had now turned intense on Rowan,
"You're not my only family,"
Rowan stared at Aurora changed demanor for a few seconds without saying anything, and then suddenly, in a surprising turn of events, he suddenly let out a sigh before bursting into laugher in the next second.
His laughter was loud and resounded throughout the hallway making Aurora narrow her eyes.
Her tears had long since stopped flowing and she had regain a little bit of her composure.
Reality hit her like a wave of tsunami; her father was dead.
'It's an illusion! The Nebulon family!' Aurora's thought raced.
She felt like a fool, a complete fool for falling for something like this.
But Aurora wasn't one to waste time blaming her self for something that had passed already. She had to handle her current situation.
Aurora turned her gaze around trying to see if there was anything she had missed until now.
But before she even had time to think, Rowan's resounding laughter suddenly came to a stop.
He stood up straight and fixated his gaze on Aurora's form. His once deep and commanding voice was nowhere to be found as he spoke, his voice sounding strained,
"Well I guess the cat's out of the bag, let's get down to business shall we?"
His words were accompanied by his features suddenly to melting away, morphing into an unsettling visage, while the world around them distorted and faded, as though reality itself was unraveling.
In an instant, the scene shifted, revealing a multitude of figures clad in black attire, their forms completely covered with their attire.
Dozens of pairs of eyes, gleaming with an intense focus, fixated on Aurora with an unsettling intensity.