Chapter 1695:


    The woman paused. A gentle warmth settled over her face as she looked at Katelyn. “If the paternity test can prove it, then yes — I am.” She withdrew a folded document from her pocket and extended it toward Katelyn.


    Her name was Olivia Ruiz. After Katelyn had operated on her, her mental state had gradually improved, and she hade to realize that Katelyn stirred something profound within her — an inexplicable connection that resonated somewhere deep in her soul.


    By chance, Olivia had discovered that Katelyn was searching for her mother. The revtion had ignited an intense curiosity about Katelyn’s true identity. Quietly, she had obtained a strand of Katelyn’s hair from the vi and arranged a paternity test of her own.


    During the days when Katelyn had been consumed with locating the missing Alfy, Olivia had been pursuing answers of her own in silence.


    The results had shattered her world. Katelyn was her daughter — the very child she had mourned as dead for so many years.


    Katelyn stared at Olivia, her throat tightening with emotion. Words failed her. After years of tireless searching, her mother was sitting only a few feet away. A whirlwind of excitement and trepidation swirled through her heart.


    Rather than reaching immediately for the word “mother,” Katelyn asked with careful restraint, “Can you tell me what happened all these years? Your name, your identity — everything?”


    These were things she had never been able to uncover. Though Katelyn cared nothing for status or standing, she ached to know the truth about the past.


    Olivia patted the seat beside her. “Sit down,” she said gently. “I’ll tell you everything.”


    She devoted the entire day to it —ying out, piece by painful piece, the events that had unfolded over the years.


    Katelyn learned that Olivia was the wife of the former king, and that the devastating fire from that fateful year had been deliberately set by the current king. He had long harbored an obsessive desire for Olivia, and that obsession had driven him to imprison her in the pce.


    After receiving the news of her daughter’s supposed death, Olivia’s mind had crumbled under the weight of grief, consuming her slowly andpletely. Meanwhile, the once-powerful Ruiz family had watched their influence wither into obscurity.


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    All of it — every loss, every sorrow — had stemmed from the current king’s actions, with Bernie ying his own dark role in the tragedy.


    Katelyn listened to every word of the harrowing ount. When it was over, she fell into a long and profound silence.


    Never had Katelyn imagined that royal blood flowed through her veins — that she was the former princess of Yata — or that her mother had endured years of unspeakable cruelty in silence.


    A thunderous rage ignited in her chest. She would avenge her father.


    She drew Olivia into her arms, her lips brushing against her mother’s ear. “Mom, I’ve searched for you across endless darkness for so many years.” Her voice fractured beneath the weight of the words.


    Olivia’s eyes brimmed with tears, her carefully maintainedposure crumbling as tremors of raw emotion moved through her frail frame.


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