Vero felt uncomfortable when she has to talk about who she was. She has never told anyone about her past trauma, her life before being adopted by the Windward couple.It is a chapter of her life that she wanted to bury deep and forget. She turned and walked toward the collapsed wall. Her hand touched the wall while her eyes explore the peaceful night view.She heard Lev’s footsteps approaching her. He stopped right behind her and whispered, “I won’t judge.”His voice sounds as gentle as the wind in her ear and sent a shiver throughout her body. Vero closed her eyes for a moment, swallowed, and took a deep breath. “I am... an adopted child.”Lev said nothing, so Vero continued her story.*The children at The Holy Mary orphanage always said that Verona was the nuns’ favorite child. But she never felt like it. The nuns who took care of them were indeed good people, and not just toward her.Although that was the reality, those children always used that as a reason to bully her, and Veron

“You can go,” said the health worker.Vero half-jumped from her seat and exited right as the hunched man opened the curtains of her booth from the other side. She hurried to the back of the booth to find the door that Jia had mentioned. As her hand touched the door handle, she couldn’t resist the temptation to look back. For a moment, she caught a glimpse of the hunched man’s figure, and before either Vero or he could clearly see each other, she opened the door and ran out of the hall.*Henry swept his fingertips over the oak wood desk. The wood was hundreds of years old, but not as old as him. As he raised his hand and looked at his clean fingertips, Raphael walked in with a trolley.“The servants clean your workspace every day, Mr. Deammone,” said Raphael. He pushed the trolley to the coffee table near the long window and began arranging teacups and snacks.“Good,” said Henry with a smirk. He walked up to Raphael and observed his movements. Raphael seemed nervous, and Henry was ple

A piece of paper that Elijah gave was neatly tucked in Vero’s pants pocket, and it felt like she was carrying a pistol. Vero tried to act normal amidst the big question mark that now haunted her mind.Elijah didn’t say anything else after handing over the paper. He bid farewell and advised Vero to take care of herself. When Vero pushed him to open up about the whereabouts of her parents, he simply said, “They’re fine.”With a heavy heart, Vero walked back to her room to grab her bag. At this moment, she needed a distraction, and attending lectures seemed like an escape for her burdened mind.“Verona!” someone exclaimed while patting her shoulder. Vero jumped and screamed, then turned around to find Jia staring wide-eyed at her. Her face showed a mix of surprise and curiosity. “Why did you scream?”For a moment, Vero was frozen. She stared at Jia as if it were the first time she had seen the girl. Then she blinked, and the daze that had momentarily overwhelmed her vanished. “Nothing,”

If Vero thought that the story about her adoptive parents not loving her was surprising and nothing else could shock her, she was wrong.“Vampire hunt--?”Her words stopped as Etana widened her eyes and glanced at the waiter standing near the stairs. “Eyes and ears everywhere,” the woman muttered. After that, she withdrew and leaned back in her chair.At first, Vero didn’t know what to say or how to react to the absurd reality that Etana had just revealed. Yes, it was absurd. Because Vero had just formed friendships with vampires, and it was highly likely that she was in love with one of them.And the fact that she was a vampire hunter? That was even more nonsensical. She had only recently discovered that vampires were real. How could she have been born as a hunter of those creatures if she didn’t even know they truly existed?“I know you won’t believe it right away,” Etana said later when Vero didn’t say anything. “That’s why I came here.”Etana reached into her blazer pocket, then h

Lev opened the door behind Verona while his lips were busy devouring hers, which felt stiff under his kiss. She’s not a good kisser, but Lev didn’t mind. As long as she responded to his touch with uncontrollable passion, it was more than enough.His other hand embraced her waist and lifted her body up. Verona responded to the lift by jumping and wrapping her legs around his waist, while her hands hung on his shoulders.Lev took her inside the cabin, not bothering to turn on the lights because his night vision and memory of the cabin were more than enough to guide him to the bed.The cabin was a large, open room with no partitions, and there was a king-size bed in the corner surrounded by large wooden-framed windows, which revealed views of hills and distant mountain peaks.Before Lev laid Verona down there, she pulled away and stared at him. Her breath was uneven, and her lips were swollen. She looked incredibly sweet.“What is it?” Lev asked. His hand moved on her back, slipping bene