Rebirth Of The Heiress And The Tycoon's Lover (Alina) novel Chapter 354

Chapter 354

AUTHOR’S POV

Lucian, Violet, and Ace finally sat back, the silence in the old library thick and almost reverent.

Stacks of books surrounded them, some piled neatly, others abandoned where exhaustion had claimed them. Papers littered: the long wooden table, each page covered in careful handwriting titles, columns, lists upon lists of underlined words.

The faint smell of old paper and dust hung in the air, mixing with the low hum of the ancient lights above them.

Violet’s fingers were cramped. Her wrist ached. She hadn’t realized when the stiffness had set in, only that she could barely feel the pen anymore when she finally set it down.

“That’s it,” she whispered, almost afraid to say it too loudly. “That’s… all of them.”

Ace leaned back in his chair, rolling his shoulders. “Twenty books,” he muttered. underlined words?”

…what…fifty to a hundred

Lucian glanced at the pages spread before them, his sharp eyes scanning the overwhelming volume of information. “Roughly,” he confirmed calmly. “Which means your mother was very thorough.”

Violet swallowed. “Or very scared.”

That earned her Lucian’s full attention. He looked at her then, really looked at the tension in her jaw, the dark shadows under her eyes, the way she kept pressing her lips together as if holding herself together by sheer force of will.

“Or both,” he said quietly.

Ace tapped the edge of the table. “So what now? Because I’m not seeing a sentence jump out and introduce itself.”

Lucian exhaled slowly, then reached for one of the pages. “Now we stop looking at the words as individual pieces… and start looking at them as a pattern.”

Violet frowned. “A pattern how?”

Lucian pulled the papers closer, aligning them carefully. “Your mother wasn’t careless. She didn’t underline randomly. She was trying to leave breadcrumbs….but not in a straight line.”

Ace leaned forward. “You think it’s a cipher.”

Lucian nodded once. “A layered one.”

Violet’s heart thudded in her chest. “Layered?”

“Yes.” Lucian pointed to the page nearest him. “She didn’t just underline words. She underlined specific words in specific books.”

Ace caught on quickly. “Meaning the book titles matter.”

“Exactly.”

Violet’s breath hitched. She looked at the list of titles they’d written down earlier, her eyes scanning them with fresh intensity.

‘Home at Last.’

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Chapter 354

Legacy of Blood.

“The Silent Witness.

‘Inheritance.

Her throat tightened.

“They’re all…” Violet began, then stopped, afraid to say it out loud.

“Family,” Lucian finished for her. “Legacy. Truth. Belonging”

Ace let out a low whistle. “Damn. She really didn’t want this found by the wrong person.”

Violet pressed her palm flat against the table. “So what do we do? There are hundreds of words here.”

Lucian’s gaze sharpened. “We narrow it down.”

“How?”

“We start with repetition.”

Ace straightened. “Repeated words across different books?”

Lucian nodded. “Yes. If your mother wanted to emphasize something, she’d make sure it appeared more than once. Start circling words that appear in at least five books.”

Violet hesitated. “Five?”

Lucian met her eyes. “She knew someone like me would be looking. Someone trained to spot intent.”

That sent a chill down Violet’s spine, but she nodded anyway.

They worked in silence again, the sound of pen against paper was the only thing that filled the room.

Minutes passed.

Then-

“Lucian,” Ace said slowly. “We’ve got repeats.”

Lucian moved to his side instantly. “How many?”

Ace pointed. “These ones show up in at least seven books.”

Lucian read them aloud, one by one.

“Bank.

Vault.

Key.

Trust.

Blood–Legacy.

Ravinne.”

کر

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Chapter 354

Violet’s breath caught painfully in her chest.

“Blood Legacy?” she whispered.

Lucian didn’t answer immediately. His jaw tightened, his mind already racing ahead.

Ace looked between them. “That’s not random.”

“No,” Lucian said quietly. “It’s not.”

Violet’s hands trembled. “My mother… she never talked about Stormvale. Not once.”

Lucian’s eyes flicked to her. “Which means she didn’t want you involved unless

you

had to be”

Ace frowned. “So the words point to a location?”

Lucian shook his head slightly. “Not yet. These are anchors.”

Violet blinked. “Anchors for what?”

“For a message hidden inside the chaos.”

Lucian flipped through another sheet. “Now we do the second layer.”

Ace groaned softly. “There’s another layer?”

Lucian’s lips twitched faintly. “She was dealing with powerful people, Ace. One layer would’ve been reckless.”

Violet swallowed. “What’s the second layer?”

Lucian tapped the pages. “Positioning.”

Ace frowned. “Positioning?”

“The position of the underlined words on each page.”

Violet’s eyes widened. “You’re saying… page numbers?”

“And line placement,” Lucian confirmed. “Your mother wasn’t just hiding information, she was encoding it.”

Ace let out a slow breath. “That’s insane.”

“That’s survival,” Lucian corrected.

They reorganized again, this time listing the repeated words alongside/page numbers and line placements.

The room felt smaller now. Heavier. Like the walls themselves were leaning in to listen.

Then Violet froze.

“Lucian,” she whispered.

He looked up instantly. “What did you find?”

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