Tangled in His Obsession (Seraphina)

Chapter 484

Before her tenth birthday, Seraphina's life was a picture of stability and contentment.

Her father, Carney, was a struggling artist whose paintings barely paid the bills for her and her mother, Magdalen. They sometimes had to make do with the simplest of meals, but Carney and Magdalen shared a bond so loving that Seraphina, their only child, grew up without knowing the slightest hint of sorrow.

Everything changed when Carney passed away.

Seraphina could still vividly recall the winter of her tenth year, when illness had whittled her father down to bones, and he spent his days in a hospital bed, fighting a losing battle.

Magdalen, once a woman whose hands had never been marred by household chores, transformed overnight into the epitome of a devoted wife and mother. She was a constant presence at Carney's bedside, her tears shed in silence, her heartache cloaked in stoic resolve.

Despite her efforts, Carney didn't make it through the winter.

He departed this world just before New Year's Eve, leaving them in the cold sterility of the hospital room. After handling Carney's funeral all by herself, Magdalen set out to find work.

left her with few marketable skills beyond her beauty, and decent job prospects were bleak. Still, she persisted, her breakdowns reserved for the darkest hours of the night when she would clutch Seraphina and cry until there were no

lost the man they thought would be their

world had collapsed. And no matter how

City and left her

have happened," Seraphina whispered into Leandro's embrace. "Someone must have lied to her, made her believe I was the child of

Simon and those close to him. Seraphina didn't remember meeting Simon as a child, but he had told Andrea that he had seen her once, many years prior, when he went to Summitville to honor the memory of a woman he

chance, he encountered Carney and little Seraphina at the cemetery. Despite just having visited a grave, she was full of life, her laughter and playful tugs at her father's arm painting

fresh flowers and offerings. Turning back, Carney and Seraphina were already gone. Back in Sunburst City, Simon had someone investigate Seraphina's origins. The conclusion he was given stated that Seraphina was indeed Adelina's

had indeed altered the records, then she knew the truth and harbored a deep-seated hatred. For a man like Simon, the notion that his beloved bore another man's child would be a humiliation

an opportunity to strike at Seraphina, whom Simon believed to be another

fabricated "truth" to Magdalen, perhaps intending to take Seraphina for herself and exact her vengeance. But she hadn't accounted for Magdalen's decision to entrust

then on, the Reynolds family became Seraphina's sanctuary. Her identity as one of their own

came from was both shocking and infuriating to him. But because I reminded him so much of the woman he cherished, he was willing to let me be." Seraphina continued, her voice steady but with

finally speaking. "When did