*TW: Some parts of this chapter may be upsetting to some readers.*
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One thing was certain for Harmonie. The reason she had managed to survive was thanks to her mother's last-second intervention, who had absorbed the full impact of the accident.
Her bloodied face had terrified her, but the look she gave her in that moment had been full of love.
It hurt to know she had lost her – and forgotten her – this woman who had meant so much to her. It tormented her. But she knew her mother had loved her fiercely. The woman she was had been strong, determined, passionate. She had made mistakes, but that is true of every human being.
She was full of love, full of life, tormented by life but never letting herself be broken. A woman.
Unjust. She found it unjust that her mother's last image should be so traumatic. Such a young soul taken by someone else's fault.
"One day I will protect you from the bad guys, Mommy. I will be a superhero." She had once told her mother upon discovering the existence of superheroes.
"Oh really?" Her mother had answered with a smile full of indulgence and love. "Then my little superhero must promise me to always be fair, full of love and to protect those they hold dear."
"Yes! I promise." Ryan had answered, bursting with excitement.
...
"Mommy, your little Ryan couldn't keep her promise. On the contrary, I am the one making others suffer. I am sorry. I am so sorry." She burst into sobs, curled into herself.
Her hands bloodied.
...
Ever since she had come home, Cassandre had not felt like herself.
The people who had shown up at her place and kidnapped her. They had left behind trauma that made her flinch at the slightest sound, making her suspicious of everything around her.
Her kidnappers had locked her in a room that resembled a bedroom. She didn't know what they had done to her but she had been in a dissociative state for the majority of the time. She vaguely recalled being brought into an operating room surrounded by doctors and then nothing at all.
The day of her release was just as blurry. All she knew was that she had woken up in a hospital bed surrounded by her family.
No matter how many times they asked her what had happened, she couldn't answer. She simply didn't know.
Her parents had reported the kidnapping to the authorities. The investigation was still ongoing. A kidnapping that had lasted nearly 2 weeks – bizarre.
The hospital found nothing alarming in Cassandre's condition. She was, on the contrary, in very good health.
However she was being tormented by nightmares that grew more and more sordid.
She often dreamed of doctors subjecting her to inhumane procedures. The number of times she would wake up startled in the evening was incalculable.
She no longer left her room. Harmonie's absence made it all the worse. It took her some time before she could bring herself to read the letter she had written to her.
She had to start following a regular treatment plan and seeing a therapist. Her parents made the decision to move so she could heal properly.
But several months later, her life shifted even further.
For a few days she had been sensing that something was not right within her but she couldn't pinpoint exactly what. She had to push the doctors to run tests on her.
The results hit her like a punch to the gut – one result in particular.
She was pregnant. And she was 7 months along.
She had been in a state of pregnancy denial. This news plunged her into a mental storm even harder to pull herself out of than before. Life was truly relentless, she thought.
The days that followed were a blur. She was physically present but mentally somewhere else entirely.
'How is this even possible? Did someone abuse me?'
'Obviously.'
Her 7-month belly became visible and so did all the struggles of being 7 months pregnant.
She didn't know what to do with herself, she was lost. She moved through every kind of emotional state. From fear to anger. From sadness to dread. A rollercoaster of emotions missing one crucial feeling. Joy. Happiness.
But in a strange twist of the human mind, that so-desperately-wanted joy appeared in her life in the most unexpected form imaginable.
Stockholm syndrome or something else entirely?
Cassandre began to slowly feel love for the being that was growing inside her. Hatred strangely gave way to love.
"We are going to get through this." She murmured.
But all of this rebuilding was upended again by the announcement of the loss of the child.
Her entire being wept with pain. Her parents had no choice but to place her in a specialized rehabilitation facility, themselves overwhelmed by events.
Between her recovery and her studies, it can be said that she came through it remarkably. Many would surely not have been able to endure all of that.
Cassandre tried to move forward despite the wounds she still carried, still fresh.
The mental and physical strength she had managed to show was extraordinary and admirable.
....
The first encounter between Hazel, Chloé and Harmonie had been strange.
After their arrival in Lième, Chloé was directly contacted by the organization and Harmonie as well, but it had been arranged by the academy that they would take certain courses remotely while everything related to practical work would take place at the academy.
The academy followed their progress closely. It was through this that they learned Alex had been an active member of the organization. But it was not yet possible for them to get more details about their involvement.
One day during a practical exercise, Chloé and Harmonie came to meet Hazel, who was their instructor. They were surprised by her popularity among the other students and they learned she was a legend in her field of expertise, even having received government recognition for her contributions.
They learned the full extent of Hazel's legend later on. But what struck them first was the striking resemblance between Hazel and Harmonie's mother, Nifah.
Harmonie felt a strange familiarity toward her and the way Hazel looked at her was all the more enigmatic. Despite her discretion, Harmonie had noticed.
Harmonie was truly not in the mood to beat around the bush and went directly to ask Hazel whether she was her mother's little sister. It came across as blunt but she had already been leaning toward that hypothesis. She was not wrong.
The history of Nifah's family had been quite complicated because of their stubbornness.
When Nifah got together with Damien, the family was not particularly supportive of that union but the couple eloped, eventually married and Nifah fell pregnant very quickly with Princess, and it was during this pregnancy that Damien's behavior began to change little by little. He was becoming increasingly volatile, for instance.
And they eventually separated after all the harm Damien had put her through, the countless betrayals, manipulation, emotional torment – Nifah was finally able to free herself from him.
And the relationship that had grown estranged with her family began to mend slowly over time.
But Harmonie's arrival in Nifah's life would shake that fragile peace all over again.
Nifah, driven by empathy, regret and an extraordinary maternal instinct toward Harmonie, decided to take her under her wing and adopt her – which was not particularly complicated since the child was an orphan.
Nifah did everything she could to help the child get back on her feet, physically and emotionally.
But Nifah's parents were against this closeness, which they considered a mistake, a disaster. Harmonie in their eyes was nothing more than the offspring of that insufferable Damien and some nobody.
They threatened Nifah with disinheritance, which ultimately pushed Nifah to leave in order to protect her children, because despite all her efforts, her parents persisted in their hatred toward an innocent being, yet another victim of her ex-husband.
And she decided to leave with Alex's help. Because staying in Lième could have been complicated for them given her family's power and connections – being at the head of a luxury hotel chain across the entire country, it would not have been difficult for her father to find her quickly.
But by leaving the country and with properties in other countries thanks to Alex, she had enough time to raise her children and above all to allow her parents to calm down before finding her again.
Of course, her parents found her 5 years later, realizing the importance Nifah placed on the child, they reluctantly accepted her choice and since then their relationship had been cordial.
Harmonie, feeling responsible for the situation despite her mother's insistence that yes, her arrival had been in someway part of the cause of that discord but was not the only reason – since long before getting involved with Damien, the relationship between her mother and her parents had already been complicated – decided to ask Hazel for help.
Hazel, who had the same idea in mind, organized a meeting between them at an aquarium.
The meeting was very stressful for both sides , and for Chloé, not knowing what to expect from their reaction. But they had Princess's help.
On the day itself, there was surprise, sadness, anger, relief and joy.
To give their mother the opportunity to reunite with her family, the five children slipped away to admire the other inhabitants of the aquarium. Without straying too far from their mother's sight.
Nifah's parents saw the look of pure love she directed at her children, the tenderness and happiness within it. They followed her gaze and saw the 5 children playing together, marveling at what they saw. The smile they wore.
They decided to continue the aquarium visit all together. This allowed Nifah's parents to see how Harmonie was with her siblings and how those siblings interacted with their adelphe. And the bonus addition that was Chloé only added to this little crew.
The parents began to accept the 2 bonus little ones more and more with Hazel and Princess whispering in their ears.
And above all thanks to the patience Harmonie showed toward them, combined with Chloé's chaotic and extravagant side.
They learned to love their little ones wholeheartedly, the bonus little ones included.
And Nifah's return to Lième was in part to give the children a change of scenery, find her own footing again and reconcile with her parents while also being better positioned to help her children in times of difficulty.