Chapter 11 – Tears, Truth, and Family

Chapter 11 – Tears, Truth, and Family

The morning sunlight spilled across the Rivera estate, calm and golden.

Stella sat in the drawing room, wide awake and slightly bored, legs tucked beneath her on a velvet couch. Her galaxy-filled eyes shimmered faintly as she sipped tea she didn’t need.

Across from her sat Duke Rivera and brother Alexis, both tense. Duchess Rivera was beside her, hands gently folded but fingers twitching.

The air was quiet. Too quiet.

Finally, the Duke spoke, his voice low and careful.

“Are you truly… my daughter?”

Stella blinked, then tilted her head with an amused smile.

“Why does everyone keep asking that?” she sighed, setting her cup down. “Yes. I’m your daughter. One hundred and one percent, I promise.”

The Duke exhaled slowly, a wave of relief spreading over his face.

But Stella wasn’t finished.

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“I suppose you deserve the truth now,” she said, brushing her hair back. “You’ve all been patient... well, relatively.”

What followed was a tale that belonged in no mortal library.

She told them everything — about the fall, the soul-shattering, the endless journey through dimensions, the fragments of herself scattered like stardust, and the impossibly long search to become whole again.

She told them of galaxies ruled, empires destroyed, friends lost, identities blurred. And in the end... how she chose not to consume her final self, but to merge into it.

So she could be Stella again.

By the time she finished, the room had fallen into stunned silence.

The Duchess’s lips trembled. Her hands flew up to cover her mouth as tears slid silently down her cheeks.

“Oh, my darling...” she whispered, then lunged forward, hugging Stella so tightly the poor girl almost dropped her tea.

“I’m okay now,” Stella murmured softly. “Really.”

Even Alexis — the ever-composed heir, her older brother, the pillar of the Rivera family — stood up and walked over, wrapping his arms around both women without a word.

“I’m supposed to be the strong one here,” he muttered, voice rough. “But I never imagined... You went through all of that... alone.”

“Don’t cry now,” Stella teased gently. “You’ll wrinkle your perfectly sculpted heir face.”

He chuckled, pulling back with a slightly red face. “Welcome home, Stella.”

Stella smiled.

For once… it was a real one.

After what felt like a lifetime of holding her, they finally released her and sat back, though her mother kept dabbing her eyes.

Then Alexis cleared his throat, smirking slightly.

“So... should I call you Elder Sister now? Technically, you’re what... nearing a few million years?”

Stella’s eyes narrowed.

“Do you want to die, Alexis?”

She casually pulled a black blade from thin air, resting it on her shoulder like it was a loaf of bread.

Alexis stiffened. “I was joking! Calm down! I’m still the older one biologically!”

The Duke and Duchess both burst into quiet laughter, watching their children bicker like overgrown toddlers.

“For a moment,” the Duchess whispered to her husband, “it’s like they’ve all gone back to when they were small.”

The Duke nodded fondly.

Then, as if remembering something important, he turned to Stella.

“Be honest with me,” he said with a grin. “Just how powerful are you now? Should I start planning for world domination, or...?”

Stella tilted her head, thoughtful.

“Well... if someone tried to kill every king in the world right now, you wouldn’t need to worry. I’d just un-kill them. Or erase the concept of monarchy altogether. Wh

ichever’s funnier.”

The room went silent again.

The Duke blinked.

“…Noted.”