Rising from the Ashes The Heiress They Tried to Erase Novel

Chapter 1135 Chapter 1137: At last, Zoey shoved open a panel overhead, and sunlight streamed in, scattering brightness over the stairwell. When Maia lifted her gaze at the landing, she discovered they had stepped onto a hidden rooftop veiled in thick ivy that concealed it completely from the outside world. At the center stood a dilapidated little hut, which seemed out of place, as if it had been moved here from elsewhere. "Quite the surprise, isn't it?

Nobody would ever guess that the ivy I planted would grow into a shield for this place, or that I've managed to carve out a secret haven behind it all." Zoey's eyes gleamed with quiet pride as she revealed what she had made. "Beneath these prison walls, I built another layer, concealing the wooden house where I first drew breath. It's like peeling back the skin of an onion, each part hiding the next." Facing Maia, she stretched her arms as if to embrace the entire place.

"Welcome to the core of my many layers." After speaking, she turned away and began making her way toward the old wooden house, her steps steady and deliberate. The sun broke into slivers of brightness and shade, torn apart by leaves, and the pieces hung like a fragile curtain shaped like a rose. "It was never others who locked me in." Zoey faced away from Maia, standing in the center of the pale ray. Her words came quiet, as though she spoke only to the breeze. "It is my own heart that keeps me trapped here." She paused, her lips curling in a self-mocking smile.

"And you, you will be the only one in all these years who has the right to glimpse into my heart." Her voice carried sorrow, thin and cold, like drops of rain that landed deep inside the soul. Maia froze for a moment in surprise. Her eyes followed Zoey's slim outline, stretched long by the broken light and shade. : ⱥν﹒ⅽ Loneliness and grief pressed close against Maia's mouth. But her throat closed tight, and the words she wanted to release were crushed under something tender yet cutting. She stayed silent. In that instant, Maia caught a glimpse of Zoey that she had never laid eyes on before.

Zoey had always stood tall, full of pride, a woman of rare skill. Maia wondered what storms Zoey must have endured to shut herself away so quietly. To Zoey, perhaps the world, no matter how wide, had always felt like a cage. "Maia, step inside." Zoey stretched out her hand and pushed against the hut's wooden door. The door groaned on its hinges, trembling as though it might collapse any second. "Zoey, your surname is Cooper." Maia lifted her head and studied Zoey's striking profile with puzzled eyes. "You were the most gifted daughter of the Cooper family two decades ago.

How could this poor hut ever be your home?" "No, Maia... Do you know the reason I cared for you at our first meeting, why I saved you from those prisoners who wished to harm you?" Zoey swung around, her lips bent in a faint smile, her brows arching high. . . .