A Grandfather's Last Wish
Adrian Delsin loved Saturdays with his grandmother, Eleanor.
E.g. ：I overheard my parents discussing a secret that made my entire childhood a lie.
- 1、A Grandfather's Last Wish
- 2、The Erased Heir
- 3、Grandmother’s Silent Guardian
- 4、The Pact of Shadows
- 5、A Father's Desperate Act
- 6、Echoes of the Past
- 7、The Unraveling Thread
Their ritual was simple: warm tea, forgotten photo albums, and the quiet comfort of shared stories.
Today, however, the air felt heavier.
Eleanor had asked for his help sorting through his late grandfather’s study, a room untouched since his passing a decade prior.
Dust motes danced in the afternoon light, illuminating stacks of brittle papers and leather-bound journals.
Adrian carefully lifted a heavy cedar box from a high shelf.
A thick, parchment-like envelope, bound with a faded red ribbon, slid from beneath a pile of old deeds.
Its weight felt significant, almost ominous, in his hands.
“FINAL FAMILY WILL” was embossed in elegant, swirling script at the top.
His grandfather, a man of meticulous detail, had always been a mystery, even in death.
The Erased Heir
Adrian’s fingers trembled slightly as he unfolded the aged document.
He saw his grandmother’s name, then his father’s, then a smaller bequest to him.
His gaze drifted to a section near the bottom.
It was stark, brutal, a violent scrubbing of thick black ink across several lines of text.
Someone had clearly intended for those words to vanish forever.
A cold dread settled in his stomach.
He leaned closer, recognizing the powerful, almost aggressive slant of the cross-out marks.
It was undeniably his father’s handwriting.
His father, a man of calm demeanor, rarely showed such force, especially not on a legal document.
A shiver traced its way down Adrian’s spine.
He carefully held the paper up to the window, the sunlight filtering through the delicate parchment.
The ink, though heavy, began to surrender its secret.
Letters, faint but discernible, emerged from the darkness.
“...to my beloved son, Julian Delsin…”
Adrian’s breath hitched in his throat.
Julian Delsin.
He had never heard that name before.
His family history, as far as he knew, was simple: father, mother, him.
He was an only child.
The name continued to reveal itself, word by agonizing word.
“…and his twin brother, Adrian Delsin, jointly…”
Adrian felt the world tilt.
Twin brother?
He wasn’t supposed to have a twin.
He wasn’t supposed to have any siblings at all.
His grip loosened, and the will fluttered to the worn carpet.
Grandmother’s Silent Guardian
Eleanor had been standing silently in the doorway, her presence unnoticed until now.
Her face, usually etched with gentle smiles, was a canvas of profound sadness and an unsettling resolve.
She walked slowly, deliberately, towards him, her gaze fixed on the fallen document.
“You weren’t supposed to know, Adrian,” she whispered, her voice like rustling leaves.
Her hand, gnarled with age, reached for his.
She opened the tarnished locket that always hung around her neck, a piece he’d assumed was purely sentimental.
Inside, protected by a thin pane of glass, lay a miniature, sepia-toned photograph.
It showed not two, but three swaddled infants nestled together in a wicker basket.
Three.
His heart thundered against his ribs, a frantic drumbeat of disbelief.
One of the babies, he instantly recognized: his own infant self, unmistakable.
Another baby looked uncannily similar, a mirror image, his twin.
But the third?
The third baby was subtly different, a darker tuft of hair, a more defined chin.
Eleanor's eyes, clouded with unshed tears, met his.
“Your grandfather, he loved you all so fiercely,” she began, her voice barely audible.
“But some lineages… some destinies… carry a heavy price.”
The Pact of Shadows
Eleanor settled into a velvet armchair, motioning for Adrian to sit opposite her.
She began to speak of a secret, a pact woven into the very fabric of the Delsin family for generations.
It was a lineage cursed, or blessed, with a rare, potent gift, tied to the alignment of certain stars.
This gift, however, came with a terrible caveat for those born under specific celestial configurations.
For triplets, specifically, it foretold an imbalance, a fracturing of the Delsin legacy.
“One twin would rise, powerful and benevolent,” Eleanor explained, her voice gaining a strange, ancient resonance.
“The other would be consumed by shadows, a harbinger of ruin.”
“And the third… the third would pay the ultimate price to maintain balance.”
Adrian listened, mesmerized and horrified, as she described an ancient prophecy.
It spoke of a choice, a sacrifice, that had to be made upon the birth of triplets in their line.
His father, fiercely protective, had tried to defy fate.
He had known about the prophecy, passed down in hushed tones through his ancestors.
