The front door shook again, and Evelyn instinctively tightened her grip around the wooden box as Lucas raised his gun.

"Is there another way out?" he asked.

The old man nodded towards the kitchen. "Through the back."

Lucas grabbed Evelyn's hand, but she didn't move.

"What about you?"

"I've lived long enough to know when my time has come," the old man replied, his voice strangely calm. "Now go."

Another blow struck the door, splintering the frame.

Lucas pulled Evelyn towards the kitchen, and they had barely reached the back door when a gunshot shattered the silence.

The old man cried out, Evelyn turned...

He was standing beside the cabinet, one hand pressed against his shoulder as blood seeped between his fingers.

"Go!" he shouted.

Lucas dragged Evelyn outside.

They ran through the narrow garden and climbed over the rear wall just as another gunshot sounded behind them.

Evelyn's breathing became ragged as they reached the next street. "He's hurt."

"Keep moving." Lucas commanded.

"We can't just leave him." Evelyn said stubbornly.

"We have no choice." Lucas pulled her into the shadow of a building, and they waited while two black vehicles sped past the junction.

Evelyn looked down at the wooden box still clutched against her chest. "Why would they want this?"

Lucas stared at it. "I don't know."

"You know more than you're telling me." Evelyn fired at Lucas, annoyed.

"I swear I don't." Lucas denied, trying to look sincere... Or maybe he was being sincere.

She looked at him for several seconds before slowly opening the lid.

Inside was a bundle of old photographs, a small silver pendant and several folded documents tied together with a faded black ribbon.

Evelyn picked up the pendant first. The moment she saw the symbol engraved on it, her stomach tightened.

It was a crown surrounded by thorns... The same emblem! The same one on Adrian Moretti's card.

"Lucas..." She shakily called.

He looked at the pendant and went silent.

Evelyn opened the first document, it was an old birth certificate, her name was printed across the top:

Evelyn Rose Moretti.

She stared at it, unable to breathe.

Lucas reached for her. "Evelyn..."

She pulled away. "My name isn't Hart."

"No." Lucas replied, not knowing what else to say.

"Then why have I spent my entire life believing it was?"

Lucas looked at the document. "Because someone wanted you to."

She turned another page, there was a photograph tucked inside, a baby girl wrapped in a white blanket, held in the arms of a young man whose face had been deliberately scratched away.

Evelyn recognised him, though not from the photograph itself, but from somewhere deeper she couldn't place her hands on, somewhere buried inside a memory she couldn't quite reach.

Her fingers began to tremble. "I've seen him before."

Lucas stared at her. "Who?"

"I don't know."

Then headlights appeared at the end of the street, Lucas looked behind them, two black SUVs were turning the corner.

His expression hardened. "They found us."

Evelyn closed the box. "Where do we go?"

Lucas looked at her for a moment before answering. "There is only one person who can protect you now."

Her heart sank. "Adrian..."

Lucas nodded.

And somewhere across the city, Adrian Moretti was already looking at a photograph of Evelyn Hart, knowing something she still didn't...

Her real name.