Zafir Alistair Valyenor grew up in the Valyenor household as the second son of Duke Henry and Duchess Amelia. And he fully thought that they were truly a family. That Hendrick was his older brother, and Stella was his younger sister.
That was until he heard the truth from servants in the castle when he was six years old while playing hide and seek with Hendrick.
* * *
"Why should we treat him like he was a noble? He's a nobody. No one even knows of his true origin," one said.
"Indeed. What if he was the son of criminals? Or was a cursed child so he was abandoned," another added.
"Right? What if he brought bad luck to the ducal family or the entire duchy?" the third one joined in.
The servants were talking about how Zafir was just some baby that the duke picked up from who knows where and how his presence might only bring harm to the family.
