Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Elara," Valena reached for Lara's hand.

"Ow, that hurts, Valen!" Elara yelped and yanked her hand back hard.

She clutched her wrist like it was in pain. Valena stared at her, baffled, at Elara's wincing face the echo of that scream still ringing in her ears. Sera and Leovan came hurrying over.

"What's wrong, Elara?" Sera asked, while Leovan fixed Valena with a sharp look.

"Leo, I didn't do anything to her. I just reached for her hand, and she—" the sentence trailed off.

Sera turned a hard stare on Valena, her hand rising in the air but stopping just short of her adopted daughter's cheek. "What exactly did you do, Valena?"

She took a long breath before answering, her eyes on Sera. Her hands twisted at the hem of the shirt she'd worn that afternoon.

"I just reached for her hand, because I was calling her name and she—"

"Valena grabbed my arm, Mrs. Dominique. Um... she wasn't calling me, she just grabbed it," Elara cut in.

"If Valena had just called my name nicely, I would've been happy to come. But instead she yanks my arm like that it really hurts," she added, voice pitched to sound pitiful.

Valena looked up, brow furrowing.

"Valena, go to your room!" Leovan snapped.

"But, Leo. I didn't do anything—" it felt pointless to defend herself.

"You want to talk back to me?" his eyes hardened. "Go to your room until you understand what you did!"

Valena walked out of the family room, leaving Sera and Leovan fussing over Elara. Her eyes stung not from dust, but from watching her mother and brother choose to believe Elara over her.

As if no defense, however honest, could sway Sera's opinion of her now. The affection that used to be hers alone had shifted direction entirely. What she didn't yet realize was that her standing as a daughter of the Dominique family was already starting to slip away.

"If it was my room yesterday, what's next today?" the words slipped out before she could stop them.

***

Three days after Elara's arrival, the Dominique mansion no longer felt the same.

Sera sat at the breakfast table, eyes glassy, staring at the young girl across from her as if looking at a ghost from the past finally come home.

"Tell me again," she said softly, "about the orphanage. How you managed on your own all those years."

Elara looked down, fingers twisting the edge of the tablecloth. "I don't want to be a burden, Mrs. Dominique. What matters is I'm here now."

"Call me Mom," Sera said quickly, almost like a plea.

At the far end of the table, Valena pushed her breakfast around her plate without appetite. No one asked how her night had been, or whether the party preparations seemingly forgotten by everyone else still needed to move forward.

Jorge walked into the dining room, his face still carrying an expression that had been unreadable since the day Elara arrived. He sat at the head of the table, his eyes catching on Elara for a second before he quickly looked away.

"Dad," Valena said, trying to draw the attention that used to come to her without asking.

"Yes?" Jorge answered without turning, busy pouring his coffee.

"Never mind," Valena finally said. "I just wanted to see how you're doing."

Jorge gave a brief nod, then sank back into his own thoughts.

Over those next few days, Valena started noticing a pattern she couldn't ignore anymore. The seat next to Sera, the one that used to be hers at dinner, was now more often than not taken by Elara. The questions that used to be for her about her day, her feelings had all shifted direction.

"You don't mind, do you?" Daniel asked one evening, the two of them sitting together on the veranda. "Your family's just trying to make up for lost time."

"No," Valena answered, though the words sounded more convincing to herself than they probably did to Daniel. "I understand."

But understanding and accepting were two different things, and the distance between them was starting to feel more and more real to Valena.

Elsie was the only one who hadn't changed at all. She still called Valena over to sit beside her every evening, still asked the small questions that, these days, only she seemed to care to ask.

"How are you feeling, sweetheart?" Elsie asked one day, her eyes sharp even as her voice stayed soft.

"I'm fine, Grandma."

"You're lying," Elsie said, no accusation in it just a simple statement of fact. "But that's all right. I'm here whenever you're ready to be honest."

Valena only smiled, choosing to keep it all to herself.

That night, once the whole house had gone quiet, the phone rang out sharply, breaking the silence. Valena, still awake in her room, heard hurried footsteps in the hallway, followed by Sera's voice suddenly rising into a shriek.

She stepped out of her room to find Jorge grabbing his coat with shaking hands, phone still pressed to his ear.

"What happened?" Valena asked, her heart starting to race for no clear reason.

Jorge turned, his face drained of color. "Leovan," he said, his voice nearly breaking. "He's been in an accident."

Behind him, Sera was already sprinting for the door, leaving Elara standing alone at the top of the stairs with an expression that, had anyone bothered to notice, didn't quite match the s

ame panic everyone else was feeling.