Chapter 2

I remembered last month's family dinner. A formal affair. I was in a white dress, a ghost in the corner.

But the daughters of a rival family found me anyway.

"Well, look what we have here. The invisible princess." Isabella Rosetti blocked my path, a cruel smirk on her lips.

Two other girls, both my rivals from the ballet academy, flanked her.

"I hear you stole my spot at the Royal," Isabella’s voice was pure venom, coated in honey. "You really think you're good enough?"

They shoved me into a dressing room and locked the door.

"You think you're so special?" Anna took out a small pair of scissors and started snipping at my dress. "Your own parents don't even care about you."

I tried to fight, but there were too many of them.

"Please, don't," my voice shook. "You can have the spot. I'll give it to you."

"Too late for that," Isabella said, grinding her sharp heel into my toes. "You should've learned your place sooner."

Blood seeped through my white stockings.

But I bit back the scream. I choked down the tears. One sound, one sob, and it would reach Chloe. She would have another meltdown.

They left me in there for a whole hour. They only let me out after the dinner was over.

I limped back to the mansion in my ruined dress. When Elena saw my ruined dress and bleeding toes, her face hardened.

"Sera! What did you do?"

I hung my head, hiding my bleeding hands behind my back.

"I'm sorry, Mom. I'll go change."

Darkness was finally taking over.

I heard Victor on the phone. "…Yeah, Chloe had another episode. Send the best doctor. We're bringing her to the private hospital now."

Footsteps rushed past me. No one stopped to ask why I was so quiet.

"Sera, go get Chloe’s noise-canceling headphones!" Elena commanded without a second glance.

I tried to answer, but my lips wouldn't move.

"Pathetic. Always trying to steal Chloe's moment," Victor muttered in disgust.

My last thought was of the day I packed away all my pointe shoes and leotards, locking them in a trunk for good.

"Why are you quitting?" my ballet instructor had asked, shocked. "You're the most gifted student I've ever seen!"

"The sound of the shoes... it makes my sister want to die," I said, staring at the floor, unable to meet her disappointed eyes.

"The doctor said her brain needs absolute silence."

Now, all those locked-up dreams were dying right here with me.

The sound of the private doctor's car grew closer.

I heard Elena cry out, "Chloe! Hold on! The doctor is here!"

A flurry of footsteps, and the mansion doors were thrown open.

A gust of night air cut through the coppery tang of blood.

"Where's the patient?" a familiar male voice asked.

"Here! Quick! My daughter's fading!" Victor answered urgently, pointing toward the broken table.

I wished someone, anyone, would just look down and see another daughter bleeding out, waiting to be saved.

The medical team rushed straight to Chloe, carefully dressing the cuts on her arm.

No one noticed me dying in the corner.

"A sensory episode is a critical emergency…" The voice faded. Then... nothing.

I felt strangely light. Something was leaving my body.

The pain was gone.

I was floating in the air. I looked down and saw my body.

The nineteen-year-old girl lay in a pool of her own blood, her face pale, with dried blood on her lips.

Her fingers were broken, her nails caked with blood.

That was me.

Sera Castellano.

The Don's eldest daughter. Dead on the marble stairs of her own home.

"Quick! Get her in the car!" Victor's voice came from downstairs.

Victor carefully lifted my sister, now wearing her headphones, and strode toward the Maybach waiting outside.

"She's going to be okay, right?" Elena followed close behind, her eyes filled with tears for her injured younger daughter.

"She'll be fine with prompt treatment," the doctor assured her. "The cuts aren't deep."

The car door opened. Victor gently placed Chloe in the back seat.

Elena was about to get in, but she paused. "Wait, where's Sera?"

My soul drifted toward the car, watching Elena's confused face.

"Forget about her! Chloe is what matters!" Victor snapped, already securing his favorite daughter.

Elena hesitated for just a second, then slid into the car.

The engine roared to life, and the Maybach pulled away from the mansion.

The Maybach's tires crushed the white rose petals scattered on the driveway.

I floated in the night air, watching the car carry my entire family into the darkness.

Only I knew that those crushed white roses were the gift I'd spent six months growing for Victor's birthday.