Fake Pearl still not being here kept scratching at the back of my mind like an itch I could not reach. It did not make sense. Valery loved theatrics. She loved props. She loved a full cast for her drama. Yet that girl, the one who looked like me, the one she paraded in front of everyone as if she was the better option, the shinier version, the proper daughter… she did not make an appearance.My thoughts kept looping and looping, trying to make sense of the missing piece. Why bring her everywhere before, but not today? Why bring her for the authority tests, but not for this important display of public sympathy? Why leave her out now, when she was supposed to be Valery’s greatest weapon?No answer came.Just confusion.I tore my gaze away from my father for a moment, mostly because watching him breathe felt like watching someone balance on the edge of a cliff. One wrong step. One wrong breath. One wrong push. That was all it would take.Now I turned to Harold and Kade.Bless the moon go
Last Updated : 2025-12-10 Read more