The room stopped breathing.Lyra stood trapped in the soldier’s grip, the blade pressed so tightly against her neck that one more inch would open skin.Ariana’s gun remained raised, but her finger froze.One wrong move—one wrong breath—and her sister died.Clara stood three steps away, calm again, as if chaos had returned the world to a shape she preferred.The emergency red light painted blood across the walls like warning signs.Victor’s face hardened into something colder than rage.“If you touch her,” he said, voice low enough to cut through metal, “you will not leave this hospital alive.”Clara did not flinch.“If she stays, your mother dies in less than fifteen minutes.”Ariana turned instantly.“My mother?”Her mother, still weak against Elena’s arms, looked pale—too pale.Ariana had noticed the weakness earlier.The trembling.The slowing breath.But now—now she saw something worse.A dark line spreading faintly beneath the skin near her wrist.Victor’s father saw it too.H
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