Smack!
A sharp, loud slap cut straight through the thick, hazy romance lingering between the flower bushes.
Brando stood frozen in place, his head turned to one side. A sharp, vivid handprint bloomed starkly across his cheek.
Solenne stood opposite him. The faint warmth and scent of their earlier embrace still clung to her lips, but her face was deathly pale, her eyes sharp with coldness and total detachment.
Brando already had fair skin, so that fiery red handprint on his cheek stood out so sharply it was almost painful to look at.
He slowly turned his head, and the second his gaze landed on Solenne's pale, haggard face, the image of her frail, dying form from his past life flashed through his mind out of nowhere.
In the blink of an eye, every last spark of anger, soft affection, an
