Confused over the current circumstances, I walked toward my mother, a small gravity body bubble surrounding me. I wasn’t foolish enough to startle her—especially not now, not with whatever had just happened.
I stopped a few steps away, enough for her to see me clearly from the corner of her eye, and asked quietly,
“Mother, what has happened?”
But she didn’t answer in any way that brought clarity or peace.
“It is clear Isabella won. Selene, take her back to your room and be ready for the wedding ahead. Klaudia, has the dress arrived yet?”
She didn’t even glance at me again.
Avoidance. Blatant, deliberate avoidance.
The kind that burned through silence louder than any truth.
Everyone else around her replied without hesitation, their voices calm, mechanical, as though nothing was wron
