The next morning unfolded with the same cold rigidity as the day before.
The grand breakfast table was cloaked in an uncomfortable silence. Tension pulsed in the air like a hidden current, impossible to ignore. Servants moved carefully, their eyes lowered, their footsteps hushed.
Isabelle sat at the far end of the table, isolated in a way that went far beyond physical distance. She didn’t say a word—not to her mother, not to her father, and certainly not to her sister, whose golden presence seemed to command the room with quiet dignity. River’s words from the previous day still echoed in her ears, cutting deeper than she'd expected.
Her parents had changed overnight. Since learning the truth of the situation—the judgment, the danger, the choices made—they were colder with her. Still pol
