Seraphina POV:
"Seraphina!" Isabella's voice rang out over the mic. "Come up here, sister."
My stomach churned. I stepped out of the shadows, clutching the velvet pouch.
I walked onto the stage. "I... I have a gift," I stammered.
Isabella snatched it. She pulled out the modest pearl earrings I had saved for months to buy.
"Oh, how... quaint," she laughed, tossing them onto a table like garbage.
The crowd chuckled.
Isabella reached to pat my cheek, but her eyes locked onto my wrist.
I wore a bracelet of rough volcanic stone and a single unpolished moonstone. It was ugly, but it was the anchor I had used to ground Dante during his blindness.
"That!" Isabella gasped. "That bracelet! She stole it! That's the one I lost the night I saved you, Dante!"
It was a lie so bold it took my breath away.
Dante stiffened. He inhaled the scent of the stone.
"Is this true?" he growled.
"No," I said. "It's mine. I used it to help you focus when the pain—"
Dante grabbed my wrist, his grip crushing. He ran a thumb over the stone. A flash of memory crossed his face.
But then he looked at Isabella's fake tears.
"You stole a memento of our survival," he snarled.
"I am the one who saved you!" I screamed. "I am Seven!"
Smack.
My father rushed the stage and backhanded me. I flew backward, crashing into a tower of champagne glasses.
Shards sliced my skin. Alcohol stung like acid.
Isabella walked over, a glass of red wine in hand.
"Thief," she spat.
She poured the wine over my head. It ran down my face like a mark of sin.
Dante turned away, shielding Isabella from the "ugly" sight.
"Get her out of here," he ordered.
