CHAPTER 170:
KATYA POV
I clutched the shredded fabric of the sundress to my chest, the jagged edges of the silk catching on my trembling fingers.
This was the dress Nonna had smiled at. The one she said made me look like "a girl who deserved the sun."
Now, it was just strips of cloth, murdered by a pair of scissors and thrown onto the floor like a dead thing.
"Stop it," Gina snapped, her voice coming from somewhere above me. "You're getting blood on the carpet. Do you have any idea what it costs to clean this floor?"
I didn't answer, blindly staring into the room—my room. Or at least, it had been mine an hour ago.
The bed was stripped. The familiar scent of the lavender sachets I'd tucked under the pillows was gone, replaced by the suffocating, artificial stench of Marina's lilies.
The little glass bird Nonna had given me was nowhere to be seen. It was as if I had never existed here.
