Alessia's chest rose and fell rapidly, her eyes flicking between the two figures who stood beside her hospital bed.
Seraphina's gaze burned with authority, a strange mixture of sisterly warmth and venomous secrecy.
Lorenzo, quiet and brooding, lingered behind her like a shadow. A man with a face so familiar yet wrapped in a fog Alessia couldn't pierce.
Her voice came out broken, trembling. "Who… who are you?"
Seraphina stepped forward, her smile soft yet calculated. "I am Seraphina. Your elder sister. Blood of your blood. And Lorenzo…" she turned with a theatrical sweep of her hand, "is the man who stood by you when the world betrayed you.
He is your lover, the one who has always protected you."
