Chapter 37
The Hollow Victory
Victory should have tasted sweet. It should have been a crescendo. But as I stood in the echoing government lobby, watching my sister's world shatter into a million silent pieces, all I could taste was ash.
Lilith just stood there frozen, hollow, the pride she'd worn like armor shattered around her feet. Her eyes had turned into empty, glassy voids staring at a future she could no longer reach.
The officials turned away, their roles complete.
The candidates who once whispered, judged, and mocked now drifted out of the hall in uneasy silence. Their backward glances were a strange mix: respect for me… and sharp, cold revulsion for her.
It was Armand's voice that finally cut through the haze, a calm, steady anchor in the turbulent silence.
"Miss Alayna?"
I tore my eyes from the wreckage that was my sister.
"Thank you," I said, my voice barely there. "You didn't have to intervene like that."
