SERAPHINA’S POV
For a moment, I simply stared at Catherine, certain I had misheard her.
The ocean roared behind us, waves breaking against unseen cliffs beyond the grassland, but the sound seemed distant and unreal compared to the sudden pounding of my heart.
“What did you just say?” I asked.
Catherine’s smile deepened, the expression almost indulgent now that she had finally provoked the reaction she wanted.
“Edward,” she repeated.
My father’s name hung between us like a ghost.
Catherine tilted her head as though considering how much to reveal. She studied my face with open curiosity, clearly enjoying the tension she had created.
“I know,” she said at last, “that there were…complications between you and Edward.”
The understatement almost made me laugh.
Complications.
Years of cold silence, harsh expectations, and a lifetime of being treated as an afterthought were apparently summarized by that single inept word.
