I shut my door behind me and pressed my back against it, chest heaving. The silence of my room felt heavier than the family's cruel laughter downstairs.
Slowly, I walked to the mirror. My reflection stared back at me, jet-black hair falling like silk over my shoulders, stormy grey eyes that never seemed to belong in this house, fair skin kissed with a faint tan. My plump, peach lips trembled as I lifted my hand to my cheek.
The mark from my father's slap… was gone.
Completely gone, as though it had never happened.
A shaky laugh escaped my throat, half a sob. "Why me?" I whispered. "They arranged this marriage behind my back, and now they make it look like I'm the one lusting over Damiano? Why is it always me?"
My gaze blurred as old memories clawed their way forward.
Bruno.
The family's beloved hound. He had died once, years ago, and in my panic I had laid my small hands on him, begging him to breathe. And he had. To everyone's shock, Bruno had coughed and stood again, tail wagging. Isabella had seen. She told them all.
But it hadn't ended there.
Because months later, when anger had consumed me, when Bruno had barked too loud and too long while I screamed, I had lost control. He dropped dead at my feet, eyes lifeless.
Since then, I hadn't been a daughter. I had been a curse. A witch. An abomination to be punished whenever they pleased. My mother's bitter words echoed: you were the reason I nearly died in childbirth… you should have never been born.
I swallowed, tears streaking down my face. "Where are you?" I whispered to the mirror, voice breaking. "Show yourself. Please. I need you."
The air shifted.
My reflection flickered. For a heartbeat, I thought it was my imagination, then she appeared.
A woman, no, a vision. My vision. The same face, the same stormy grey eyes, but framed by a waterfall of long white hair. Her lashes, brows, everything touched with pale silver, her presence so radiant it felt otherworldly.
She was me, and yet not me. A goddess sculpted from moonlight.
Her lips parted, her voice a soft melody that seemed to hum inside my bones.
"Control your anger, Luna. Do not give them what they want. Endure. When the time comes… you will know."
And then she was gone, leaving only my trembling reflection behind.