Asher's POV
I felt bad for Seraphina.
No— I felt guilty.
Somehow, deep down, I knew she was telling the truth. There was something in the way she stood her ground, even when everything and everyone seemed to gather against her. My body had reacted instinctively, siding with Melissa, but my heart… it wasn't on the same page.
And then my mother spoke. She was cold and dismissive. Her words cut sharply, not just into Seraphina, but into me also. I saw the way Seraphina flinched, barely. The way her eyes darkened when she called herself an orphan. That word cut deep through in the tense atmosphere, but it cut deeper into my heart!
What the hell was happening to me?
I wasn't supposed to care. I didn't even know her. And yet, here I was, wrestling with a guilt that shouldn't have been mine to carry. Feeling too much for a girl, I barely understood or even hated her to the core.
But I couldn't sit still anymore.