Daphne's POV
The burning sensation in my chest had settled into something worse than agony. A constant, gnawing reminder that everything I once was had been ripped away. The searing pain that dropped me to my knees earlier had faded, but what remained felt like a permanent scar across my soul.
My body felt foreign. The air seemed thicker, harder to pull into my lungs. My skin crawled as if it no longer belonged to me. When I stared down at my fingers, they looked identical to before. Same manicured nails, same pale complexion. Yet they felt like stranger's hands attached to my wrists.
Nothing would ever be the same.
I raised my eyes and caught sight of my mother. Unshed tears pooled at the corners of her eyes, threatening to spill over. Her mouth formed a tight, bloodless line. She clutched her hands together in her lap with such force that her knuckles had turned bone white.
She looked like she was attending a funeral. Perhaps she was.
