Chapter 215: Is that all your asking?
"What?" Esmeralda's features went slack. Her tears halted mid-track, frozen by the sheer audacity of the remark.
Her mouth parted in stunned silence; the insult was so clinical, so devoid of any sororal affection, that it rendered her mute.
"You heard me perfectly!" Victoria surged forward, the air between them vibrating with the tension of an approaching storm. "Do you imagine this path was easy? Enduring a sister content to be a mere ornament, terrified of a single blemish or a moment of discomfort? Because I chose to exert the effort required to become more than just a pawn for a political alliance, you envisioned yourself in some pathetic race with me?" She took another step, the silence of the garden amplifying the tense atmosphere, the crushing sound of her boots against the pavement.
"The depth of your self-absorption is staggering!"
