CHAPTER 26

Seeing Victoria just standing, decided to walk closer to her to see who she was talking with.

Then immediately Chloe's confident stride faltered the moment her eyes landed on Valentina.

Her breath hitched, and for the first time in a long while, she lost her balance. A subtle wobble, a step back—small reactions, but they betrayed the storm raging inside her.

"This… this isn't real."

Her fingers clenched at her side as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing.

"Valentina."

But not the Valentina she had known.

The woman before her wasn't the disfigured, ruined girl they had left to rot in the shadows of the family. She wasn't the pitiful sight Chloe had mocked, dismissed, and thrown away without a second thought.

No. This Valentina stood tall. Confident, and stunning.