Raven collapsed onto the antique fainting couch of their art studio, her muddy boots staining the floral brocade fabric. "Can you believe the old lech is taking another mistress?" She complained to Isabella. "Hasn't he ruined enough women's lives already?"
Isabella carefully returned an ancient Greek vase to the curio cabinet, sighing at the careless treatment of her deceased mother's prized antiques.
"For a man drunk on power like our father, it's never enough," Isabella replied pragmatically. "He treats people like possessions to control and dominate until they're all used up. No matter the cost!"
Their nanny, now grandmother, Cocoon looked up from her embroidery, a sad smile touching her wizened face.
"Ah piccolinas, do not judge what you cannot understand," she chided gently. "The matters of the heart remain ever mysterious, leading both kindness and cruelty to manifest in equal measure."
