Chapter 3

At the gala, Melody presented Victoria with a rare, vintage Cartier brooch.

It was incredibly expensive.

Victoria accepted it with a polite, polite "Thank you, how thoughtful."

When it was my turn, I handed over a modest, velvet box.

Inside was a rare, first-edition sheet music folio of Chopin.

At last year's gala, Victoria had casually mentioned that her late grandmother used to play these exact arrangements.

I had remembered.

Victoria opened the box, and her eyes instantly softened.

"Sera, how did you find this?"

"I got lucky at an auction."

She pulled me down to sit next to her, asking how I had been.

Melody stood a few feet away, her face darkening by the second.

She had the perfect face now.

But Victoria still wouldn't look at her.

Halfway through the dinner, I went to the terrace for some fresh air.

Through the half-open glass door, I heard Melody cornering Julian.

"What does she have that I don't?"

Julian's voice was deadpan.

"Melody, you don't need to compare yourself to Sera."

"Why not? I am the biological Vance daughter! She is just an imposter! Even her face isn't as beautiful as mine now. Why are you still looking at her?"

A few seconds of silence followed.

Then Julian spoke, his tone chillingly indifferent.

"Because she is Seraphina."

That one sentence crushed Melody's pride into dust.

A second later, I heard her calling her system in her mind.

[I want whatever it is that keeps Julian obsessed with her.]

[I want her sexual allure. Her feminine attraction.]

The system's voice warned:

[Warning. This attribute is deeply bound to the target's intimate relationships, reproductive expectations, and physical costs. Plundering will result in an irreversible transfer of these physical conditions.]

Melody grit her teeth.

"Do it."

A sharp, electric sting spread from deep within my lower abdomen.

I gripped the terrace railing.

It wasn't painful.

It felt more like a heavy, suffocating lock was finally being clicked open.

When Melody stepped out from behind the door, her face was slightly pale, but her eyes were manic.

She saw me and smirked.

"Sera, what are you doing out here?"

"Getting some air."

She stepped closer, whispering, "Don't you think the wind is freezing tonight?"

I smiled gently.

"Is it? I actually think spring is coming."

The next day, I fainted in the campus library.

Melody immediately rushed over to hold me, her eyes red as she sobbed, "Sera, we are family. Please stop pushing me away."

The moment her arms wrapped around me, the system initiated the final phase of the extraction.

My vision went black, and my ears buzzed.

When I woke up in the clinic, the doctor said it was just low blood sugar.

Melody was sitting by my bed, holding my hand.

"Sera, you scared me to death."

She put on a flawless performance.

Several classmates around us were visibly moved.

"Melody is actually so sweet to her."

"Yeah, there's no need for the adopted sister to be so hostile."

I pulled my hand back.

"I need to use the restroom."

The moment the stall door locked behind me, I looked down.

There was a spot of blood on my underwear.