The dinner was supposed to be reassuring. That was how Seraphina framed it when she added the visit to the week's already overburdened schedule. Her father had been medically stable for days, his vitals remained within the new thresholds and the household staff followed every instruction she had built into the estate's routines, from reduced calls to controlled meal timing and monitored rest.
The paperwork indicated that they had successfully managed the danger. But paper had lied before. So when her father suggested a quiet family dinner at the estate, Seraphina agreed immediately.
The invitation was simple enough. Seraphina was a daughter checking on her recovering parent. A small evening meal in familiar surroundings. Yet what Seraphina truly needed was not dinner. She needed to see whether the calm around him was real, or whether the same hidden deterioration from the first timeline had already begun beneath the surface.
Lucien noticed the difference the moment they arrived.
