Chapter 5
We opened the rolling cases.
Six bottles.
Beautiful.
Not Caradonna.
Tall smoked glass.
Silver caps.
No logos yet.
Valeria’s work.
I hated that I liked the scent.
Pear.
Black tea.
Cedar.
A little bitter orange.
Then the drydown.
Orris.
My eyes narrowed.
Helena smelled a blotter.
“Not Orison.”
Valeria exhaled.
Then Helena added:
“But educated by it.”
Exactly.
Valeria had not copied.
She had learned from something she had no right to take.
Moral complexity again.
Wonderful.
“Who made this?”
I asked.
Valeria hesitated.
“Me.”
Helena looked at her.
“Not alone.”
A freelance perfumer named Adrian Moss had helped technically.
Valeria built the creative brief.
Worked nights.
Tested hundreds of variations.
Lucian arranged studio space.
Luca funded materials.
Months of work.
I had noticed none of it.
That stung.
I had been engaged to a woman building an entire identity in secret because she believed the only version of ambition I would recognize was one attached to me.
Again.
Explanation.
Not absolution.
Lucian watched me.
“You see it now.”
“What?”
“She’s good.”
I stared.
“You think that is what this conversation is about?”
“It’s part of it.”
Yes.
Unfortunately.
Valeria’s talent was real.
Her betrayal was real.
Both.
I picked up another blotter.
“Why tonight?”
She answered quietly.
“Because if I told you beforehand, you would say wait.”
Would I?
Probably.
Launch Orison first.
Wedding first.
Family stability first.
Then maybe her thing.
I disliked admitting it.
“You could have forced the conversation.”
She laughed.
“With you?”
“Yes.”
“You end conversations by becoming quiet.”
Interesting accusation.
Accurate.
My calm voice terrified enemies.
Apparently it also trained people close to me to interpret silence as verdict.
I filed that away.
Then Helena interrupted.
“Dominic.”
She held one bottle from Valeria’s line.
“Smell this.”
I did.
Different.
Familiar.
Not Orison.
Another Caradonna accord.
Older.
Private.
My mother’s fragrance.
Margaret No. 3.
Never sold.
Made only for her birthdays.
My eyes lifted.
Valeria went pale.
“I didn’t use that.”
Lucian stared.
Neither expected it.
So someone else had added a Caradonna private formula to Valeria’s collection.
May you like
There was only one person outside this room with both the access and the incentive.
Luca Valenti had been taking more than Valeria gave him.
