Chapter 8
Serena left no dramatic recording.
No secret letter.
Nothing convenient.
She left people.
That was harder.
Captain Bellanti came when I asked.
Seventy.
Serena’s uncle.
He looked at Valentina once and then ignored her.
I appreciated that.
“What did Serena tell you?”
He thought carefully.
“That she did not trust Marcus around succession.”
“When?”
“About six months before she died.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
Because Marcus had asked whether the Bellanti family would support Ruby “if something happened.”
Not unusual on the surface.
But he asked three different men separately.
Testing.
Mapping loyalties.
Serena noticed.
Then she told her uncle something else.
“She said Valentina kept asking about the nursery.”
My jaw tightened.
“What questions?”
Whether Ruby would eventually move to the east wing.
Whether Serena planned more children.
Whether I wanted a son.
Small questions.
Maybe harmless.
Except in retrospect.
I looked at Valentina.
Her face went pale.
“I was curious.”
Bellanti finally looked at her.
“You were measuring space.”
Silence.
Good phrase.
Serena apparently believed Marcus wanted his sister closer to me long before anything happened to her.
Not because he expected Serena to die.
No murder.
Nothing so dramatic.
He simply thought marriages in our world were fragile.
If cracks came, be ready.
Then Serena got sick.
Fast.
Three months.
Everything changed.
Valentina helped with Ruby.
I was grateful.
After Serena died, Valentina became the person who could enter rooms others avoided.
That closeness eventually became marriage.
I had thought it organic.
Maybe part of it was.
Maybe part was cultivated.
Both could be true.
I looked at Valentina.
“Did Marcus tell you to get close to me?”
Her eyes filled.
“After Serena got sick?”
“Before.”
Silence.
There.
Not romance.
Positioning.
Marcus wanted his sister friendly with the household.
Trusted by staff.
Known to Ruby.
A useful bridge if Serena’s influence ever weakened.
Valentina whispered:
“I didn’t love you then.”
“I know.”
That did not help as much as I wanted.
“When did you?”
“After she died.”
I believed her.
That made the history more complicated.
Not cleaner.
She loved me.
May you like
And still used a path her brother intentionally cleared.
Then, once married, she began resenting the child who reminded everyone the first wife had never fully vanished.
