Chapter 1
Marciano stopped beside the editors’ table.
He did not need to ask Harlan where he had looked.
Meredith Lane, thirty-four, executive editor of D’Angelo House’s commercial fiction division, sat with one hand around a champagne flute.
Her lipstick was the same dark berry shade staining Harlan’s collar.
That alone proved nothing.
Elisa knew that.
So did Marciano.
Meredith slowly put down her glass.
“What?”
Marciano looked at Luca.
The boy was pressed against Elisa’s legs.
“Is that the woman who came to your house?”
Harlan immediately stepped forward.
“Don’t interrogate my son.”
Elisa turned sharply.
“He’s my son too.”
Luca looked from the adults to Meredith.
Then nodded.
“She came after bedtime.”
Meredith’s expression tightened.
“I had work meetings with Harlan.”
“At our house?” Elisa asked.
“Sometimes.”
“How many times?”
“I don’t keep a calendar of every meeting.”
“I do,” Harlan snapped. “Because it was work.”
Dorothea pushed herself upright beside the collapsed archival display.
“This is humiliating.”
Marciano looked at her.
“You started the evening by making my sister carry serving trays at her own birthday.”
“That has nothing to do with Harlan’s business.”
Luca interrupted.
“Grandma made Mom bring that lady wine.”
Elisa went still.
She remembered the nights.
Dorothea arriving unexpectedly.
Harlan saying an editor needed to stop by.
Elisa putting Luca to bed while voices carried from downstairs.
Dorothea insisting Elisa bring coffee because “staff had gone home.”
Small humiliations she had accepted because arguing made the house unbearable.
Now those memories had another shape.
Elisa looked at Meredith.
“Did you know I was upstairs?”
Meredith avoided her eyes.
That answer was enough for tonight.
Elisa removed her wedding ring.
Harlan stared.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
She placed it beside the untouched birthday cake.
“I’m taking Luca home with Marciano.”
“Our home is in Westchester.”
“No. Your house is in Westchester.”
Harlan’s face hardened.
“You don’t get to decide that in front of a room full of your brother’s men.”
Elisa lifted Luca.
“I just did.”
Marciano did not threaten Harlan.
He simply walked beside his sister as she left the salon.
Behind them, Meredith remained seated.
Dorothea started whispering angrily.
May you like
And Harlan did not follow his wife.
He walked directly to Meredith.
