Chapter 1 - THE LOCKET
Eira sat beside the engagement table with both feet swinging above the floor.
The ballroom around her glittered with candles, crystal glasses, dark suits, evening gowns, and the quiet confidence of people accustomed to being welcomed wherever they went.
She understood almost none of it.
She only understood that everyone kept saying Daddy was going to have a new wife.
And that people kept moving her mother’s things.
Eira reached beneath her cardigan.
She pulled out the small keepsake locket she wore on a thin chain.
It had belonged to her mother, Serena Moretti.
Galen had given it to Eira after Serena died eighteen months earlier.
Eira opened it carefully.
Inside was a tiny photograph of Serena smiling.
Her mother’s face was soft.
Alive.
Familiar enough that Eira still sometimes kissed the picture goodnight.
Ainsley saw it from across the table.
Her entire expression changed.
She crossed the space quickly.
Before Eira understood what was happening, Ainsley ripped the locket from her hands.
Then she slapped the child across the face.
Eira fell beside her chair.
Several guests gasped.
Ainsley looked down at her without remorse.
“Dead women don’t belong at my wedding.”
Eira’s face crumpled.
Galen heard the commotion from several feet away.
He had been greeting two older family guests near the private dining doors.
Now he turned.
He saw his daughter on the floor.
Everything else disappeared.
Galen crossed the ballroom.
People moved without being asked.
He lifted Eira carefully.
One side of her face had gone pink.
Her eyes were full of tears.
Galen pulled her beside him.
He looked at Ainsley.
No anger yet.
Something colder.
Ainsley seemed to realize the entire room had gone silent.
She reached toward Eira.
“Come here.”
Eira immediately pressed against Galen’s leg.
Ainsley grabbed her arm.
Galen removed Ainsley’s hand.
Hard enough that she understood not to try again.
Eira looked up at him.
“Daddy… she says Mommy’s things disappear after the wedding.”
Galen went still.
Ainsley’s eyes flashed.
“She misunderstood.”
Eira shook her head.
“No.”
Ainsley pointed toward the locket.
Then toward Eira.
“Choose her memories or choose your new wife.”
Nobody moved.
Galen looked at the woman he had planned to marry in six weeks.
He thought about the year Ainsley had spent helping him after Serena’s death.
The nights she sat beside him when Eira cried.
The dinners she arranged.
The way she seemed to understand when he could not speak about Serena.
Then he looked at his daughter’s face.
Galen grabbed Ainsley by both shoulders.
He shoved her backward into the engagement chair.
The chair slid several feet.
Ainsley collapsed into it in shock.
Two bodyguards moved behind her.
Galen picked up the locket from the carpet.
He placed it gently into Eira’s hands.
“There is no new wife.”
Ainsley’s face became frightened.
The guests remained silent.
Galen lifted Eira into his arms.
Then he noticed something.
The locket had opened during the struggle.
The photograph of Serena had shifted.
Behind it was a second piece of paper.
Tiny.
Folded twice.
Galen had never seen it.
He removed it carefully.
Serena’s handwriting covered one side.
Only six words.
Galen read them twice.
IF AINSLEY TOUCHES THIS, BELIEVE EIRA.
His eyes slowly lifted.
Ainsley had gone white.
Galen stared at her.
“You knew this was inside.”
Ainsley shook her head.
Too quickly.
Eira touched Galen’s collar.
“Mommy told me Grandma Rose would know.”
Galen looked down.
“Know what?”
Eira sniffed.
“Why Miss Ainsley hates the necklace.”
Galen’s mother, Rose Moretti, had been dead for twelve years.
He looked back at the note.
Then at Ainsley.
Serena had written a warning involving a woman who had died long before Serena herself.
That meant whatever this was had begun years before their engagement.
Galen handed Eira to his oldest bodyguard.
“Take her upstairs.”
Ainsley stood.
“Galen.”
He looked at her.
“Sit down.”
She sat.
Then Galen opened the locket again.
This time he removed Serena’s photograph completely.
Behind it was another photograph.
Older.
Faded.
Rose Moretti stood beside a much younger Ainsley.
And between them stood Serena.
All three women were holding the same locket.
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On the back, Rose had written one sentence.
DO NOT LET THE VALE GIRL INTO THIS FAMILY.
