Chapter 1
I set the dog bowl directly in front of Bianca.
Leftover eggs. Torn pieces of toast. Something that had once been bacon floating in cold grease.
“Enjoy your last meal.”
Bianca’s face went white.
Marcus stopped moving beneath the broken antique map rack.
Lucy was behind me with Emma, still crying softly against the maid’s apron. The sound was quiet enough that another man might have missed it.
I did not.
Bianca stared at the bowl.
“You wouldn’t.”
I looked at her.
She had misunderstood me.
That frightened her more once she realized it.
“I’m not asking you to eat it.”
Her breathing slowed slightly.
Then I continued.
“I’m telling you this is the last meal you will ever control in my house.”
The relief vanished.
I took off my engagement ring from the small chain I sometimes wore beneath my shirt when working. Bianca watched me place it on the breakfast table.
Her ring suddenly looked very large on her hand.
“Vittorio—”
“No.”
My voice stayed low.
That was enough.
She stopped.
I turned toward Emma.
“Show me everything.”
Emma’s fingers tightened around the phone.
Marcus spoke from the floor.
“There’s nothing else.”
I looked at him.
He immediately regretted saying it.
Because I had not asked whether there was.
Emma unlocked the phone.
“There are eleven videos.”
The room went silent.
Eleven.
Lucy had only been staying at the main estate for three weeks after recovering from a winter illness.
I looked toward my daughter.
She was staring at the dog bowl.
Not at Bianca.
Not at me.
The bowl.
That told me humiliation had already attached itself to the object.
I crossed the room, picked it up, and handed it to one of my guards.
“Throw it away.”
Lucy’s eyes followed it until it disappeared.
Only then did she breathe differently.
I looked at Emma again.
“Eleven videos.”
She nodded.
“Different mornings?”
“Yes.”
Bianca folded her arms.
“She exaggerates.”
Emma flinched.
I saw it.
So did Lucy.
There it was.
Not only cruelty toward my daughter.
Control over the witness.
May you like
I looked at Bianca.
“Who else have you been teaching to stay quiet?”
