Chapter 2
I stared at the brooch.
Delia touched it instinctively.
Wrong move.
“Take it off.”
Her hand stopped.
“Raffaele—”
“Now.”
My voice never rose.
It did not need to.
She removed it.
The kitchen staff watched.
So did the guests who had crowded into the doorway after the crashes.
Delia held the brooch between two fingers.
For the first time in years, it looked small.
I took it from her.
Then looked at Sofia.
She shook her head.
Not here.
Good.
The brooch went into my pocket.
I would not turn a moment meant for my wife into a public correction of my sister.
“Who gave you permission to open the box?”
Delia’s expression hardened.
“You left it in the family dressing room.”
“My dressing room.”
“Mother wore that brooch.”
“Yes.”
“So did I after she died.”
That was true.
For seventeen years, Delia had worn it at major family dinners.
Not because it belonged to her.
Because nobody else occupied the household role Mother once had.
I had allowed it.
Conveniently.
Carelessly.
Then Sofia entered my life.
Delia never asked what changed.
I never told her clearly enough.
“I was giving it to my wife.”
Her eyes flashed.
“She’s twenty-five.”
Sofia went still.
There.
Not household training.
Contempt.
Delia looked around the kitchen.
“She doesn’t know our customs. She doesn’t know how your house is run. She came from nothing and suddenly everyone is supposed to bow?”
Sofia whispered:
“I never asked anyone to bow.”
Delia ignored her.
“You married her in secret.”
That landed differently.
Several guests reacted.
Most did not know.
Exactly.
Sofia and I married quietly eight months earlier because threats against my household were still active after an internal dispute. We kept her name away from public announcements until the situation settled.
Tonight was supposed to end that secrecy.
Delia knew.
Only immediate family did.
I looked at her.
“You used the secrecy.”
Silence.
That was it.
May you like
While the outside world thought Sofia remained a private companion and Lily’s mother, Delia decided the public role beside me was still vacant.
Then she began making that lie true inside my own home.
