Chapter 2
I moved Evelyn out of the bridal suite immediately.
Not to my bedroom.
Not to the council wing.
The east guest room.
A door she could open herself.
That mattered.
Our physician examined her while I waited outside with Ethan.
My son kept staring toward the hallway.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Lady live under floor?”
I closed my eyes briefly.
“No.”
Technically true now.
“Why?”
Because my sister betrayed me.
Because adults turned a wedding into a prison.
Because I spent three years trusting the wrong people.
None belonged to a three-year-old.
“Some grown-ups did something very wrong.”
He considered that.
“Bianca?”
Children hear more than adults think.
“Yes.”
His small face became serious.
“Is Anna wrong?”
“No.”
Good.
At least one safe adult remained uncomplicated.
The physician eventually came out.
Exhaustion.
Malnutrition.
Older injuries.
Nothing immediately life-threatening.
Alive.
Again that obscene standard.
Alive had become enough.
When Evelyn asked to see me, I entered alone.
She sat upright beneath a blanket.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then:
“You called me your late wife.”
I stared.
She had heard me in the bridal suite.
“I thought you were dead.”
“We never made it to the ceremony.”
“I know.”
My jaw tightened.
“After you disappeared, Bianca brought me your bracelet from a burned car outside Providence. She said the driver had identified you before the fire.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“There was no car.”
Of course.
Another layer.
“Why keep you alive?”
She opened her eyes again.
“Because of your father’s ring.”
I went still.
My father’s Castellano signet had disappeared the week he died.
Bianca told me he had taken it to his grave.
He had not.
Evelyn whispered:
“I saw it on your wedding day.”
“Where?”
“In Bianca’s hand.”
My sister had not only hidden a bride.
May you like
She had been holding something the old Castellano capos considered sacred.
And apparently that ring was worth imprisoning a witness for.
