Chapter 2
The bright, saturated colors of the boutique gala seemed to instantly chill as Celeste Bellucci halted in front of the little girl. The natural, white lighting illuminated the vicious sneer twisting Celeste's fair, rosy face. She looked down at Lily’s worn flats, and then her eyes locked onto the cheap cardboard shoebox clutched in the toddler's small hands. To a woman draped in hundreds of thousands of dollars of diamonds, the sight of a common retail box at a high-end Mafia gala was a personal insult.
"What on earth are you carrying around in my presence?" Celeste demanded, her crisp American accent dripping with condescending venom. "This is a luxury boutique event, not a discount warehouse."
Lily shrank back slightly, her small fingers gripping the cardboard tighter. "They are my new shoes. For school."
"New shoes?" Celeste scoffed loudly, drawing the attention of a few nearby guests who quickly turned their heads to watch the drama unfold. "You walk into a room filled with imported Italian leather, and you parade around a piece of garbage?"
"Celeste, please," Elena interjected softly, stepping forward in her professional maid uniform. Her fair skin was pale with anxiety, but her American accent remained steady. "She is just a child. She is very proud of them."
"I did not ask for the opinion of the hired help!" Celeste snapped, turning her furious, diamond-clad glare upon the young maid. "You are paid to clean up messes, Elena, not to speak to me. Know your place, or I will have Damian throw you out on the street."
Elena lowered her eyes, her rosy cheeks flushing with humiliation, but she did not step completely away from Lily.
Celeste turned her attention back to the trembling three-year-old. Without a shred of warning or human decency, Celeste reached out. Her manicured hands, heavy with expensive rings, violently snatched Lily’s shoebox right out of the little girl's grip.
"Hey! Give them back!" Lily cried out, her voice breaking into a panicked sob as she reached up with her empty hands.
"You are an embarrassment to the Bellucci name," Celeste hissed, her eyes gleaming with a sadistic delight.
With a forceful, dramatic swing of her arm, Celeste threw the shoebox onto the polished marble floor. It landed hard right beside the massive, glittering pyramid of crystal glasses that dominated the center of the room. The impact caused the cheap cardboard box to burst completely open. The forty-five-dollar pair of new school shoes spilled out, sliding across the pristine marble floor and coming to a rest near the base of the towering crystal structure.
Lily let out a heartbreaking whimper. She immediately dropped to her knees on the cold, hard marble, her elegant gala dress bunching around her as she scrambled desperately to retrieve her scattered shoes.
Celeste stood over the kneeling child, looking down with a vicious, triumphant smile stretching across her fair face. The bright, neutral lighting caught the malicious sparkle in her eyes.
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"Forty-five-dollar shoes," Celeste said, her voice loud, mocking, and filled with aristocratic cruelty, "are already too expensive for you."
Lily ignored the cruel words, her small hands frantically reaching for the scuffed, inexpensive shoes, her tears beginning to blur her vision. She did not notice the heavy footsteps approaching the crystal pyramid from the opposite side of the display.
