Chapter 4
The cinematic, golden light of the chandeliers seemed to sharpen and focus entirely on the low worktable as Ronan and Sabrina approached. The air around the mafia boss was always thick with a dangerous, electric gravity. Elora froze, her hands hovering over the spool of burgundy ribbon. She knelt in the medium wide shot of the guests' view, entirely exposed.
Elora desperately tried to act natural. With her hands shaking violently, she began to tie the Christmas ribbon around the neck of the large teddy bear.
Mia, oblivious to the lethal tension radiating from the adults, held the soft prosthetic bump directly against Teddy’s fluffy belly. The little girl looked up, her innocent eyes locking delightedly onto the socialite standing beside her father.
"Auntie, can Teddy borrow your tummy?" Mia asked.
The childish, clear American accent sliced through the ambient noise of the drawing room with the devastating force of a detonating bomb.
Sabrina stopped moving entirely. The polished, elegant public manner she had maintained all evening fractured for a microscopic second. Her fair, rosy skin paled slightly beneath her flawless makeup. Her fingers tightened viciously around her expensive evening clutch, her knuckles turning bone-white as the sheer, unadulterated panic set in.
She looked at the silicone prop in the child's hands. She knew instantly that her entire empire was hanging by a thread. But Sabrina was a survivor of the criminal underworld; she knew how to lie with a gun to her head.
Sabrina took a shallow breath, forcing the muscles in her face to obey. She restored a small, composed smile to her lips, though it didn't reach her cold eyes. She looked directly at Mia, her voice light and dripping with fabricated amusement.
"Just dress-up, sweetheart," Sabrina stated.
The lie echoed off the mirrored walls. It was an arrogant deflection, a brazen attempt to gaslight a room full of dangerous men into believing the prosthetic was merely a children's toy left lying around the estate.
May you like
Elora knelt frozen beside the table. She heard the lie. She felt the heavy, suffocating weight of Sabrina's gaze warning her to stay silent. She knew that if she let this pass, she would be complicit in the greatest betrayal this family had ever seen. She looked at the innocent six-year-old girl who called her Mommy, and then she looked at the man who commanded the city.
The sheer injustice of the deception broke the last chains of Elora's fear.
