Chapter 2
I carried Lily into the private salon.
Elena followed only after a medic cleaned the cuts on her arm.
She tried to return to work.
I stopped her.
“You just covered my daughter with your body.”
She looked uncomfortable.
“It was instinct.”
“That doesn’t make it small.”
She lowered her eyes.
Staff habit.
Not tonight.
“Sit.”
She did.
Lily climbed onto the sofa beside her and immediately reached for Elena’s hand.
Good.
I placed the recovered shoebox on the table.
One shoe had a small crystal scratch across the leather.
Lily looked worried.
“Broken?”
“No.”
“Still wear?”
“Yes.”
She relaxed.
I looked at Elena.
“You bought these?”
Her face changed.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She hesitated.
Celeste had trained people to hesitate.
I was beginning to hate that.
“Elena.”
“Lily’s old flats were too small.”
I knew that.
I had noticed marks near her heel last week.
I asked household staff about replacement shoes.
They told me an order had already been placed.
“Where are the shoes Celeste ordered?”
Elena stared.
“She didn’t.”
My hands became still.
“What?”
“She canceled them.”
“When?”
“Three times.”
Lily swung her feet gently from the sofa.
Worn flats.
Scuffed toes.
My daughter lived inside an estate containing closets of designer clothes and had been walking in shoes too small because somebody canceled replacements.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Elena looked ashamed.
“I tried.”
“How?”
“Through Mrs. Bellucci’s household office.”
Celeste.
Of course.
“And?”
“She said you had approved a spending limit for Lily.”
I almost laughed.
“A spending limit.”
Elena nodded.
“Forty dollars per item unless approved personally.”
I stared.
I had never created such a rule.
“How much did these cost?”
“Forty-five.”
That explained the insult.
Celeste was not mocking Lily randomly.
Elena had broken a rule Celeste invented using my name.
“How did you pay?”
Elena looked embarrassed.
“My money.”
Lily smiled proudly.
“Elena bought them because school feet hurt.”
My chest tightened.
I turned away for one second.
There are failures money makes more humiliating, not less.
I could buy the entire boutique.
Yet a maid had quietly spent part of her wages because my daughter needed shoes.
I looked at Elena.
“What else have you bought for Lily?”
May you like
She said nothing.
That answer frightened me.
