Chapter 8
Mariana did not read every letter.
She couldn’t.
Neither could I.
The first one was enough.
My dearest Mari,
If they tell you I left because I didn’t want you, they are protecting themselves from the truth.
Mariana stopped there.
Her shoulders shook.
Renata sat beside her on the marble floor despite the gown she was supposed to wear for tomorrow’s rehearsal photographs.
Sebastian looked embarrassed.
Not by his mother.
By the scene.
“Can we not do this in front of everyone?”
Renata looked up.
“Why?”
“This is our wedding rehearsal.”
She stared at him.
Mariana gave a broken laugh.
“Sorry.”
That word made me turn.
She had just learned her mother wrote to her for years.
And she was apologizing for interfering with someone else’s celebration.
Training again.
I crouched beside her.
“You don’t apologize.”
She looked at me.
“You’re not interrupting anything.”
Sebastian’s face hardened.
“My wedding matters too.”
Renata slowly stood.
“No.”
She looked at him.
“It mattered before tonight.”
He stared.
Beatrice snapped, “Renata, do not let one hysterical maid destroy your future.”
My daughter removed her engagement ring.
This time she did not place it gently on the table.
She held it out to Sebastian.
He did not take it.
“What are you doing?”
“Listening.”
“To whom?”
“To the woman your family kept on her knees while hiding who she was.”
Sebastian’s face twisted.
“She is not one of us.”
I looked at him.
“She is one of me.”
Silence.
The words surprised Mariana.
They surprised me too.
Not because they were uncertain.
Because I realized I had already accepted what the necklace meant emotionally before any blood proof existed.
Camille’s daughter.
My niece.
My family.
Sebastian laughed bitterly.
“So that’s it? A necklace appears and suddenly the maid outranks everyone?”
Mariana flinched.
Renata saw it.
“So you did know.”
He stopped.
She continued.
“That’s why you keep saying maid.”
Sebastian looked toward Beatrice.
Wrong.
Again.
My daughter handed him the ring.
“Take it.”
He finally did.
“What does this mean?”
Renata’s face became still.
“It means I’m not marrying into a family that needed another woman beneath them to feel tall.”
May you like
Sebastian stared at her.
And the wedding ended before anyone touched the flowers.
