Chapter 2
I ended the birthday party without explaining why.
Guests were escorted out.
Staff cleared the pavilion.
Bennett stayed with Grace in the nursery.
He refused another crown.
That hurt more than I expected.
Before leaving, he looked at me.
“Mommy?”
“Yes?”
“Bought means bad?”
My throat tightened.
“No.”
“Keira said bought children go in boxes.”
I crouched.
“Keira said something cruel because she wanted to hurt you.”
“Did you buy me?”
Not tonight.
Not like this.
But I would not lie.
“No.”
He studied my face.
“Then what?”
I kissed his forehead.
“I chose to become your mommy.”
He frowned.
Apparently insufficiently technical.
Grace smiled gently.
“We can explain more when you’re ready.”
Bennett nodded.
Then asked for juice.
Three years old.
Still capable of returning to juice while adults planned dynasties around him.
Good.
Downstairs, I opened Opal’s message history.
Most of it had been deleted.
One conversation remained.
S.C.
Three weeks of instructions.
KEEP THE FIANCÉ CALM.
DON’T LET SELENE WARN THE BOY FIRST.
THE BIRTHDAY IS BEST. PEOPLE REMEMBER EMOTION.
My hands went cold.
Another message:
MAKE HER SAY HE ISN’T BLOOD.
There.
Not adoption.
Blood.
I looked at Troy.
“What happens after I say it?”
He said nothing.
Opal did.
“The family asks whether Bennett can inherit.”
I stared.
Bennett was three.
No position had been promised to him.
No title.
No chair.
No future command.
But old families do not need reality to create succession panic.
They only need a child and an assumption.
“Silas promised you something.”
Opal looked toward Troy.
“He promised stability.”
I almost laughed.
“What did stability look like?”
Silence.
Then Keira answered bitterly.
“Troy marries you.”
Of course.
“And?”
“You eventually have a real Caruso child.”
The room went completely still.
Real.
I looked at my fiancé.
He closed his eyes.
And suddenly I understood why he had looked at his mother instead of me.
May you like
He already knew exactly what they intended Bennett to become.
Temporary.
