Then she whipped around and glared at me, eyes blazing. "Even if you are the heir's wife, that gives you no right to lay hands on a person! She's about to give birth! You strike now, and you'll be killing two lives. Is that what you want?!"

"The heir isn't in the city. You think you can pull this kind of stunt and walk away clean? You don't think he'll come back and settle the score?"

Settle the score with me? If he didn't come looking for me first, I'd be looking for him. Keeping a secret mistress. Dragging the Moretti name through the gutter. The acting underboss of the Moretti Family, stooping to something this disgraceful.

Rosa charged forward and slapped Nana Agata clean across the face. The crack rang out sharp and loud, cutting through the murmur of the crowd like a gunshot. "Insolent old hag! How dare you speak to my lady that way. How dare you slander her."

Nana Agata shrieked, one hand flying to the rosary at her neck, the beads clicking together as her fingers closed around them. "You dare strike me? Mistress, you must stand up for this old servant! Have the heir throw this vicious woman out!"

"Otherwise, once you enter the household, who knows what torments she'll put you through."

I let out a cold laugh. "Have the heir cast me out? My status is not something the heir has the authority to revoke."

My thumb pressed against the underside of my wedding band and turned it once. Slow. Deliberate. Because this girl and her nursemaid had no idea what they were playing at.

Gianna bit her lip and stared at me. "If my lady wishes to beat or kill someone, direct it at me. Why strike my nursemaid? Are you truly not afraid the heir will punish you when he returns?"

"Cruel as you are, the marriage may have been brokered by the Commission itself, but if you harm the heir's child, he can still dissolve the alliance all the same."

I smiled. "Miss Valenti puts on quite the performance. Perhaps she should take it to the Southside dinner theater."

"If the heir wants to champion your cause, by all means, send him to me. I won't run from it."

The crowd of onlookers grew indignant. "You've gone too far! Just because her station is lower than yours, she deserves to be humiliated?"

"Exactly! She's seven or eight months along, about to give birth. A kick like that could kill her!"

"She knows the Commission's ruling protects her from being cast aside, so she acts without fear."