"Your blood pressure runs low. I've told you a hundred times, you can't drink espresso. It's terrible for you. After all these years, you still don't take care of yourself?"
He turned to the sideboard, retrieved a cup of warm almond milk, and placed it carefully in her hands. The anxiety in his eyes, the tenderness, was something I had never once seen in five years of marriage.
Selene accepted the almond milk, pressed her lips together in a coy smile, and gazed up at him with her eyes curved into crescents, her voice playful and sweet.
"That's right. All these years, I've been so lucky to have the Godfather remembering every little thing about my health, looking out for me at every turn."
In that single moment their eyes met, the air between them seemed to shimmer with something pink and intimate. The atmosphere solidified around them, and I became a stranger. An intruder. Completely shut out of whatever world the two of them shared.
A chill shot from the soles of my feet to the crown of my head. I couldn't take it anymore. I shoved my chair back and stood, ready to leave the dining room, but Selene's voice stopped me.
"Lois, wait."
She set down her almond milk and looked up at me. A calculating smile curled the corner of her mouth.
"I have a private jewelry showcase this afternoon. I need professional still-life photography for the rare gemstones and design sketches, to put together a promotional catalog. The new photographers are all subpar, so I specifically requested you. The Godfather agreed."
My body went rigid. My blood felt like it had frozen solid in my veins.
A private jewelry showcase? Professional still-life photography?
I hadn't touched a camera since my mother died.
The moment I saw that black camera body, the moment I looked through that cold viewfinder, the memories came flooding in, beyond my control. My mother sitting at her desk, guiding my hands, teaching me how to photograph jewelry designs. My mother in front of the lens, radiating confidence as she presented her newest collection. And my mother, the light draining from her eyes, shattered by the news that her patents had been leaked.
That was the deepest wound I carried. The one I could never bear to touch.
Samuel knew that better than anyone.
He had locked every piece of my photography equipment in the Castle's vault himself. He'd told me that whenever I was ready, he'd bring it all out again.