Jane's glare could have cut glass. "Mia. Why did you take it off?"
"It's too tight." My voice was calm. Flat. Final.
I ignored the murmurs that swirled around me like cigarette smoke and sat in silence, offering Xavier nothing. Not a glance. Not a word. Not a single crumb of the reaction they all wanted.
None of them understood. None of them could have.
In the old traditions of the Valducci Dynasty, diamonds were not a symbol of wealth. They were a mark of disgrace. When a member of the family was excommunicated, cast out from the Dynasty's protection and erased from its ledgers, they were given a single diamond. One stone of monetary value. The last thing they would ever receive before they were exiled from the Valducci Fortress and stripped of the family name forever.
And I was not exiled.
I was going home.
From the kitchen, my mother-in-law's laughter drifted through the doorway, light and warm in a way she had never once been with me. Vanessa clung to her arm, playing the role of the doting goddaughter with the skill of a woman who had rehearsed it in the mirror.
"Auntie, how can you work so hard all alone in here? If I had been around these past years, I would never have let you lift a finger."
"This child!" Jane's voice was honey and venom. "Of course things would have been different if it had been you. Oh, Vanessa, let Mia help the staff with the dishes. You've never had to do such things, and look at you, so kind even to the household help."
Her tone shifted, the warmth curdling into something pointed and deliberate.
"If only Mia were half as sensible as you. But ever since she moved into Xavier's house, he dismissed the housekeeper. She can do all the manual work herself. Mopping the floors, scrubbing the dishes, that's nothing unusual for a girl like her. Don't ruin your beautiful hands, dear. I'll have Mia do it."
I bit the inside of my lip until I tasted copper. Through the open doorway, I watched my husband nod along to his mother's words without the faintest shadow of objection crossing his face. He saw nothing wrong with it. His wife on her knees scrubbing floors while his childhood flame sat at the table like a queen. It was simply the natural order of things in his mind.