They emerged from the kitchen arm in arm, Jane and Vanessa, like mother and daughter reunited after a long separation. Vanessa took the seat between Xavier and his mother as though it had been reserved for her. As though it had always been hers.
"Auntie, these past years, I've missed you so much." Vanessa's eyes glistened with carefully calibrated emotion. "There hasn't been a single day I haven't thought of Xavier."
Not one person at that table flinched. Not one of them found it strange that a woman who had been bound by arrangement to Don Giacomo Argento of the Silver District would sit in another man's home and openly profess her longing for him. The code of loyalty, the sanctity of alliances, the weight of blood oaths sworn before the Commission. None of it mattered when the orphan wife was the one being replaced.
"Of course, dear." Jane's smile was a blade sheathed in silk. "If things hadn't gone the way they did, you would already be my daughter-in-law."
She cast a glance in my direction. Quick. Surgical. Then she pulled Vanessa closer, tucking the younger woman against her side with theatrical affection. Xavier said nothing. His jaw was tight, his eyes fixed on the wine in his glass. He was angry. Not at his mother. Not at Vanessa. At me. Because I had rejected his gift.
Jane turned to me, her expression shifting to one of wide-eyed, poisonous innocence.
"Oh my, listen to me rambling. It must be my age." She pressed a hand to her chest in mock embarrassment. "Mia, have you met Vanessa properly? She's my goddaughter. She and Xavier grew up together, practically raised side by side. I've heard you've been making a fuss at home because of her, but Vanessa is like a sister to Xavier. You really shouldn't throw tantrums out of jealousy."
She tilted her head, the chandelier light catching the pearls at her throat.
"They've always been this close. You simply need to trust your husband a little more and stop keeping tabs on his every move."
Colino Ferrara spoke up from across the table, a smug, self-satisfied look plastered across his face. He was the one who had championed the "perfect match" between Xavier and Vanessa from the beginning. He was also the one who, behind closed doors, had given me the nickname l'intrusa. The intruder.
"Auntie is absolutely right. Vanessa was only doing you a favor by being around."
He leaned back in his chair, swirling his drink.