Chapter 2

Leo recovers fast and juts out his chin.

"So what if I did?"

"It was a test. I wanted to see if you’d try to take Mom’s place."

He jabs a finger at the torn satin, his face twisted with disgust.

"You always say you’d never replace her. But the second you got your hands on her dress, you couldn’t wait to put it on."

"If you really didn’t want her place, you would’ve said no."

So that’s what it was. I thought he’d finally let me in. It was just another test, and I failed it.

Lorenzo doesn’t say a word to him. He looks at me instead.

"Leo’s a kid. He was just messing around."

"You’re a grown woman. You can’t figure out what you’re allowed to wear?"

"Gianna was my wife. You’re not. What gives you the right to wear her dress?"

My throat closes up. I can’t get a single word out.

When Leo was five, he spiked a fever in the middle of the night. I carried him into the ER at three in the morning and begged the doctors to see him first.

When he was seven, his pony threw him. I threw myself underneath him to break his fall. My right leg still aches every time it rains.

Last night, he held that dress out to me with tears in his eyes and said, "Dad’s going to marry you. Wear Mom’s dress, and I’ll pretend she came back."

I was so happy he’d finally let me in, I didn’t sleep all night.

Leo takes my silence as a win. He kicks the dress aside.

"You promised I’d always be the only one you loved."

"So why’d you have Nico? Now you’ve got a real son. Bet you can’t wait for me to die."

Lorenzo frowns. "Leo. That’s enough."

But even as he says it, he pulls Leo behind him.

Like he thinks I’ll hurt the boy the second he turns his back.

I look at Leo and force a smile.

"After tonight, the whole city will know me as the mistress who tried to steal her dead sister’s place and got stripped in front of a ballroom full of people."

"I’ll never be anything more than that. You got what you wanted."

"Watch your mouth!" Lorenzo slams his hand down on the table.

"Have I been too easy on you? Is that why you’ve forgotten your place? Talking to a child like that?"

I’ve run this household for ten years. In all that time, I haven’t bought myself a single new dress.

The day I moved in, I wore pink. People pointed and said I had no shame.

My sister was barely cold in the ground, they said, and there I was in bright colors. A scheming little bastard who only knew how to seduce men.

After that, I wore nothing but black and gray. I kept out of Lorenzo’s way.

For ten years, I made almost everything Leo wore with my own hands.

Lorenzo thought it was a performance. Proof for the whole family that the scheming little mistress was playing the devoted mother.

But it was the only thing I had to give. Everything in this house belonged to the Castellanos. My time and my two hands were the only things that were mine.

So any time Leo turned his nose up at something I’d made for him, I stayed up all night taking it apart and starting over.

Lorenzo never once asked if I was tired. He said behaving myself was the least I could do.

When exactly was he ever easy on me?

I slide the Castellano ring off my finger and set it on the table. Whoever runs the household wears that ring.

For ten years, that was me.

"Then take it back."

His face darkens even more. "What kind of game is this?"

Leo snorts. "You don’t get to be the Donna, so now you’re quitting?"

"Dad, she just wants you to beg her."

Lorenzo is quiet for a moment.

"Fine. If you don’t want it, Mrs. Greer will run the household. Go back to the guest house and think about what you’ve done."

I don’t argue. I lower my head, polite as ever, and walk out.

I figure that’s it. After tonight, neither of them will want anything to do with me.

But that evening, Lorenzo shows up at the guest house.

He sets the ring down in front of me, his face stiff.

"Tonight... having them strip you in front of everyone. That was too far."

"But you’re not innocent either. Don’t take it out on Leo. Nobody forced you to wear it."

I stare at him, numb. I don’t touch the ring.

His brows pull together. "If you drop this, I’ll let Nico come stay for a few days."

At my son’s name, my heart lurches.

When I first moved into this house, my father’s wife, Carla, wanted a leash on me. She’d never forgiven me for what happened to her daughter.

And she knew exactly where to pull.

My mother never chose to be my father’s mistress. She was nineteen, sewing hems in a shop he owned. One night he locked the door behind him, and that was that.

She’d been sick for years, still living under the DeLuca roof, which meant she lived at Carla’s mercy. Her doctors. Her medicine. Carla controlled all of it.

So little by little, Carla started cutting it off.

I begged Lorenzo for help. He didn’t even look up.

I had nothing he wanted. Nothing to bargain with.

So I quietly stopped taking my birth control.

When I found out I was pregnant, I got down on my knees in front of him.

A Don’s blood is a Don’s blood, even in a mistress’s belly. For the first time, he couldn’t just look through me.

"I’m not asking for anything. Not a wedding. Not your last name for the baby."

"Just get my mother out of that house. Please.”

He stared at me for a long time. Then he said, "Fine. You’ll get what you want. After the baby’s born."

He wanted to be sure I’d carry his child to term. Until then, my mother was his leverage.

So my mother waited out my whole pregnancy, while Carla cut her medicine a little more every week.

She moved in here the week Nico was born. But it was too late. She was gone two months later.

And Nico, the baby I nearly died giving birth to, was shipped off to the family’s lake house upstate before his first birthday.

Lorenzo said the Castellano family could only have one heir.

He said I’d only had Nico to save my mother. I’d gotten what I wanted, so how much could I really love the kid?

He told me to focus on raising Leo.

I didn’t dare say no.

Now, hearing I might finally get to see Nico, I can’t hold it back.

"Really?"

The door bangs open. Leo storms in, eyes red.

"I knew it!"

"All you care about is your real son. You never cared about me!"