Chapter 1

The order came down that Dante Moretti had betrayed the Family — and I was sitting in my wedding dress, waiting for him to come get me.

In one breath, my wedding became a funeral.

My fiancé got thrown in the Pit. My whole family went down with him. The Vales, every one of us guilty of running with a traitor's son.

The men would be executed in the fall.

The women? Sold off. Shipped to the brothels. Whores for the rest of their lives.

Every generation after us, too.

When the news hit, Nonna pulled the gold pin out of her hair. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking.

Mama tore her long white sash into pieces. One for each of my sisters-in-law.

"A Vale woman dies clean," she said. "She doesn't get used."

That night, Nonna walked into the stone pillar.

Mama hung herself.

My sisters-in-law took their babies and jumped into the well.

I was swallowing my last poison pill when I heard the guards outside the cell start to complain.

"The Don's son and the Vale men spoil that real daughter way too much."

"She's just scared Dante still wants to marry the fake one. Scared her own father and brothers love the girl they raised for sixteen years more than her. So she cried, and she made them prove they meant it. And they forged an order. Treason, seizure, the whole thing. Tricked every woman in the family into a cell."

The other one laughed.

"The Don's son said if she signs the breakup letter, we let the Vale women out tomorrow morning. Right now the men are back at the estate throwing her a dinner. Figuring out how to cheer her up."

There was no treason.

There was no slaughter.

My fiancé was fine.

My father and brothers were fine.

They were alive. They were drinking wine.

They just wanted the real Vale daughter to feel safe.

They forgot one thing.

Vale women would rather die than be shamed.

And there was nobody left in that cell to walk out.

The poison moved fast.

I curled up on the cold straw.

Outside, the two guards were still joking around.

"It's just a show. If Miss Vale had signed the letter earlier, would she be spending the night in here?"

I wanted to tell them I wasn't scared of one night.

But something hot and sweet flooded my throat. I opened my mouth and a mouthful of black blood came out.

One of them finally noticed something was wrong.

"What's with her?"

He lifted his lantern and walked up to the bars. He looked in. His face went white.

"Get — go get a doctor!"

The other one grabbed his arm.

"Relax. Miss Vale's stubborn. She's probably just trying to scare the Don's son."

"Besides, she gave orders. Whatever happens in there tonight, we don't open this door. You want to be the one who ruined her plan?"

The guard with the lantern hesitated.

Then he stepped back.

I lay on the floor, my stomach twisting like a thousand dull knives turning inside me.

But the pain wasn't the worst part.

The worst part was what they'd just said.

My father hadn't been fired. He wasn't in a cell.

Nonna didn't have to bury her own son.

Mama, my sisters-in-law, the little ones — they could all be alive right now.

All somebody had to do was tell them the truth. One sentence.

By the time it went dark, my wedding dress was soaked through with blood.

When I opened my eyes again, I was floating above the cell.

Below me, my body lay still. Eyes shut. A thin line of black blood running from my mouth.

Mama was hanging from the sash she'd torn into strips.

Elena, my oldest brother's wife, had pushed her only gold bracelet through the bars before she died. Begging the guard to bury the Vale women later.

Gia had been three months pregnant.

Rosa bit through her own tongue. She held her six-year-old so tight the whole time, keeping her hand over the little girl's eyes, so Lily never saw the bodies.

And I was last.

I should have gone earlier.

But Nonna saved the one pill for me. The one that kills on contact.

She wiped the blood off my face. Then she pressed it into my palm. Her hand was shaking.

"Rena. You came in here in your wedding dress. You walk out of this world clean, still wearing it."

"Don't be scared."

"Nonna's going first. I'll wait for you up ahead."

Then she turned, braced herself against the wall, and walked — one step at a time — into the stone pillar.

I lunged for her. Mama and my sisters-in-law held me back.

The sound her body made when it hit.

I'd never heard anything like it.

A few hours ago, she was in the east parlor picking out the tiara I'd wear to my wedding. Laughing. Saying that yes, Dante Moretti was the Don's son, but if he ever laid a hand on a Vale girl, she'd march into the Don's house on her own two feet and file a complaint.

Something yanked me out of that cell.

Down the streets. Through the gates. Back to the Vale estate.

Every window was lit.

There was a dinner laid out in the main hall.

My father, my three brothers, and Dante. All of them.

And Mia Vale, sitting right in the middle. Wearing the pink silk dress Mama had made for me.

Her eyes were still a little puffy. Her plate was piled high. Everybody had been putting food there all night.

Marco slid a dish of crab meat in front of her.

"You like crab, right? I shelled all of it."

Luca pulled out a white jade flute.

"You said you liked these. I had someone bring it up from Tuscany."

Nico dropped a fluffy little puppy into her lap.

"Stop being upset. Tomorrow Rena signs the letter, and this whole thing is over."