Chapter 3

After I leave Kane Holdings, I go to the cemetery.

Nora’s photo on the headstone is warm and soft.

She smiles the way she always did.

Like life never taught her how ugly people can be.

I kneel in front of her grave.

“Mom, I’m here.”

When I was little, I was left outside a group home with a thin coat and no real name anyone wanted to keep.

Nora takes me home.

She is not rich.

She has no husband with power.

No family with guns.

No last name that makes people lower their voices.

She only has a tiny apartment, tired hands, and a heart too good for this world.

One winter, I get a terrible fever.

I cry all night.

She carries me to the ER on her back because the buses have stopped running.

Snow falls on her shoulders and melts into her coat.

She wraps her scarf around my neck again and again, like she can keep death away with both hands.

At the front desk, she pulls off her old gold ring and pushes it through the payment window.

I am half awake from the fever.

I grab her sleeve and ask, “Mom, are you giving me away?”

She bends down and kisses my forehead.

“Silly girl. I would burn the whole damn world down before I ever give you up.”

Later, when I get into college, she takes me to the bus station.

She carries a cloth bag with hard-boiled eggs and a stack of wrinkled cash inside.

The bus is about to leave, but she still holds on to the window.

“Don’t be scared,” she tells me. “If you want to come home, come home. I’ll be there.”

But now she is not home.

And I have nowhere to go back to.

When I leave the cemetery, my phone rings.

Dominic.

I answer.

His voice is cold, like he is giving an order to one of his men.

“Mrs. Kane, bring the emerald crest pin to the Kane estate. Family dinner is tonight. They’ll need it.”

I stop walking.

He continues, “Since you’re so eager to cut ties with me, start by returning what belongs to the Kane family.”

My fingers tighten around the phone.

That pin was given to me on our wedding day by the old Kane patriarch himself.

He placed the black velvet box in my hands and said, “This is worn by the boss’s wife.”

But Dominic’s mother, Eleanor Kane, never liked me.

She read my background file like it was dirt on her table.

Then she said, “A girl from your kind of life is not good enough for my son.”

I stood there, frozen.

Too ashamed to breathe.

Dominic came down the stairs then.

He took the file from her hand and fed it into the shredder.

“She is the woman I chose,” he said. “No one chooses for me.”

For one stupid second, I believed him.

I believed he would protect me for life.

Now I walk into the Kane estate with the pin in my bag.

The front hall is cold and bright.

The marble floor shines like ice.

I have barely stepped inside when my heel slips.

I fall hard at the entryway.

The wooden box in my hand hits the step.

Pain shoots through my elbow.

For a second, my whole arm goes numb.

A housekeeper sees me.

Her first move is not to help me.

She rushes to pick up the box.

“Mrs. Kane, please be careful. The pin can’t be damaged.”

I brace my palm against the floor and stand up.

My skin is scraped open.

Blood smears across the marble.

No one cares.

The living room is quiet.

Eleanor Kane sits in the main chair like a queen with no heart.

Mia sits beside her.

A soft cashmere wrap lies over Mia’s shoulders.

That same wrap used to sit in this house for guests.

The one time I touched it, Eleanor told a maid to have it cleaned.

Now Mia wears it like it was made for her.

Dominic sees the mess I am in.

He only frowns.

Mia speaks first.

“She slipped on her own. Don’t blame the staff.”

No one asks if I am hurt.

I give the wooden box to Eleanor.

She opens it.

Only after she sees the emerald crest pin is safe does her face soften.

“Good,” she says. “At least it isn’t broken.”

Dinner is already set.

I sit down and smell peanuts right away.

Heavy.

Rich.

Everywhere.

My stomach turns.

I am allergic to peanuts.

Everyone in the Kane family knows that.

During my first year of marriage, I ate one bite of a salad with peanut dressing at this table.

That night, my whole body broke out in hives.

Dominic carried me to the hospital.

His face looked worse than mine.

After that, he told the estate kitchen himself.

“No peanuts. No peanut oil. Ever.”

Tonight, there is chopped-peanut salad.

Chicken cooked in peanut sauce.

Several dishes fried in peanut oil.

But the bowl of soup in front of Mia is taken away.

Dominic says to the staff, “Mia can’t stand ginger. Make her a fresh one.”

My hand tightens around my fork.

Eleanor glances at me.

Her voice is light, but her words cut.

“You know you’re allergic. Just avoid what you can’t eat. Don’t ruin dinner for everyone.”

I almost laugh.

So that is how it works.

Some people’s needs matter only when someone loves them.

After dinner, Eleanor asks a maid to bring out the pin.

Then she hands it straight to Mia.

“Let Mia try it.”

I look at Dominic.

He does not stop her.

Mia pins the emerald crest to the front of her gown.

She turns in front of the mirror and smiles like a damn bride.

“Dom, baby, does it look good?”

Dominic glances at her.

“It’s fine.”

Eleanor nods with satisfaction.

“Young girls always make jewelry look better.”

Dominic looks at me.

“Only two days left. I’ll return it after that.”

I stand.

“No need.”

I pick up my bag.

“Since the pin is here, I’m leaving.”

I walk out without looking back.

Behind me, Dominic says nothing.

But the silence tightens, sharp and restless, like something in him has finally started to crack.