ella

f a destruction I had already lived through. My gaze drifted from

rt, planting classical Sicilian roses-a desperate homage to my parents' love and the home I missed. But Li

there, trembling, watching them uproot every single bush and shove them into garbage bags. I had

, Isabella. Livia's comf

the present. The sweet, innocent mask melted away, revealing the vicious nineteen

She casually pushed back her cashmere sleeve, revealing a heavy, gleaming gold bracelet I knew Julian had commissioned pr

hen up to her desperate, triumphant eyes. She need

tirely steady. "Please open the window a cra

ference was a slap she hadn't anticipated. She spun on her h

ent of eucalyptus and mint oil Lucia had rubbed on my chest did little to ease the tight

li

ay with him. He didn't glance at the basin of cold water or the medicine bottles crowding my nightstand. H

his voice a flat, unforgivi

d had killed me. He hadn't come to see if the fever had broken. H

the words scraping a

taking your bitterness out on her. She is fragile, Isabella

cted wife. But the well was completely dry. I didn't feel the urge to expl

ing my face away from him, si

ubtle hesitation in his usually confident stance. He wasn't used to me ignori

to the Falcone family dissolved into dust. I didn't