phin

t door cl

a gunshot. Then the room erupted. Cheers, whistles, the clinking of gla

hilling finality lodge itself deep in my marrow. It was

riously. He'd said them to save face. I'd said th

ome dignity," a woman whi

agreed, her tone suggesting the opposite.

y direction, their eyes a sickening cocktail of pity and scorn.

tood up. My legs felt like water, but

ned, the clos

. It felt lik

und the evidence. Isabella's lips were swollen, red, and slightly parted. And th

been ground to dust, somehow

hin and distant, like it was coming from someon

yes were only for Isabella, a soft, possessive look on his f

own haunting. I called a car and sank into th

d. A video fil

n was dark, lit only by the faint light from und

la," Dante's voice was low, a rumble of o

Are you happy, Dante? Is the housekeeper's daughter keeping

heard. It stretched on, each second a new kind of torture. I w

, was thick with an emotion I c

can never sa

ideo

ge, my entire adult

ers of triumph I didn't need to see. I arrived back at the cold,

inum was heavy, the diamond cold. A

owl. It hit the porcelain with

he diamond catching the light one last time

sharp and clean, wash

esign portfolio, the worn photograph of my mot

mansion burst open, sl

of cold fury. Behind him, clinging to his a

weight. "You stole her necklace," he stated, not asked. His voice was a blade of deadly ca

ourse it was. "I didn't

lie t

ever once asked you for a single thing? Have I ever co

second, I saw a flicke

Dante!" she wailed, clutching at him. "It's priceless

shoved her hand away. "

gainst Dante's chest. "See?" she cried. "She's a

he air left my lungs

tears and real venom. "Her mother isn't clean either.

had practiced for seven miserable ye

could protest

-a sharp, satisfying crack that split the suff