Chapter 3

I was in the hospital for a week.

Leon vanished without a word or a call.

My body felt scraped hollow, and I stopped caring whether Giselle was using Rosalie as an excuse to get close to him. I was too tired for that.

I went home to an empty house.

Rosalie was on the couch working a Rubik's cube. She looked up when I walked in, and something lit in her eyes.

"Scarlett, look."

She grabbed a gift box and held it up eagerly.

I looked away without a word.

Her body went still and the light in her eyes died. She slowly hid the box behind her back.

She was perceptive, the kind of child who could read a face like a page in a book.

I walked past her and went to my room.

I didn't think I could be around her the same way I used to be anymore.

That afternoon, Giselle let herself in.

She dropped an empty suitcase on the living room floor and started loading it.

One of the housekeepers stepped forward, flustered. "Miss Giselle, what are you doing?"

Giselle flinched at the word Miss, then turned vicious.

"I'm taking Rosalie to stay with me for a while."

"I've seen plenty of women try to use a child to climb. But a woman who hurts my child? Never. A person's heart doesn't always match their looks. I had to stay on guard. Tell Leon, if he wants to see his daughter, he can come to me."

Rosalie glanced at her, pressed her lips together, and spun the Rubik's cube faster.

The housekeeper looked up at me on the landing, desperate.

"Ma'am, the Don said Rosalie isn't to leave with Miss Giselle. Could you please speak with her? Tell her you'll take care of Rosalie just like before?"

Rosalie stopped moving. She looked up at me.

For a moment, maybe I imagined it, she seemed to want me to keep her here.

"Let Giselle take her."

"I need some time alone. I'm not up to being around Rosalie right now."

A second later, the Rubik's cube hit the floor.

Rosalie clutched the gift box to her chest. Her small frame trembled.

Giselle picked up the box and smiled. "Is this for me?"

Rosalie's long lashes fluttered. She looked at me once, then shook her head.

Giselle's smile turned ugly. She fixed me with a cold look.

"You've got her wrapped around your finger. But don't forget, she's Leon's daughter. She'll always be in his world."

"If you don't want to see her, the easiest solution is to divorce Leon."

I leaned against the railing above and looked down at her.

"You keep pushing for a divorce. Hoping Leon will take you back?"

She jabbed a finger up at me. "What nonsense are you talking about!"

Giselle was Don Vitali's daughter, but she was shallow and reckless, picking fights with Leon in front of people. As Leon once said, she never did learn her place. Their marriage barely lasted three years.

Rosalie jumped off the couch without looking at either of them and walked to the door.

"Stop fighting. Let's just go."

They left.

The housekeeper sighed.

"That gift, Rosalie's been carrying it around for days. Waiting for you to come home so she could give it to you first thing. We still don't know what's in it."