Chapter 3

No one expected me to agree that easily.

After the banquet, Adrian caught up with me in the corridor and grabbed my wrist.

“Listen to me.”

“About what?” I asked. “About why you handed my place to another woman? Or about why you thought I would keep understanding you forever?”

He held on tighter. “Before Matteo died, he asked me to look after Bianca and Sophia. The people circling his will are still there. I had to protect them. I didn’t do this because I love her.”

“So you hid it from me.”

“I knew you wouldn’t agree.”

I looked at him and almost smiled.

“You weren’t afraid I’d refuse. You knew it was wrong, so you made sure I never got a choice.”

His face hardened. “When this is over, everything goes back to normal. You’ll still be the woman of this house.”

“But tonight everyone saw who stood at your right hand.”

I turned to leave, but Bianca came toward us.

“Don’t be so sensitive, Evelyn,” she said. “Every family needs both. One woman to carry the burden. Another to stand beside the man who matters.”

That was the cruelest part. I had carried the weight for ten years, and she thought she could walk in and claim the visible half.

I didn’t look at her again. “Then stand there properly.”

Something in her eyes sharpened.

She stepped closer, lowering her voice so only we could hear. “It won’t be a performance for long. Chicago already knows who belongs at his side. Once a man starts replacing one woman in public, the rest is only paperwork.”

I met her gaze.

“You are wearing borrowed jewels, standing in borrowed light, and speaking in a place built by my hands. If I were you, Bianca, I would be less eager to celebrate.”

Her smile faltered. Then she gave a soft gasp. Her heel twisted, and she stumbled hard against the wall.

“Bianca!” Adrian moved at once.

She clutched his arm and looked at me with wide, wet eyes. “I only came to make peace. I didn’t mean to upset her.”

I did not move. “I never touched you.”

“Enough, Evelyn.”

Adrian stepped between us and put an arm around Bianca’s waist. “She’s been under pressure for days. She lost her husband, her life is under attack, and you choose now to make a scene?”

I laughed once, quietly. “I’m making a scene?”

Bianca leaned weakly against him. “Please don’t fight because of me.”

That was when I understood there was no point in saying another word.

I did not look at Bianca again.

“Then hold her properly,” I said. “You’ve already taken everything else far enough.”

I walked past them and did not turn back.

Back at the estate, I started packing. Our passports, medicine, coats, cash, and a few pieces of jewelry. Noah sat on the carpet and watched me.

“Mom, are you leaving?”

“Tomorrow is your birthday,” I said, kneeling in front of him. “I promised I’d spend it with you.”

“Will Dad come back? I don’t want Aunt Bianca in your place. I don’t want Sophia calling him Dad.”

My throat tightened. “I don’t know if he’ll come back. But I do know this. No one gets to use your pain to make someone else look important.”

Adrian did not come home that night.

Noah and I sat by the window until dawn. Just before sunrise, he said, “Dad will come back. He won’t forget my birthday.”

I said nothing.

Adrian never showed up on Noah’s birthday.

At noon, I called him.

There was laughter in the background and the sound of glasses touching.

“Today is Noah’s birthday,” I said. “Where is the surprise you promised him?”

He went quiet, then answered quickly. “I can’t leave right now. Check the drawer by my bed. There’s a ticket to Stockholm and a black card. Take Noah away for a few days. I’ll come get you when I’m done.”

“You can’t leave because you’re sitting at the head table with Bianca, aren’t you?”

He lowered his voice. “Evelyn, don’t do this now. When it’s over, I’ll make it up to you and the boy.”

Then he hung up.

I opened the drawer by his bed. The tickets were there, along with the black card and a diamond bracelet.

At the same time, the family account posted again.

The picture showed the head table. Adrian sat at the center, Bianca at his right hand in the DeLuca emerald necklace, and Sophia tucked close beside them.

The caption read:

“Some family dinners do not need explanation. The right people reveal themselves by who remains at the table.”

For a moment, I could not feel my hands.

Then Noah tugged at my sleeve and handed me his tablet.

Sophia had posted a story of her own.

The first clip showed Adrian carrying out her birthday cake while everyone sang. The second showed him kneeling to straighten the ribbon at her waist. In the third, she kissed his cheek and laughed into the camera.

The caption read:

“Some girls are lucky enough to get the best dad in the world. Thank you for loving me, spoiling me, and making me feel like your real little girl.”

Noah burst into tears. “So he wasn’t busy. He just went to celebrate with her.”

I looked at my son and stopped waiting.

“Yes,” I said. “So we’re leaving.”

Half an hour later, I walked out of the estate with Noah beside me.

I left a signed divorce agreement on the dining table. I took only what belonged to me, our passports, some cash, my jewelry, and what little dignity I still had.

Instead of using Adrian’s ticket to Stockholm, I booked a flight to Oslo.