Chapter 4

Grandmother had prepared two heirlooms, one for each of us.

Mine was an aquamarine necklace, while Beth's was a ruby rose brooch. Both were one-of-a-kind Ricci Family heirlooms.

But Beth had gambled hers away on horse races while we were abroad.

My eyes stung with tears. "You stole my necklace!"

I lunged for the clasp.

Beth backed away, and Mother immediately stepped in to block me.

"What the hell are you doing?! This is a formal event. Have you no manners!"

Mother's voice was razor-sharp.

I shouted back, "You stole my necklace!"

Mother shot back, "What do you mean, your things? Everything here belongs to the Family!"

"Grandmother gave it to me!" My voice rose.

It was the only thing in that house that belonged to me alone, the last piece of Grandmother I had left.

"It still belongs to this Family. Why are you shouting?" Mother pulled Beth aside and smoothed her mussed hair.

"You don't need to dress up for anything. You don't get to decide what happens with the Family's belongings."

I shook with hurt and fury.

I couldn't stop seeing Grandmother fastening the necklace around my neck before she died. "This love is yours alone," she had told me. "Hold on to it."

Tears streamed down my face.

"Take it off. Give it back." I went for the necklace again.

My brother shoved me back and jabbed a finger in my face. "Adele, enough. Look where you are. How dare you make a scene here!"

"Everything here belongs to the Family. It's not for you to decide who wears it! Even the clothes on your back are ours!"

"Look at you, acting like you've never seen anything of value."

The commotion caught Umberto's attention. Without even asking what happened, he scolded me. "Adele, stop embarrassing the Family."

"It's just a necklace. Beth is about to take over the Family's most important port business. That's something to celebrate."

"The banquet was arranged at the last minute, and she needed a Family heirloom for appearances. Consider it your gift to her."

My tears kept falling.

Beth had one of her own.

She was the one who had run up gambling debts and pawned her brooch without a second thought. I had begged her not to and offered to work with her so we could buy it back.

She hadn't cared. She even said redeeming it would be beneath her dignity.

Why should I have to pay for her recklessness with the one thing that was mine?

I stared at Umberto and wiped my tears dry.

"Give it back. Right now!" I shouted, loud enough to turn every head in the room.

Mother's face flushed with humiliation.

My brother hissed, "Enough!" He raised his hand to hit me, but Beth stopped him.

Beth's eyes filled with tears. "I never knew my own sister didn't consider me family, not if she'd tear us apart over one necklace."

"I'll give it back. Just stop fighting."

The moment she cried, everyone frowned in sympathy. Mother was the worst of them, pulling Beth aside and shielding her.

"This Family is not yours to run! Get out of here, now!"

"Give it back!" I kept shouting.

I lunged for the necklace. My brother seized my dress and dragged me toward the exit. My heel buckled, wrenching my ankle.

A sharp sting shot through my ankle. My dress was an old one; the back seam had split before and I had stitched it up myself. The repair didn't hold.

As he dragged me, I heard the fabric tear.

I gripped his wrist with everything I had, but I was no match for his strength. Everyone was watching.

The back of my dress ripped wide open, exposing bare skin.

The humiliation was suffocating.

Tears streamed down my face as he dragged me out of the banquet hall and dumped me into the driver's custody.

"Take her home. Lock her in."

I pounded on the car window, one arm clutching the torn dress against my chest.

I sobbed into my hand as the car pulled away, then curled around my knees and cried until the world spun.

The driver locked me in my room.

I found the empty jewelry box and sat there clutching it, staring at nothing. So this was how it worked in this family: nothing would ever be divided fairly between Beth and me.

Before they came home, I climbed over the balcony and dropped from the second story, hitting the ground hard. I ignored the pain, grabbed my luggage, and fled the estate.

I hailed a car on the road and headed for the airport.

On the way, I blocked every single one of them. I never wanted anything to do with them again.