Chapter 2

The welcome dinner broke up in less than an hour.

When I returned to the main house, Sofia was bundled in cashmere before the fireplace. Matteo listened to her lungs while Mom held a mug of warm cider. Luca and Nico stood behind the sofa like she'd barely made it out of an emergency room.

Mom looked at me and went straight for the verdict. "Elena, apologize to your sister."

"I'm not apologizing for taking the seat assigned to me."

Nico gave a humorless laugh. "You can turn any room into a courtroom."

I took off my coat and laid it over a chair. "This isn't a trial. It's a record. On my first birthday here, you went to Sofia's jewelry launch. On my second, she broke up with a boyfriend, and you drove six hours to bring her home. Two months ago, on my third birthday, her greyhound skipped breakfast, so you blew me off again."

His face lost its color one shade at a time. "Things came up."

"My birthday came up too. It lasts one day."

The fire snapped in the silence.

Luca tried to shut the whole thing down. He took a navy jewelry box from the cabinet and slid it across the coffee table. "Dinner was a mess. Consider this a make-good."

Inside sat a pair of diamond earrings. Sofia tugged at her sleeve without thinking, and the antique sapphire bracelet on her wrist flashed beneath the lamps.

Mom had shown me a photograph of that bracelet the first week I arrived. My name and date of birth were engraved inside it. My grandmother had commissioned it when I was born, and Mom claimed she'd kept it for me through all twenty-five years I was missing.

"Why is Sofia wearing my bracelet?"

Mom snapped the earring box closed. "She was hospitalized after a bad asthma attack when she turned eighteen. I gave it to her so she'd know she would always be a Moretti daughter."

"Then why did you tell me it had been waiting for me?"

"Elena, it's a piece of jewelry. If you like sapphires, we'll have another one made."

"The stone isn't the point." I pushed the earrings back. "You're offering me something new so I won't mention the promise you broke."

Mom's expression said I was supposed to take the diamonds, kiss her cheek, and let everyone breathe again. That was how peace worked in the Moretti house. The person with the deepest pockets bought a new object, and the person who had been hurt was expected to call the matter settled.

Sofia immediately reached for the clasp. Mom covered her hand and said, too quickly, "No one is asking you to give it back."

I nodded and stopped arguing. The bracelet wasn't proof that Sofia wasn't family. She was. The problem was that Mom had promised the same object, the same room, and the same time to two daughters, then expected the quieter one to absorb the loss.

There had always been room for both of us. The estate had fourteen bedrooms, the family owned more cars than any one household could need, and money had never been the issue. Love became scarce only when they turned every need into a contest and assumed I would volunteer to lose.

My father came out of his study and took in the jewelry boxes. "We're going to Nassau County Court tomorrow. The papers changing your name to Moretti are ready."

That appointment had been postponed six times in three years. The attorney was traveling. Dad had a meeting. Mom had a migraine. Sofia needed a specialist. Every excuse sounded reasonable on its own, which was how a pattern stayed invisible until someone wrote it down.

"Who's coming?" I asked.

"Everyone," Dad said.

I looked from Mom to Luca, Matteo, and Nico.

Luca answered first. "I'll be there."

Matteo nodded. "I'll clear my morning."

Nico shoved his hands into his pockets. "It's a couple of hours. I'm not leaving."

Mom took my hand. "This time, no one puts your day on the back burner."

Sofia lifted her head. "I'll come too. I want to see you become a Moretti."

That night, six nearly identical messages appeared in the family chat.

[Court tomorrow at nine. No one leaves early.]

I stared at those promises longer than I wanted to admit. I typed one reply.

[Okay.]