Chapter 3

I dragged my heavy body out of the room to look for medicine. I tried to open my mouth and could barely make a sound.

Leon came down soon after. Seeing the medicine in my hand, he asked what was wrong.

"Nothing." My voice was so hoarse it sounded foreign to me.

Leon came over and felt my forehead. "You're burning up! Did you catch a cold? I'll take you to the hospital."

"No need. I'll just rest a bit."

"Are you still angry? I'm sorry. That day... I forgot."

He pulled an exquisite velvet box from his pocket. Inside lay a diamond necklace.

"A gift to make it up to you."

The diamond was red as blood, throwing off dazzling, many-colored light under the lamp.

But the one who loved red was Cecilia.

"Let me take you to the doctor. There's a banquet tomorrow night, and you have to be there."

I didn't take it. I wanted to go back to sleep, when suddenly a cry came from upstairs. Cecilia had collapsed against the staircase, clutching her stomach, her face pale.

"Leon, my stomach hurts so much. Please... take me to the hospital."

At that, Leon shoved the box into my hands and rushed over, gingerly lifting Cecilia into his arms.

Her face was ghostly white, her brow knotted tight. Leon tossed out a single "Remember to see a doctor" and left without a backward glance.

I stood in the empty room and only felt colder. He'd cast me aside again.

The next day, Leon held a dinner at the estate.

Ostensibly it was to welcome Cecilia back, but in truth every important figure in Chicago's underworld had come.

Crimson Flame's capos, the advisors of allied families, even a few old men who never usually showed their faces, all sat around the long table draped in Venetian lace.

The dinner had barely begun when Cecilia came over with a wineglass in hand, circled to Leon's right, and pulled out the chair to sit down without the slightest hesitation. That was the Donna's seat.

Leon let it happen.

The two of them murmured together the whole time, exchanging smiles now and then, as if they were the true host and hostess of the evening.

I watched it all with a blank face, and Leon didn't spare me so much as a glance. My chest felt tight. I stood to leave, but Cecilia stopped me.

"Where are you off to, Emilia? I still have something to announce. Aren't you curious?"

I hadn't meant to pay her any mind, but Cecilia raised her arm, and the scar running across the inside of it showed pale white under the light.

"Leon, do you remember? When you were little, the Iron Fist family kidnapped you, and a little girl saved you. I came across your old file the other day and only then found out about it. Back then, I was locked in the cell next to yours, and I sang you Italian nursery rhymes all night long."

The dinner knife in Leon's hand clattered onto the table. "What did you say?"

"You don't remember?"

Cecilia produced a silver coin and gave it a little shake under the light.

"This coin, I gave you one just like it back then. Don't tell me you've thrown it away."

Leon hurriedly pulled a coin from his inside pocket and compared them. Identical.

I froze, then realized she must have taken it from my room that day.

I lifted my head to explain, only to meet Leon's eyes, and in them a tangle of shock, anger, and disbelief.

He shot me one look, then turned and pulled Cecilia into his arms.

"I've finally found you, my little princess."

The people at the table chimed in with cheers, and a few of Leon's men whistled.

Those men had once been close to me, and now they were falling over themselves to flatter Cecilia. They laughed and talked, clinked glasses, passed cigars around. Only I stayed sitting in my chair, the scar in that very same spot on my arm seeming to ache faintly.

Then Cecilia handed Leon a business card.

"Darling, on this trip to Scandinavia I met the head of the Moretti family's trade council. If you want to expand over there, you could try reaching out."

That pleased Leon even more, and the two of them drank a toast.

It was only a contact, Leon. What I'd secured was a full trade license for the entire region.

As the dinner broke up, Leon passed by me and said coldly, "You liar."

Cecilia sauntered over, smug, an almost pitying smile in her eyes.

"Emilia, you can't win against me. You think he loves you? All he loves is power. Now your man is mine, and the credit for saving him is mine, too."

"You bought off that guard from back then, didn't you," I said. "And cut yourself open too, all for this?"

Cecilia let out a scoff.

"Oh, it's more than that. I've got another gift for you. Just wait a little longer, Leon will come looking for you soon."

She turned and walked off, her heels striking the marble floor one beat after another, like nails being driven in.

My phone buzzed.

It really was a message from Leon: Come to the study. There's something I need to tell with you.