Chapter 1

I didn’t know how much time had passed when my brother’s voice began playing from the cracked phone beside my body.

“Alicia, stop sulking. Get to the hospital and apologize to Bianca. Or don’t bother coming home.”

I looked down at my body on the basement floor. One hand rested against my stomach. Blood had soaked through my sweater and pooled beneath me. My eyes were still fixed on the stairs.

I remembered listening for footsteps.

Even after he hung up, I had thought Luca might send someone.

No one had come. I had died alone on the basement floor, surrounded by blood, with cold air slipping beneath the door.

Now his message was here.

I wasn’t alive to answer it.

For a moment, I couldn’t tell whether I wanted to cry or was relieved.

It was time to leave. I didn’t care where I went, as long as I didn’t have to stay beside my body.

Then something pulled at me, and the basement vanished.

When I could see again, I was standing beside Bianca’s hospital bed.

Luca sat beside the bed, staring at his phone.

“Straight to voicemail,” he said. “Let’s see how long she keeps it up this time.”

Bianca shifted against her pillows. White gauze covered her left wrist.

Bianca had walked into one of Luca’s meetings despite being told to wait. When he snapped at her in front of his men, she ran upstairs.

By the time Mom found her, she had cut her wrist.

The doctor hadn’t needed to stitch it. Still, Luca had insisted she stay another night.

I looked at the bandage, then at the dark stain spreading across my sweater.

“Leave her alone, Luca.” Mom sat on the sofa with a paper cup of coffee. Her coat was draped over the armrest. She had been here all night, too.

“She knows we’re with Bianca. That’s why she’s doing this.”

“She said someone broke into the studio.”

“And did you hear anyone?”

Luca shook his head.

Of course, he hadn’t. They had already left me bleeding in the basement.

Mom took a sip of coffee.

“Then stop rewarding her. When she realizes no one’s going to chase after her, she’ll come home.”

I moved closer to her.

There was a crease on her cheek from sleeping against the sofa cushion. I had never seen her look so tired for me.

“Luca?” Bianca tugged gently at his sleeve. “Perhaps you should go check on Alicia.”

For a moment, I stared at her.

“Maybe I just shouldn't be alive,” she sobbed. “I know Alicia has hated me for a long time. She has always resented me for stealing your affection.”

Luca took her hand.

“Don’t say that. I’m staying here.” He paused. “This is too dramatic, even for her.”

“You didn’t take anything from her. She’s the one who turns everything into a competition with you.”

“Bianca, you’re too kind. That’s why she keeps getting away with this.” Mom brushed Bianca’s hair back from her face. “What could possibly have happened to her? No one dares touch a Valenti.”

Luca scoffed. “That weak little voice? I bet she put it on.”

He rubbed his thumb over Bianca’s knuckles.

“You hurt your wrist, and she has to pretend she’s dying. How sick do you have to be to copy even that?”

I’d known since childhood that they loved Bianca more than me.

I’d grown used to being told to wait, to always let her come first. And when she was upset, I knew better than to ask them for anything.

But I hadn’t known that they would rather believe I was lying than send someone to check on me. That in their eyes, I was a sister who would fake her own death just to take something from Bianca.

The door opened. Dad came in carrying a bag from Bianca’s favorite Italian restaurant.

The guards outside straightened. Dad barely glanced at them.

“They made your favorite pizza,” he told Bianca.

“You went yourself?”

He set the bag on the table beside her bed.

“For my baby girl? Of course.”

Bianca smiled. Luca raised the bed so she could sit up, and Mom spread a napkin across Bianca’s lap.

I stood beside the door.

Dad took off his coat.

“Where’s Alicia?”

“Probably sulking somewhere,” Luca said. “She’ll come home when she’s done.”

Dad’s mouth tightened.

“She barely says a word at family dinners. The moment her sister needs us, she has an emergency suddenly.”

He took out his phone.

I watched him open our family group chat.

Bianca is coming home tomorrow. Be there before noon and make sure her room is ready.

He paused, then added:

If you keep ignoring us, I’ll have your card canceled. I won’t finance this behavior.

He waited.

I hovered beside him and gave a bitter laugh.

Dad, I’m already dead.

Mom switched on the television.

On the screen, police were wheeling a covered body out of a building. Behind them, the blue studio door stood open. A streak of yellow paint marked the bottom corner, where I’d knocked over a tin last spring.

My studio.

“…a young woman was found dead in the basement this afternoon. Police are still working to identify the victim.”

As they lifted the stretcher, one hand slipped from beneath the sheet. A silver bracelet hung around the wrist.

I looked at Luca.

He knew that bracelet. I had made it for him when he took over as Dad’s underboss.

I’d spent weeks on it, engraving his initials on the inside. When he opened the box, I had leaned closer, waiting for him to notice.

Then Bianca laughed.

“Did you make that in an art class?”

Luca closed the box before I could show him the engraving.

“You should know my taste by now. What am I supposed to do with this junk? Let my men laugh at me?”

He left it on the table.

I took it back to my room, ashamed that the gift I’d worked so hard on had only upset him.

The bracelet was too big for me, but I wore it anyway. I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. Sometimes, I pretended it was a gift from him instead.

Now the camera moved closer. The bracelet glinted in the sunlight.

Luca was watching the screen.

I waited for him to recognize it and realize I hadn’t been lying when I called.

He reached for the remote.

The screen went black.

“You don’t need to see that.” He handed Bianca a napkin. “It’ll only upset you.”

I stared at my wrist.

Maybe he had forgotten the bracelet the moment he left it on the table.