Nine

<JACK>

"Son."

My father's hand traced the edge of my suit, straightening a lapel that didn't need straightening. His fingers were cold. They always were.

"You made it."

I cracked a small smile. It sat wrong on my face, but he didn't notice. He never did.

"I said I would."

"You say a lot of things."

His eyes moved past me — toward the driveway, the gate, the car I'd stepped out of alone. Checking. Always checking.

Then Skylark appeared at his shoulder like she'd been waiting for her cue.

"Jack."

She stepped in before I could move. Her arms went around my neck. Her perfume hit me first — something floral and sharp, the kind of scent that announces itself before the person does.

I didn't lift my hands. I stood there stiff, jaw set, eyes fixed on the wall behind her. My skin crawled where she touched me. I could feel Romano watching. I could feel him enjoying it.

She pulled back and smiled up at me.

"You're late."

"I'm here."

Romano laughed — a low, easy sound — and clapped his hand on my shoulder.

"Come. Everyone's waiting."

He led us into the hall, one hand still on my back like a leash he didn't need to pull. The room opened up around us — chandeliers, long table, the smell of expensive food and older money. Uncles I hadn't seen in years. Cousins who smiled at me like we were close. Wives and husbands and children arranged like decorations.

Every one of them looked at me the way Romano wanted them to.

The heir.

---

<ARIANA>

I stepped through the side entrance in a black dress that cost more than my rent.

Hair done. Makeup clean. Nothing flashy — Jack had been specific about that. Look like you belong. Don't look like you're trying.

D.D. was waiting in the corridor.

He leaned against the wall like he'd been there an hour. Arms folded. Eyes tracking me from the moment I came into view.

He looked me over once. Slow. From the shoes up.

"Seems you now deal with richer," he said.

I kept walking.

"Excuse me?"

He pushed off the wall and fell into step beside me.

"Last time I saw you, you were working a stage. Now you're walking into the De Luca house wearing couture." His voice was low. Almost amused. Almost something else. "People move up fast."

I stopped. Turned.

"I don't know what you think you remember—"

"I remember everything."

The words landed flat between us. No heat in them. No threat. Just fact.

We stood there a second longer than we should have. His eyes dropped — once, quickly — to my mouth, then back up. I felt my face get warm and hated myself for it.

"That was a different life," I said.

"It was six months ago."

"Same thing."

I brushed past him. He didn't stop me.

But I could feel him watching me walk away, the same way I'd felt it across a room a long time ago.

---

<JACK>

We were seated at the table when Ariana walked in.

She didn't come through the service door. She came through the main one — the same entrance the family used, the same entrance Skylark had walked through an hour earlier. Black dress. Straight spine. Eyes forward.

She looked like she belonged here.

The room noticed. Of course it noticed.

A few heads turned. A cousin leaned toward his wife and whispered something. An aunt set her glass down to get a better look.

Skylark noticed too. Her eyes narrowed — just slightly, just enough.

She set her glass down and turned to me.

"Jack."

I didn't look at her.

"Why is the dancer sitting at this table?"

The table went quiet.

Not all at once — in pieces. First the cousins. Then the aunts. Then the uncles. By the time the silence reached the head of the table, every face in the room was turned toward me.

Skylark smiled. Sweet. Innocent. The way she did when she was about to hand someone a knife and ask them to hold it.

"She's not a known face in this family." She tilted her head. "Is she?"

Romano looked up.

Slowly.

His eyes moved past me, past Skylark, past the whole table — and landed on Ariana, seated two chairs down, hands folded in her lap.

Ariana didn't move.

My father's fork hovered halfway to his mouth.

And for one long, terrible second, nobody in the room breathed.