Chapter 3

I slept badly that night.

I dreamed I was eighteen again. Daniel was teaching me to shoot, shell casings scattered across the floor as he stood behind me with his hands over mine, telling me to relax.

I turned my head and saw him smiling at me. Then he let go and walked away. I stood there calling his name, and he never looked back.

He walked into a wall of white fog, and when the fog cleared, I was suddenly at the psychiatric facility. My mother crouched in a corner, mumbling, "I never should have had you."

I jolted awake. It was already light outside.

I turned on my phone and saw a new message.

From Andre.

"Ms. Parker, the Don wants you to move back to the estate today. The car is waiting downstairs."

I sat up and pulled back the curtain. Sure enough, a black sedan was parked below, Andre standing beside it, waiting.

I thought about last night.

Daniel must have been afraid I'd run.

After I asked him for my freedom, the thought must have bothered him more and more once he got home.

So he was bringing me back to the villa, where he could keep me right under his eye.

I had no say in the matter. All I could do was throw a few things from the apartment together and leave with them.

The car pulled up to the estate. Luca Conti, the butler, was waiting at the door, looking uneasy.

"Ms. Parker, will you be taking your old room?"

"Which room would that be?"

A gentle voice drifted down from the stairs.

Sophia stood at the second-floor landing in a white silk robe, her hair tousled, a faint flush still on her cheeks.

She glanced down at me, then turned to Mr. Conti with a soft smile.

"Daniel said that room gets the best light, so it's being made into a nursery. Give Ms. Parker one of the downstairs rooms."

Mr. Conti shot me an awkward look and opened his mouth to say something, but Sophia shot him a warning glance. He immediately lowered his head and hurried out of the living room.

Then she came down the stairs, stopped in front of me, and looked me over from head to toe.

"So you're Daisy. We ran into each other outside the hospital, but I never got the chance to say hello. Daniel's told me about you."

"He said he's bringing you over today to take better care of me. He said you're wonderful at looking after people. Otherwise, I would never allow another woman near the Don."

She drew the collar of her robe together and turned toward the living room.

"Daisy, I'm a little hungry. Could you make me some breakfast? The Don says your cooking is wonderful."

I scoffed. There was no way Daniel had said that to her.

But Sophia was clearly trying to provoke me into something she could carry back to Daniel. I didn't want a fight with them before my mother was safely out.

So I swallowed it and walked to the kitchen. This was not yet the time to push back.

Half an hour in the kitchen, and breakfast was finally ready.

Sophia sat at the head of the table reading a magazine. She didn't look up.

"Just set it down."

I put the tray in front of her and turned to go.

"Wait. These eggs are overdone. I don't like them this way. Make them again. And the milk is too hot. I want it warm."

She stopped me, poking idly at the food with her fork, frowning.

"You've been with the Don all these years. How can you not even manage something this simple?"

I said nothing. I picked up the tray, went back to the kitchen, and made it all again.

When I set the second breakfast in front of her, Sophia didn't touch her fork. She just lifted her eyes and looked at me with a half-smile.

"Daisy, after eight years with Daniel, surely you know better than to outshine the man you serve. What Daniel fears most is anything slipping beyond his control."

She prodded lightly at the eggs with her fork, pitching her voice low enough for only the two of us to hear.

"Take those suppliers. Those informants. Those partners who will only deal with you. Tell me, how could he ever rest easy leaving someone like you with that much power?"

"So I need to find out for him whether there's something wrong with you. When someone becomes unstable, mistakes follow. And once you've made one, locking you away becomes perfectly reasonable."

She smiled at me.

"Don't you think?"

I stood at the edge of the table, hands at my sides, nails biting into my palms.

She was waiting for me to lose control. To lay a hand on her.

Then she could tell Daniel, so very reasonably, that this woman had gone mad, that leaving her loose was too dangerous.

She didn't dismiss me, so I stood beside her and watched her finish every bite of breakfast.

When she finished, she seemed to remember something.

"Oh, right. I was tidying the bedroom the other day and found a notebook. It's yours, isn't it?"

She waved a servant over with a notebook worn ragged at the edges. It was the one I had searched for everywhere after moving to the apartment.

It held the letters I wrote before every dangerous job, the goodbyes I left for my mother and Daniel in case I never came back.

Sophia flipped through it carelessly, opened to a random page, and read it out loud between giggles.

I shook with rage and reached out to snatch it back.

"Give it back!"

Sophia glanced at me and tossed it casually on the floor.

"Who said I wasn't giving it back? I only wanted to make sure it was yours."

I crouched down to pick it up, and she suddenly let out a little "Oops."

Her elbow had knocked over the glass of milk on the table.

More than half the warm milk spilled into the notebook, soaking it almost through.

Sophia stood up and dabbed at the hem of her dress with a napkin, murmuring, "Oh, what a shame."

Then she looked down at me crouched on the floor, her voice still ever so gentle.

"Daisy, clean this up, won't you? The floor's all dirty now."

I crouched on the floor, carefully peeling the soaked pages apart one by one, when I heard footsteps on the stairs.

Daniel came down in a dress shirt, two buttons open at the collar, his hair damp as if he'd just showered.

Sophia turned, saw him, and went straight over, looping her arm through his.

"Daniel, I accidentally knocked over the milk and ruined Daisy's things."

Daniel glanced down at the mess on the floor, then at me.

Then he curled an arm around Sophia's waist and looked at her.

"It's fine. As long as you're not hurt."

He coaxed her over to the sofa to rest.

I stayed crouched on the floor, still cleaning up.

But then Daniel turned back and walked over to me. He took me by the wrist and helped me to my feet.

"Daisy, skip this afternoon's meeting. You've been unwell for a long time and never had time for proper treatment. Things within the Family have settled down lately anyway, so hand everything over to Andre. I'm giving you a break. Stay at the villa and take care of your health."