chapter 3

Aria

For the next five days, I tried, I really tried. I woke up early every morning and went down to the kitchen to help Rosa with breakfast. The first time, Diane found me there with flour on my face and laughed so hard she had to hold the counter.

"Sweetheart, we have three cooks. You don't have to do this," she said.

"I want to. Grace and I always made pancakes on Sundays," I said.

Her smile became a little smaller when I said Grace's name. I didn't say it again after that.

I sat with Richard in his study while he worked, just so I could get to know him. He didn't talk much. When he did, it was mostly about the business, the hotels and someone called the Morettis. Every time that name came up, his face changed. Like he was worried. Or scared. I even went shopping with Camilla. That was a mistake.

"So, Aria, what was the food like in there?" she asked loudly in the middle of the most expensive shop I had ever been in. The two shop girls folding sweaters stopped and looked at us.

"Camilla," I said.

"What? I'm just curious! Was it like the movies? Did you have to fight people for your food?" she asked with a big innocent smile.

The shop girls whispered to each other. One of them looked at me like I was going to steal something.

"Can we go?" I asked quietly.

"Already? But I didn't find anything for you yet," she said. Then she picked up a red dress with a very short skirt and held it in front of me.

"This would look so good on you. You know, for when you get a job. Wait, can you even get a job now? With your file?" she asked and tilted her head.

I took my bag and walked out of the shop. I heard her laughing behind me. When we got home, she ran to Diane crying.

"Mom, I think Aria hates me. I tried so hard today and she just left me alone in the shop," she sobbed.

"Aria, is that true?" Diane asked me with a frown.

I looked at Camilla. She was hiding her face in Diane's shoulder. But I saw her eyes. They were dry.

"I wasn't feeling well," I said.

"Next time just tell her, sweetheart. She was so excited about today," Diane said and kissed the top of Camilla's head. I nodded and went upstairs. Nobody followed me.

That night Rosa knocked on my door with her old phone in her hand.

"Someone wants to talk to you. She has been calling the house every day since you came. I finally gave her my number so she would stop scaring the guards at the gate," she said and smiled. I took the phone.

"Hello?"

"PRINCESS!!!" Lena screamed so loud that I had to hold the phone away from my ear.

I laughed. A real laugh. It came out of me so fast that I didn't even know it was still inside of me.

"How are you calling me? Phones are only on Fridays," I said.

"I traded my chocolate for Big Mary's phone time. You know how much I love that chocolate, so you better appreciate this," she said.

"I do. I really do," I said and wiped my eyes.

"So? How is the palace? Do you have a butler? Do you sleep on gold?" she asked. I looked around the pink room. I didn't know what to say.

"Aria. Talk to me," she said. Her voice wasn't joking anymore.

"She's here, Lena. The girl. She's my sister," I whispered. There was a long silence on the other end.

"That bitch?" Lena said finally.

"Lena!"

"What? I'm in prison, I'm allowed to say it. Listen to me. Don't you dare let her walk all over you. You hear me? Less than six months and I'm out, and then I'm coming to that palace to pull her hair out myself," she said.

"Deal," I said and laughed again. When I gave the phone back to Rosa, I felt a little lighter. Just a little.

On Sunday, there was a big family lunch in the garden. Diane told me to wear something nice because there would be a guest. I picked a simple yellow dress and tied my hair up. Rosa told me I looked like sunshine. I smiled for the first time in days.

The table was set under a big white tent. There were flowers everywhere. Richard and Julian were already sitting down. Camilla was not there yet.

"Where is your sister? She is always late," Richard said and shook his head.

"She went to get him from the gate. She was so excited," Diane said.

"Him?" I asked.

"Camilla's boyfriend. They've been together for two years. He's such a sweet boy. You'll love him," she said. Two years. Something cold slid down my back.

"There they are!" Diane said and waved.

I turned around. Camilla was walking across the grass holding hands with a tall man in a white shirt. Brown hair. Green eyes. A smile I knew better than my own.

The glass of water in my hand shook so hard that it spilled on my dress. Ethan.

He saw me at the same moment. He stopped walking. His face became so white that he looked like he was going to faint.

"Babe? What's wrong?" Camilla asked him sweetly.

"Nothing," he said. His voice was strange.

"Ethan, come here, come here. Meet our Aria," Diane said happily.

He walked to the table like a man walking to his own funeral. He held out his hand to me.

"Nice to meet you," he said.

Nice to meet you. Two years of my life. Every night he held me and told me I was his whole world. Every plan we made. The little apartment we were going to get. The dog we were going to name Biscuit.

Nice to meet you. I didn't take his hand. I couldn't. If I touched him I would scream.

"Aria?" Diane said.

"Sorry. My hands are wet," I said and showed her my dress.

Ethan pulled his hand back and sat down beside Camilla. Camilla leaned her head on his shoulder and smiled at me across the table. I didn't eat anything. Again.

After lunch, I found him alone near the pool. He was smoking. He never smoked when he was with me.

"Ethan," I said.

He turned around fast and looked behind me to see if someone was coming.

"Are you crazy? What are you doing?" he whispered.

"Why?" I asked.

"Aria, not here," he said.

"Why did you do it? Just tell me why," I said. My voice was shaking but I didn't care.

He looked at me for a long moment. Then he threw his cigarette in the water and laughed. He laughed.

"Look at you. Look at this house. You're a Whitmore now, Aria. You should thank me," he said.

"Thank you? You sent me to prison!" I said loudly.

"Keep your voice down!" he hissed and grabbed my arm.

"Listen to me very carefully. You don't know me. I don't know you. That's how this is going to work," he said.

"Or what?" I asked and pulled my arm away.

"Or I tell your new mommy and daddy everything that's in your file. Every ugly word. And who do you think they will believe? Their little jailbird, or me?" he asked.

My heart broke all over again. Right there, beside the blue pool, in my yellow dress. He was right. That was the worst part. He was right.

"I loved you," I said quietly. For one second, something moved in his face. Then it was gone.

"Yeah. That was your problem," he said and walked away.

I stood there until my legs stopped shaking. Then I wiped my face and walked back inside with a smile.

Because a Whitmore doesn't cry in front of people. Diane told me that on my second day. After that day, I started to notice things. Small things.

Diane always hugged Camilla a little longer than she hugged me. When Camilla talked at dinner, Richard put his phone down. When I talked, he kept typing.

Julian never left me alone with Camilla. Not even for a minute. It was like he was guarding her from me.

And every time I walked into a room, everyone stopped talking. Every single time.

On Tuesday a photographer came to the house to take a new family portrait. Diane was so excited. She said it was the first picture of the whole family together.

The photographer put Richard and Diane on a white couch. Julian stood behind them. Camilla sat right in the middle, between her parents, with her head on Diane's shoulder.

"And the other young lady? Where would you like her?" the photographer asked. Everyone looked at me like they forgot I was there.

"Oh. Um, at the end, maybe? Next to Julian," Diane said. I stood at the end. Julian moved a little bit away from me.

When the picture was printed, it was hung in the big hallway in a gold frame. A beautiful, perfect family of four. And at the very edge, half cut off by the frame, a girl in a blue dress who looked like she didn't belong there. I stood in front of it for a long time that night.

On Wednesday night I couldn't sleep again. I went down to the kitchen for some water. The light in Richard's study was on and the door was open a little bit. I heard his voice. He sounded angry.

"I know, Marco. I know," he said. I stopped in the dark hallway.

"Tell the Don he will have his wedding. Yes, before the end of the month. I gave him my word," he said. There was a pause.

"Camilla? No. No, of course not. My daughter is not marrying a man who is half dead," he said. Another pause. Then he laughed. A short, ugly laugh.

"Don't worry about that. The deal says a Whitmore daughter. And now I have two of them," he said. The glass in my hand was shaking.

"The other one? She's been in prison, Marco. She'll be grateful for anything we give her," he said.