I snorted.“Since when do I need to declare war with a hemline?”
“Since your life started reading like a headline,” she shot back, but her eyes searched my face in that way she had—quick, precise, cataloging bruises no one else could see.“You slept?”
“Not really.”
“You eat?”
“Does coffee count?”
She clicked her tongue and thrust the red into my hands.“Try this.If you hate it, we’ll set it on fire.”
I slipped behind the screen.The dress slid over my skin like it had been waiting for me.When I stepped out, Catrina let out a low whistle.
“Enrico will love taking that off you later.”She paused, then frowned.“If he shows up.”
My stomach dipped.I kept my eyes on the mirror and smoothed the fabric at my hip.The woman in the glass appeared almost dangerous.A perfect illusion.
“What’s going on?”I asked, meeting her gaze in the reflection.
She hesitated, the admission already gathering behind her teeth.“He’s… focused,” she said.“There’s chatter.I don’t have any details.”
“Because they don’t tell you, or because he asked you not to tell me?”
“Both.”
I turned.“I asked for honesty.”
Catrina’s mouth softened.“He’s still learning.”
“That’s not comforting.”
“It’s the truth,” she said, and for once, there was no defense in it.Only fatigue.
She stepped behind me to fix a strand of hair, fingers sure and gentler than she wanted people to know.When she finished, she rested her hands on my shoulders and met my eyes in the mirror.
“You are not an afterthought.Don’t let his silence convince you otherwise.”
Dinner at eight turned into dinner at eight-thirty turned into dinner at nine.Plates came and went under silver domes, courses I couldn’t taste.I kept glancing toward the door like a fool, waiting for him to fill the space he’d left.He didn’t.
When Meredith cleared the untouched dessert, she set down a small envelope beside my glass.No monogram.No wax seal.
Hope to sleep next to you tonight.
– E
I let my thumb trace the line where the ink had sunk deeper into the paper.I folded the note.I did not cry.
Afterwards, I walked.Hallway.Gallery.Footsteps behind me.I didn’t turn.
“You missed dinner.”
“I know.”He sounded tired.Not the kind of tiredness you fix with sleep.
Something in my chest softened and then stiffened; danger disguised as tenderness.“You got what you wanted.You married me in front of everyone.The alliance is sealed.My father sleeps easier.The underworld applauds.And now—” I gestured at the space between us.“Now you’re gone.”
He went very still.
“I’m not gone.”
