“I should rip this off your finger. I should put my own ring on your finger. One you actually chose. One that means something.” I pull her closer. “You’re mine, Lucy. Not his. Mine.”
“I know.” Tears are sliding down her cheeks now. “I know I’m yours. But this is the only way to keep us both alive.”
I pull her into my arms, and this time she doesn’t resist. She collapses against me, and I feel her body shaking with silent sobs. My hand tangles in her hair. For these few stolen seconds, she’s mine. Not his. Mine.
I hear footsteps. Andreas is coming back, probably looking for Lucy. She must hear them too, because she pulls away from me quickly, wiping at her eyes.
“I have to go,” she says.
“Lucy—”
“He can’t know how I feel about you.” She pulls away and hurries down the hall toward Andreas, who’s wearing the satisfied smile of a man who thinks he’s claimed something precious. I watch her go, barely breathing, jealousy raging in my heart as she moves toward her future husband.
Andreas thinks he’s won and believes he’s claimed something that belongs to me.
But he’s wrong.
Lucy is mine. And I will find a way to get her back.
15
Lucy
I’ve always felt pleasure when gazing upon fine jewelry, even when I was very small. Ever since I can remember, I have dawdled in front of jewelry store windows because the sight of all the sparkling gems made me feel good. I don’t know where these feelings come from, because it’s not like I was raised among diamonds and rubies. The stones don’t elicit fond memories of home. The only jewelry my birth mom owned were cheap bits and pieces bought in drugstores that sometimes turned her skin green.
Once I became a Barone, I was suddenly surrounded by women who wear the most beautiful necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. Mom—my Barone mom—and her friends all wear the real thing. Timeless, expensive pieces that shine and sparkle and elevate them to the level of princesses and queens. At the end of the day, Mom carefully takes her jewelry off, lays it on velvet, and locks it up tight in pretty boxes.
Jewels are coveted. Protected. Desired.
They can also be traded for power.
I’m no diamond necklace in Mom’s and Dad’s eyes. That would be Ariana. But even she isn’t the crowning jewel in her family. Damiano is our prince who will one day be king. He can never be traded, offered, or sold.
Every time I catch sight of the ring Andreas pushed onto my finger, panic slams through me, blaring in my ears like an airhorn. I’m going to marry Andreas Montoni. I’m going to let him undress me, touch me, have my unwilling body, while I pretend I like it. All the while, I’ll be aching for Damiano, and he’ll be consumed by furious jealousy.
We’re both going to be miserable for the rest of our lives.
“Lucy, pay attention. The satin or the lace?”
My head snaps up. I’m sitting on a pristine white sofa in a brightly lit shop that’s filled with racks of enormous, puffy white dresses. A shop girl is holding up a draped satin gown in one hand, and a lace gown with a mermaid skirt in the other.
“The satin,” I say.
Mom shakes her head. “The lace. It’s more traditional. Go and try it on.”
Why did she even ask me? I get up from the sofa and go with the shop girl to try on the dress that Mom prefers. It has a tight bodice and sleeves that make me feel suffocated, and fussy, itchy lace around the neckline. I emerge from the changing room and stand before Mom and Ariana, waiting for their approval. My sister is gazing off to one side as though wishing she were far, far away from here.
Mom nods. “That gown is perfect. Demure, respectful, and well-bred.”
Everything I’m not.
“What do you think, darling?” she asks me.
I open my mouth to tell her that I like it, but the words stick in my throat. I’ve pretended to everyone that I’m happyabout this marriage, and I even managed to smile when Andreas pushed the horrible engagement ring onto my finger. I don’t have it in me to feign happiness with this horrible dress.
“I hate it.”
Mom’s eyes flash with anger. She longs to hurl a diatribe of sharp, angry words at me, about how I should be more grateful because she and Dad are paying for this expensive wedding, but the staff in the store will hear, and what if they tell other Malus families that the Barones came in here and caused a scene?
