Page 180 of A Vicious Love

I pulled out my phone.

We had a shared reminder.

That was not a sentence I enjoyed living with.

Emmie Herb Check — every six days, 11:30 p.m.

I adjusted the next alert to account for the new basil, then added a note: inspect rosemary. I put the phone away. We slipped out through the side door and back into the garden.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

SIENNA

Iloved the Bellemere summer retreat. The first morning, everyone gathered on the eastern terrace for breakfast.

My father sat at the head of the long table beneath a cream umbrella, reading messages on a private tablet that somehow had service even though the rest of us had been told the ridge had no reception.

My cousins were already bickering.

“I would rather be legally dead than merged into a dynasty marriage before twenty-five.” Aurelia said, dropping a piece of toast onto her plate.

My aunt Celestine, who was Aurelia’s mother and one of the richest women in the Bellemere line, did not look up from spreading jam on her croissant.

Aurelia’s sister, Cosima, rolled her eyes.

“Oh, here we go.”

Aurelia turned on her. “What?”

“You read one political essay on the drive and now you want to dismantle bloodline structure before breakfast.”

“It wasn’t one essay.”

“No, sorry. You listened to a podcast too. That changes everything.”

A few of my uncles laughed.

Aurelia flushed. She was twenty, clever in a way that made adults uncomfortable because she asked questions before they had finished explaining why questions were unnecessary.

“I’m not trying to dismantle bloodlines before breakfast,” Aurelia said. “I’m saying daughters should not be treated like corridor agreements with uteruses.”

Uncle Marc laughed into his coffee. “Christ, Aurelia.”

“That language is unnecessary.” My mother’s mouth tightened.

“It’s true,” Aurelia said.

Cosima leaned back in her chair. “It’s dramatic.”

“It’s true.”

“It’s one version of true.” Cosima picked up her juice. “Here’s another. I’m going to marry once, someone rich with a old-name. And tolerable enough if Father negotiates well. I’ll have the expected children. Bloodline heirs, clean genetics, whatever everyone needs to stop panicking. In return, I get the best life this world can give me.”

Aurelia stared at her. “That doesn’t bother you?”

“No.”

“How does that not bother you?”