Page 507 of Reign

She taught me how to find quiet there.

After she died, the water became the only place I could still reach it. The only place I could remember her without remembering the end.

A melody begins somewhere behind the sound of the water.

Soft piano. A familiar progression of notes.

My heart stops.

“No.”

Luciano turns toward me immediately. “Do you want me to stop it?”

“No.” I clutch the remote against my chest. “No, don’t stop it.”

The melody continues.

Mamma used to hum it while she brushed my hair.

I haven’t heard it in years, but my mind supplies every missing piece. Her fingers separating the strands. The pull of the brush against my scalp. Her voice warming each note when she forgot the words and hummed instead.

Luciano reaches toward the platform beside us and lifts a small ivory box I hadn’t noticed.

He places it between us.

“What is that?”

“Something Angelo found among your mother’s belongings.”

My fingers tremble as I lift the lid.

A glass perfume bottle rests inside.

The bottle is new, but its shape isn’t. I know the delicate curve of the glass. The gold cap. I remember it sitting among the powders and creams on Mamma’s vanity, catching the morning light.

I sit up quickly, the water swishing beneath me. “Mamma’s perfume?”

Luciano sits up slowly. “Her original bottle was in storage. There was almost nothing left inside it.”

I look at him through the tears gathering in my eyes. “You had it recreated?”

“Yes. I sent what remained to a fragrance laboratory. They analyzed it and reconstructed the formula as accurately as possible.”

Luciano lifts the bottle from the box and places it in my palm.

Then he waits.

He doesn’t remove the cap or tell me to open it. He leaves the decision in my shaking hands.

I trace one finger over the glass.

For a moment, I’m too afraid.

What if it doesn’t smell the way I remember? What if my mind changed it during all the years without her? What if I open the bottle and discover that another piece of Mamma is gone?

Luciano says nothing.

The ripples move above us. Her song fills the room.