Chapter 4
Vivienne begins crying before Roman asks the first question.
We return to the council room less than an hour after finding the communicator. Cesare’s body remains outside, yet Matteo already has two guards beside Vivienne and another accusation waiting for me.
She pushes up her sleeve.
Four red marks cross her wrist. One has already darkened at the edges.
Vivienne presses the marked wrist to her chest. “Elena offered me money to leave before dinner. When I refused, she grabbed me and said I should have died properly five years ago.”
For a second, I am too angry to speak.
Not because the lie is good. Because Roman looks at the marks and forgets what I told him.
“She made those after the search.” I turn toward the guard who stood outside my room. “You saw us. I never touched her.”
The man’s gaze slides toward Matteo. “Lady Elena stopped her near the west passage. I heard raised voices.”
He is lying.
I point toward the corridor. “The west passage has cameras. Show Roman the recording.”
Matteo folds his hands. “The system failed during the attack.”
Of course it did.
Vivienne wipes her cheek, leaving the tears shining beneath her eyes. “I didn’t want to say anything. There has already been enough blood because of me.”
Because of her.
Cesare is dead, a communicator appeared in my room, and somehow she is the one asking everyone to forgive me.
I face Roman. “Check the time stamps. Check when that guard left his post. Check her bag for the clasp she used on her wrist.”
Vivienne flinches, and hope rises before I can stop it. Roman saw that. He had to.
Roman’s palm strikes the table. “Enough.”
The same word as dinner. The same direction.
Always at me.
Roman rises with the De Luca badge in his hand. “Until the route leak and Vivienne’s accusation are resolved, Elena’s household authority is suspended.”
For a second, I cannot breathe.
“You are removing my authority because she cried?”
“Because my uncle is dead.” His jaw tightens. “Your badge, Elena.”
I touch the metal pinned inside my jacket. Roman gave it to me after our marriage and told the guards that my orders carried his weight. I believed that too.
How many promises can one woman misunderstand before it becomes her fault?
I unpin the badge and place it on the table. Roman does not meet my eyes when he takes it.
“Your security detail is reassigned,” he continues. “Your estate access is revoked. You will remain in the east wing until I finish the investigation.”
Not our rooms. Not even my room.
The east wing.
“You’re locking your wife away on the word of the woman wearing the necklace you refused to give me.” My voice finally breaks, and I hate them all for hearing it. “Is that stable enough for your family?”
Roman’s face changes for half a second. It is not enough.
“Escort her.”
I stop waiting for him to change his mind.
I do not ask him to believe me again. He has seen Vivienne’s wrist, Matteo’s guard, and my badge in his hand. He has chosen.
Inez waits near the council-room doors with her head lowered. As the guards close around me, I brush two fingers over the old brass key hanging beneath my collar—the key my mother made me keep even after I moved into Roman’s rooms.
I catch Inez’s eye and touch the key again.
Find the passage.
Her expression does not change, but her left hand closes once at her side.
The guards take me to the east wing. Roman’s order reaches the door before I do.
The lock turns from the outside.