Chapter 3

My hair was pinned back without a single strand out of place.

The waist of the gown was cinched so tight I could barely draw a full breath.

As for the row of studs along my cartilage —

They had all been removed.

The maid slid a pair of deep-colored gem earrings into my ears instead. I stared sidelong at the line of silver studs arranged neatly on the vanity and said, half to myself, half just to see what would happen: "Do you think you could put the others in too?"

Her hands paused.

"I'm sorry, Miss." She kept her eyes down, her voice barely above a whisper. "I'm afraid that's not something I'm able to do."

When I stepped out of the room, Calvin was already waiting at the top of the staircase.

Downstairs, the rooms blazed with light, and strings floated through the air in elegant, measured phrases.

I descended. It might have been my imagination, but something in the way Calvin watched me shifted, just briefly, as I came toward him.

"Finally presentable," he said.

That was his entire verdict.

I rolled my eyes internally. It was definitely my imagination.

He extended his hand and led me toward the center of the ballroom.

The guests parted around us as though by reflex. I caught the weight of appraising glances from more than one direction.

The boned corset of the gown was demanding half my concentration just to breathe through. My footwork didn't match Calvin's — I knew it, he knew it, and the people watching from the edges knew it too.

The whispers rose around us like a tide coming in.

"Her steps are too stiff."

"Selena carries herself so much better. She'd look the part."

"Can she really hold that position in the Valenti family?"

When the music ended, I pulled my hand free from Calvin's.

My chest was so tight I wanted to tear the gown apart at the seams.

I walked to the drinks table along the side of the room, picked up a flute of champagne, and drank deeply.

"Evelyn."

Someone said my name behind me.

I turned. Aurora was standing there with a glass of her own, looking me over from head to toe. "The dress suits you tonight."

"Thank you."

She smiled lightly and drifted closer, lowering her voice. "It's a pity, though. Wearing the right dress doesn't mean you can hold the position that comes with it."

I set my glass down. "What exactly are you trying to say?"

"What I'm trying to say," she replied, tilting her chin up, her smile unmoving, "is that you should understand your own worth. What it means to be my brother's wife."

I didn't grace her with a response. I turned and walked away.

That was when someone slid a foot out from beside me.

I had no time to react. I pitched forward, catching myself barely before I hit the floor.

Aurora looked down at me with perfectly calibrated surprise. "Oh dear — Evelyn. You can't even walk straight?" She paused, tilting her head with an expression of exquisite pity. "At an occasion like this, that's really rather… unfortunate."

I was pushing myself up from the floor when Calvin appeared.

He helped me to my feet. I felt his mouth near my ear, low and flat: "Don't make a scene in front of everyone."

I looked at him. My lips were shaking. "Calvin. She tripped me."

"Evelyn." He cut me off. "You've been enough of an embarrassment already tonight."

Aurora exhaled a gentle sigh from beside us. "Don't be too hard on her. She's just… naturally like this."

Naturally like this.

Born coarse. Born ill-suited. Born to stand here as a cautionary tale.

Selena hovered at the edge of the group, her fingers gathered quietly in her skirt, her eyes cast down.

Aurora turned toward her with a warm smile. "Selena, come. Walk with my brother for the next piece."

She glanced at me one more time, her expression serene and sympathetic. "After all, between the two of you, your sister does carry herself so much more appropriately."

Laughter rippled through the crowd — quiet, but unmistakable.

Selena flushed deeply. She lifted her hand and set it gently against Calvin's palm.

He didn't look back at me once.

The music resumed. They moved into the center of the floor — falling into step together, turning, drawing close, separating, drawing close again.

I stood at the edge of the room, pain rising from my knees in slow, dull waves.

I picked up my glass and drank.

The bitterness spread from the back of my tongue all the way down.

I watched Calvin lean in, murmuring something to Selena. She bent her head and smiled — understated, graceful, without a single flaw to find.

Of course.

They looked exactly right together.

I shouldn't care.

I had already given her the contract. This wasn't mine to grieve.