Chapter 1
Sebastian did not open the envelope in the ballroom.
His daughter came first.
Elisa’s cheek was already reddening where Lucinda had struck her. She clung to the front of Sebastian’s suit and kept repeating the same thing.
“I’m sorry, Daddy.”
Sebastian felt something inside him twist.
He crouched until they were eye level.
“You do not apologize for an accident.”
“But the vase.”
“I don’t care about the vase.”
Elisa stared at him as though she needed to hear the sentence again.
Sebastian gave it to her.
“I care about you.”
Her bottom lip trembled.
Behind them, Preston was crawling out from beneath the collapsed wedding arch while two bodyguards moved toward him.
Lucinda sat beside the overturned dessert cart, frosting streaked across one shoulder of her gown.
She looked furious now.
Not ashamed.
“Sebastian, you have no idea what you just destroyed.”
He turned.
“I’m looking at what you tried to destroy.”
His gaze dropped briefly to Elisa.
Lucinda followed it.
For the first time, she seemed to understand exactly how bad that sentence sounded.
Sebastian called for Dr. Andrea Mills, a pediatrician attending the wedding as a guest.
Elisa had no serious injury, but Andrea wanted her monitored for swelling and pain.
Sebastian handed his daughter only to her longtime nanny, Margaret Cole.
“No Lucinda. No Preston. Nobody from their household gets near her.”
Margaret nodded.
Elisa tightened her arms around Sebastian’s neck.
“Come back?”
“Five minutes.”
“You promise?”
“Yes.”
Only after Elisa left did Sebastian face the room.
“Wedding continues downstairs if the bride and groom want it.”
The wedding was not his.
He would not destroy another couple’s night because Lucinda had lost control.
“Anyone who saw what happened stays available for statements.”
Lucinda laughed incredulously.
“Statements?”
Sebastian looked at her.
“You struck a three-year-old.”
“She broke a family antique.”
His expression went completely still.
“That sentence is going to age badly.”
His outside attorney, Claire Donovan, was pulled away from the reception and brought upstairs.
Sebastian placed the envelope on a clean table.
Claire looked at the shattered vase.
Then Lucinda.
Then Preston.
“What am I walking into?”
“A child was assaulted over that envelope.”
Lucinda snapped, “That is not why I slapped her.”
Claire looked at her.
“You may want to stop improving the prosecution.”
Sebastian almost smiled.
Preston’s attorney had not arrived yet, so Preston said nothing.
Good.
Silence prevented people from coordinating badly.
Claire photographed the envelope before opening it.
The paper had yellowed naturally.
The wax seal bore an older version of the Caradonna crest Sebastian remembered from his grandfather Giuseppe’s stationery.
Inside was one folded page.
No confession.
No treasure map.
No dramatic last will.
Just a handwritten note.
Sebastian recognized Giuseppe’s handwriting immediately.
If this vase is ever broken, do not rely on the current inventory. Check Restoration File 17 before anyone moves the collection.
Below it was a date.
April 1988.
And one additional line.
Lucinda knows why.
Nobody spoke.
Sebastian slowly raised his eyes.
Lucinda had gone completely pale.
Preston looked at her.
Not surprised.
Angry.
May you like
Sebastian folded the note.
“You have until your lawyer arrives to decide whether lying is still your strategy.”
