On the third day, Adriana checked herself out against the doctors' protests. There was a commission to be judged, and she would not surrender it.
This was her gift to the child she carried, the foundation on which she and her baby would build a future no Family could take from them.
In the corridors behind the showing hall, she crossed paths with Vanessa Carbone.
Vanessa drifted past her, every line of her wearing unbridled triumph.
"Adriana. Surprised to find me here? So the two of you came up together under the same roof. So you sat at his bedside after the hit that nearly took him. In the end you couldn't hold on to any of it. His body, his heart, the name of Moretti. It's all mine now."
"And today I'm going to ruin what's left of you."
The final presentations went in an order drawn by lot. Vanessa landed in the slot right before her.
She stepped onto the main floor and unveiled her finished pieces, and the blood in Adriana's veins turned to ice.
The collection laid out under the lights was her own Starlight Memories series.
Vanessa lifted the microphone and, without a trace of shame, recited every concept, every spark of inspiration Adriana had bled out over countless sleepless nights.
In the front row, seated where the Family's honored guests sat, Lorenzo watched with undisguised pride on his face.
"Vanessa has a real gift for the craft," he said.
The judges nodded along, murmuring their approval.
Adriana's mind went blank. She had never imagined he would take work she treasured like her own flesh and blood and hand it to another woman.
The host called her name several times before she came back to herself and walked out under the lights.
She drew a deep breath, set out her designs, and met the stunned room without flinching. Her voice came clear and steady.
"Esteemed judges. My name is Adriana Falcone. This Starlight Memories collection is my original work. What Miss Carbone has just shown you is a theft of my designs, entire."
The instant the words left her, the hall broke into noise.
The judges traded uneasy glances, their eyes drifting toward Lorenzo in the place of honor, waiting for the Don's son to speak.
Lorenzo rose slowly. His gaze moved over her, cold as a drawn blade, and his lips barely parted.
"Adriana. What do you think you're doing?"
"Look at yourself. What kind of spectacle is this? You call yourself a Moretti? You're an embarrassment to the name."
Adriana swallowed the agony turning over inside her.
"I'm making a spectacle? You took the work I poured my heart and soul into, night after night, and made a gift of it to your kept woman. And I'm the one making a spectacle?"
His face stayed glacial.
"Is your heart really that ugly? Because we're bound, no other woman is allowed to breathe near me? When did you become this person?"
Adriana laughed out loud. "Who changed here, Lorenzo? You or me?"
"In your eyes everything I am is worthless. But of course it is. You can't even remember your own vows."
"You swore you'd love me to the end of your life." Her voice dropped low. "Turns out your life was shorter than I thought."
She turned to Vanessa, who stood there glowing with satisfaction, and the corner of Adriana's mouth curved upward.
Then, before the whole room, she crossed to the fire station on the wall, lifted the extinguisher free, and brought it down on Vanessa's counterfeit pieces. The display burst apart, wreckage scattering across the floor.
Vanessa shrieked the moment it registered. Her people surged in, lunging at Adriana, screaming for her to drop dead.
The hall fell into chaos. Adriana was hopelessly outnumbered, and they shoved her to the ground.
Lorenzo's first instinct was to gather Vanessa against him and carry her out of the building.
Adriana curled in on herself on the floor, both hands locked over her lower belly, things raining down on her body. She trembled with the pain of it and would not let go.
It was not until the hall's men regained order that she was finally pulled free.
Her hair was tangled and wild, the look of her wrecked, and a thin line of blood crept from a gash at her temple.
The cameras came up all at once, catching every frame of her humiliation.
Mockery and vicious words swirled around her. She seemed to hear none of it. She simply kept walking, steady and unbowed, toward the doors.
