Bianca peeked out from behind them, her smile pure, innocent, and false as a rigged deck.
"What are you all doing? You're frightening the woman who's going to marry into this Family!"
With a forceful tug, she yanked me from the doorway, dragging me into the center of the private room. The lamp above the table bore down on me, harsh and unrelenting, making me feel even more exposed, like a thing brought in to be appraised.
I lifted my gaze straight to Lorenzo.
He sat in the corner, absently swirling the wine in his glass, his expression unreadable. His eyes skimmed lazily over the scene closing in around me, detached, indifferent, the way a made man watches a debt being collected that has nothing to do with him.
For a fleeting second, our eyes met.
And he smiled.
Soft. Familiar. Just as gentle as ever.
Yet this was the same man who had turned me into a rat scurrying through the streets, drowning in disgrace, a stain no code could scrub clean.
A glass of wine appeared before me, cutting off my line of sight.
Bianca's bright smile stayed fixed on me, syrupy sweet, and it sent ice through my veins.
"Adriana, about yesterday. I was careless with the needle and made you uncomfortable. I wanted to take this chance to settle the debt. If you drink this glass, we'll call it square, all right?"
I let out a slow breath, my fingers curling at my sides. Beneath them, the thin silver band on my right hand had begun to turn, faster than I wanted it to.
"And what about those photographs. The ones that shamed me for the whole city to see?"
She feigned innocence, her delicate fingers scrolling across her phone before tilting the screen toward me. Her soft voice carried a deliberate hesitation, every word dripping with careful malice.
"By the way, is this really you? If it is, then who took them? You wouldn't have gone behind my brother's back and dishonored him, would you?"
"But it doesn't matter. I believe you, and I'm sure my brother believes you too! Come on, drink up. One glass washes away every worry."
The room burst into laughter, whistles and jeers rattling off the walls. Her carefree act had done its work, stirring the men like a match to spilled liquor. Even Lorenzo finally spoke, his voice tinged with helplessness and something worse underneath, amusement.
"Bianca, don't drink too much. You handle the Family's medicine. You of all people know what it does to you."
She pouted, eyes gleaming, and pushed the glass toward me once more.
"In that case, drink it for me, Adriana."
The room went quiet, every gaze landing on me, waiting.
I opened my mouth to refuse. Lorenzo beat me to it. His voice was smooth, composed, and absolute, the kind of voice that ends a sit-down before it starts.
"Go on and drink. A woman marrying in can cover for her little sister."
I froze.
The one being toasted was now drinking on behalf of the one making the toast. How laughable.
At last I saw Lorenzo's true face in this thing between us.
Every moment he had seemed to put me first had meant nothing. He had never truly cared. That was why he never argued, never refused. It had never been consideration. It was indifference, cold and complete.
Swallowing the bitterness rising in my throat, I took the glass.
"If I drink this, can I leave? I'm tired. I want to go home and rest."
Lorenzo hesitated. At Bianca's quiet cough, he gave a nod.
The liquor burned as it slid down, scorching a path through me. My stomach twisted in protest, but I set the glass down and turned toward the door.
No one stopped me.
My fingers brushed the handle. I barely had a second to react before my body buckled, collapsing without warning.
The room erupted. Cheers, whistles, a frenzy of voices closing in around me.
A suffocating wave of discomfort crashed over me, my limbs trembling, my vision blurring at the edges. Even my breath came in ragged, uneven gasps.
Realization crashed over me like a tidal wave. Through the gaps in the crowd, my gaze locked onto Lorenzo, calmly peeling an orange for Bianca as if nothing in the room concerned him at all.
"You. You slipped it into the wine, all of you."
A man crouched beside me, his presence suffocating. He took a slow drag from his cigarette and exhaled a thick ring of smoke into my face.
The cold metal of his lighter tapped against my cheek, once, twice. A taunting reminder of how little I could do.
"This little brew comes straight from the Family's apothecary. They call it Obedience Water. Fitting name. Once it's in your blood, you follow every order given to you. Lorenzo called in favors to get his hands on it, all to make Bianca smile."
His smirk deepened.
"After all, whose fault is it that you were fool enough to cross Bianca? How many times were you warned? Bianca is the most treasured thing Lorenzo has in this world. But you wouldn't listen. You had the nerve to make her cry and then stand there expecting her to answer for it."
A sneer curled at the corner of his mouth.
"Did you really think a woman like you was owed an apology from Bianca? You brought this down on your own head. Now let's see just how obedient you can be, sister-in-law."
