Kacie Oliver POV
The dressing room at the hotel was a chaotic swirl of perfumes and hairspray, but the silence in my corner was deafening.
I smoothed the fabric of the custom blue gown Cedric had ordered for me. It was the color of the midnight ocean, deep and dangerous. For the first time in months, I didn't look like a patient. I looked like a Don's wife. I felt like I finally existed.
A shrill cry shattered the atmosphere.
I turned to see Jayden standing in the center of the room, clutching the bodice of her pale pink dress. A dark, ugly stain of red wine was spreading across her stomach like a gunshot wound. An empty glass lay shattered at her feet.
Cedric was there in a second, his hand pressing protectively against the small of her back.
"Who did this?" he demanded, his voice low and lethal. The seamstresses and stylists froze in place.
"I did," Jayden sobbed, looking up at him with wide, wet eyes. "I was so nervous about tonight. About the threats. My hand just shook."
Cedric's face softened instantly. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at the stain, but it was useless. The silk was ruined.
"It is okay," he murmured, his tone soothing. "We will get you another one."
"There is no time!" she wailed. "The opening dance is in twenty minutes. The press is outside. I cannot go out there looking like a mess. I represent the Family too, Cedric."
Her eyes darted across the room and landed on me. Or rather, on my dress.
"Kacie has one," she said, her voice small and hopeful.
I took a step back. My heart hammered against my ribs, an erratic rhythm that reminded me I was running out of beats.
"No," I said.
Cedric looked at me. He looked at the blue gown that hugged my curves, the one thing that made me feel armored against this world.
"Kacie," he said, his tone reasonable, which made it infinitely worse. "Jayden needs a dress. Yours is the only one that will fit her."
"It was made for me, Cedric. You ordered it for me."
"It is just a dress," he said, walking toward me. "The Family image is at stake. Jayden is the daughter of a hero. She cannot be seen stained and disheveled. You can wear the spare black one from the rack."
The spare black one. The one the staff wore.
I looked at him, searching for a trace of the man who had held me in the clinic, the man who had promised to protect me. I saw only the Don, calculating assets and liabilities. I was the liability.
"What about me?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper. "What about my image?"
"You are my wife," he said, stopping in front of me. "You do not need a dress to prove who you are. Jayden does. She is fragile."
Fragile.
I looked at my hands. My veins were blue maps under translucent skin. I was the one dying. I was the one with the expiration date. But to him, I was just the furniture that could be rearranged to accommodate the guest of honor.
"Fine," I said.
The word tasted like ash on my tongue. I reached for the zipper.
I stepped out of the blue silk and let it fall to the floor. I stood there in my slip, shivering not from cold, but from a humiliation so deep it felt like it was scraping my bones.
Cedric picked up the dress and handed it to Jayden. She beamed, her tears miraculously drying up.
"Thank you, Kacie," she said, clutching the fabric to her chest. "You are a lifesaver."
Cedric turned back to me. He must have seen something in my eyes-the hollowness, the void where my hope used to be-because he flinched. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a velvet box.
"Here," he said, his voice rough. "I was saving this for later. But wear it now."
He opened the box. Inside lay the Moon Family Ruby. A blood-red stone surrounded by diamonds, heavy with history and worth more than this entire hotel. It was an heirloom meant for the matriarch.
For a second, I hesitated.
"Oh my god," Jayden gasped.
She stepped between us, her hand reaching out.
"That matches the blue dress perfectly," she said. "Red and blue. It is patriotic. It is powerful. Cedric, if I am wearing the dress, I should wear the necklace. It completes the look."
Cedric looked at her, then at the necklace, then at me.
I did not say a word. I just watched him. This was it. The final test.
He looked at the ruby, then he looked at Jayden's pleading face. He closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, exhaling sharply.
"You are right," he said.
He took the necklace out of the box.
I watched as he walked behind Jayden. I watched his large hands manipulate the clasp at the nape of her neck. I watched the ruby settle against her throat, claiming her as the true queen of his world.
"You look beautiful," he told her.
But his eyes were on me. They were pleading, begging me to understand the politics, the optics, the duty.
I understood perfectly.
I walked over to the rack and pulled down the plain black dress. I pulled it on. It hung loose on my wasting frame, swallowing what little was left of me.
"I am going where I belong," I said.
Cedric took a step toward me, panic flashing in his eyes. "Kacie, wait."
I did not wait. I turned my back on the Don and walked out of the dressing room. I left the husband I loved and the woman he chose behind me.
