You mafia brats who mistook your mother — kneel before your real mother novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Gala

Adriana's POV

I found the pharmacy bag at six in the morning, under a crumpled tissue in the study wastebasket.

The receipt was folded inside it.

Tuesday, one box of tampons, one box of pads, ibuprofen.

Nothing for a woman three months along.

I put the receipt in my bra and left the bag where it was.

At eight Cesare found me in the hall.

"There's a charity night at the Warwick," he said. "Every family in the city will be there. Bianca will be on my arm."

"And me?"

"You'll go with Lombardi." His mouth was hard. "I want them to see you with the man you left us for."

"You want them to see me ashamed."

"I want them to see you."

He walked away.

I thought of three or four answers and was glad none of them reached my mouth.

Ruggero picked me up at seven in a black suit and a black tie.

I wore the only dress I owned that was not gray.

It was dark green, bought in Lisbon for a funeral, and he looked at it for a second too long.

In the car I told him about the receipt.

He nodded slowly and told me about the priest.

"There was never a marriage," he said. "Not in a church, not on paper. Bianca has been introducing herself as a widow for a year, and she has no ring on file anywhere."

I looked out the window at the wet lights going by.

"Then why did he let her live in my house?"

"I don't know yet."

"Does it matter?"

"It will," he said. "But not tonight."

The ballroom at the Warwick was full of crystal and cold perfume.

We came in through the main doors, and I felt the room turn.

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