Chapter 1 - The Bowl on the Christmas Table
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The ballroom glittered with Christmas lights.
Crystal chandeliers.
Red roses.
Gold ribbons.
A twelve-foot tree stood behind the Bellini family table while nearly sixty guests raised champagne glasses beneath it.
At the center of everything sat nine-month-old Rose Bellini.
Red velvet dress.
Rosy cheeks.
Tiny hands banging happily against her decorated high-chair tray.
Then Marina Bellini switched the bowls.
Nobody noticed.
Nobody except Victor.
He had entered through the side doors just as Marina lifted a spoon toward Rose’s mouth.
Something looked wrong.
Victor crossed the room.
He caught Marina’s wrist before the spoon reached his daughter.
“What is this?”
He took the bowl.
Then stared.
Dog food.
The room went silent.
Marina calmly adjusted her bracelet.
“A reminder of her place.”
Victor looked at her.
“What place?”
Marina’s gaze shifted toward Rose.
“Real heirs get real food.”
Something dangerous changed in Victor’s face.
He handed Rose to his most trusted bodyguard.
“Take her three steps back.”
Then Victor picked up Marina’s untouched Christmas dinner.
Roast beef.
Potatoes.
Cranberry sauce.
Everything.
He emptied the plate across her silver gown.
Gasps filled the ballroom.
Marina stumbled backward into a padded banquet chair.
Victor never raised his voice.
“You come near my daughter again, you leave this house.”
Marina slowly stood.
Her humiliation was obvious.
But so was something else.
Confidence.
“Throw me out,” she whispered, “and you lose your real heir.”
Victor stopped.
“What?”
Marina smiled.
“Rose isn’t the child you should be worried about.”
Victor stared at her.
“Rose is my only child.”
Marina stepped closer.
Then whispered so softly only Victor heard:
“That’s what they told you at Saint Matthew’s.”
His blood went cold.
Saint Matthew’s.
The hospital where Rose had been born.
The hospital where Victor had also been told that Rose’s twin brother had died before he ever opened his eyes.
Victor’s hand tightened around the edge of the table.
“How do you know about that?”
Marina smiled.
Because Victor had never told her Rose had been a twin.
Almost nobody knew.
And suddenly the Christmas banquet no longer mattered.
May you like
👉 Marina had just mentioned the child Victor buried in his heart nine months earlier—but she still hadn’t said the one thing he needed to know: whether that baby had actually died.
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