“A karaoke bar?”
“You said I couldn’t embarrass you deliberately.”
“That was deliberate.”
“No. That was survival.”
Emma started toward the door, then looked back.
“But I’m beginning to see the possibilities.”
And suddenly, Luca Moretti realized he hadn’t just created a fake relationship.
He had started negotiating with the one person in his household who never loses.
Emma made it exactly three steps down the hallway before she heard Teresa’s voice again.
“Walk with me.”
Not a request.
Emma turned. Teresa stood framed by the doorway, backlit and impossibly composed. Behind her, Camille was already gathering her coat with movements sharp enough to cut glass.
Luca appeared at the threshold. His expression warned Emma not to follow.
Emma followed anyway.
They walked through the east wing in silence. Teresa’s heels clicked against marble with metronomic precision. Emma had cleaned these floors a hundred times, but walking them beside Teresa Moretti felt like entering foreign territory.
Teresa stopped at a sitting room Emma had never been allowed to enter.
Inside, the walls were covered with photographs. Decades of Moretti history stared back at her. Weddings. Christenings. Men in dark suits standing beside women whose smiles never quite reached their eyes.
“My husband chose me,” Teresa said without preamble.
Emma waited.
“His family wanted someone younger. Prettier. From a better bloodline.” Teresa touched one photograph. A wedding portrait. The bride looked terrified. “They wanted someone who would smile and breed and disappear.”
Emma’s throat tightened.
“But Dante wanted a woman who argued with him. Who told him when he was wrong. Who made him laugh in rooms where laughter was dangerous.”
Teresa turned.
“Luca is exactly like him.”
Emma shook her head. “Mrs. Moretti, I appreciate what you’re trying to say, but—”
“You think I’m a romantic old woman who sees love where there isn’t any.”
“I think you’re kind enough to pretend you don’t know exactly what happened tonight.”
Teresa smiled. “You’re right. I do know.”
Emma’s stomach dropped.
“Luca paid you to sabotage his date.”
