She looped her arm through mine with practiced familiarity, gasping in delight. "Adriana! It really is you! I almost didn't recognize you!"

Her smile was radiant, the kind polished for the assembled Families at a charity gala.

But her eyes were burning with jealousy.

"I don't mean anything by it. I just never expected to run into you in a place like this." Her gaze swept the showroom, the lacquered instruments arranged like tribute under low light.

"Oh, and my husband is the sentimental type. If you're ever in trouble, just reach out to him. He'd definitely help."

She drew out that last word, letting it hang in the air like smoke.

Salvatore's gaze turned cold. "We just happened to run into each other. Drop it."

But Bianca stamped her foot, pouting in mock indignation. "Honey! How can you say that?"

"Adriana was practically my mentor back in the day. If she's struggling now, what's wrong with lending a hand?" Her fingers found the seam of her sleeve and picked at it, the smile holding a beat too long.

She leaned in and pressed a kiss to Salvatore's cheek. "Didn't you say you'd stand behind me, no matter what the cost?"

I understood perfectly. This little performance was staged for my benefit, every gesture rehearsed.

I calmly slipped off Salvatore's jacket and handed it back to her. "You've got the wrong idea. I'm doing just fine."

Her gaze, just like Salvatore's, drifted to my clothes.

I understood immediately. "This coat was a birthday gift from my mother. I just can't bring myself to throw it away."

At that, Salvatore's brow darkened.

It seemed he still remembered.

The day I fell from the balcony. That was my birthday.

That day, he'd left me at home alone, unsteady in my own mind, so he could stand beside Bianca at a taping for the prestige circuit. He'd even taken every last one of the household staff with him, because Bianca's blood sugar ran low and she wanted them positioned on standby, ready to attend to her the moment she lifted a finger.

It was my mother who'd been worried enough to come check on me. She was the one who found me after the fall.

All I remembered was her wrapping me in this coat through the haze of fading consciousness. "My sweet girl! How could you do something so foolish!"

"Open your eyes! Look at what Mama bought you for your birthday!"

"You still have your mother!"

"Silly girl, I told you so many times not to bind your blood to Salvatore Marchetti..."

"Wake up, baby. You're all Mama has left..."

Later, after the union was severed, my mother was so furious she went to confront him and demand answers.

She stepped out onto the street and was hit by a car. She never came back.

Salvatore seemed to surface from wherever the memory had taken him. He exhaled slowly, his thumb turning the wedding band on his finger, around and around.

He looked almost guilty as he changed the subject. "Adriana, Bianca meant well."

"So. Where are you working now?"

"If you don't mind, the Family could arrange something for you..."

"I teach." I lifted my chin and cut him off. "A student of mine at Harmony Academy took first place in the youth division of the prestige circuit this year. I trained her."

My hands could never grace a concert stage again. But I could still teach.

What they didn't know was that I'd become one of the most sought-after instructors in the whole circuit. Men and women with names that carried weight across territories lined up at my door, and most of them still couldn't secure a single hour of my time.

And my daughter was my finest student.

That piano I'd been studying was simply for her to use during private sessions at the academy.

When I said this, Salvatore visibly relaxed, as though he finally understood why the slip of paper had carried Harmony Academy's address.

But Bianca's smile froze, just for an instant. Her fingers went to her sleeve again. "Well. Congratulations, Adriana."

"Though... the youth circuit. The prestige isn't quite the same, is it?"

"Not like the reckonings before all the Families, back in the day..."

She didn't finish.

Because I smiled. Beneath the counter, I felt my scarred right hand curl slowly, then press flat against my thigh. "Oh, you're right. Those reckonings before the Families. You must remember them vividly."

"After all, you won yours playing another woman's work as your own."

Bianca went rigid. She turned to Salvatore, her eyes brimming with wounded innocence. "Honey, after all these years, Adriana still thinks I stole her—"

"Isn't it?" I shot back without mercy. "Didn't you steal what was mine?"

Bianca stared at me in disbelief, her grip tightening around Salvatore's hand.

But Salvatore looked down and snapped at her, his voice low and barely restrained. "Adriana's right. Keep your mouth shut."

Bianca's expression soured for a flash, but she quickly recovered, winding herself around Salvatore's arm with practiced ease, her fingers picking idly at the seam of her sleeve. "I was just joking around!"

"Honey, running into her like this must be fate. Why don't we help Adriana out?" She nuzzled closer, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Come on, just let me help her. Please?"

Salvatore had no defense against her wheedling. He turned to me. "Adriana, Bianca's thought about you all these years. She says you were her role model. She means well."

When I said nothing, Bianca smiled, and the smile held a beat too long. "There's a gala coming up on the circuit. Rhythm. If you don't mind, I could get you a place on the program."

"And since I sit among the arbiters, I'd take good care of you!"

I couldn't help but let out a cold laugh.

So this was her idea of "helping" me. Dragging me under the lights of the Families' prestige circuit to make herself shine brighter by comparison.

What she didn't know was that the whole affair had been built by my husband. For me.

And that I was the undisclosed voice of The Maestro, the arbiter whose judgment moved every Family, a name they had not yet dared to reveal.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Matteo Greco easing the car to the curb, one hand resting loose at his side the way it always did before he had a reason to move.

I brushed the spots off my clothes where they'd touched me and said flatly, "No, thank you."

"And unless there's something else, let's not see each other again."

As I turned to leave, Bianca caught my arm, her voice laced with curiosity. "Adriana, where do you live? I'll have my husband drive you."

I shook my head and walked straight to Matteo's car.

Bianca watched me go, something calculating flickering behind her eyes. She held Salvatore back as he moved to follow. "Honey, I think Adriana's married."

"Look. Her husband came to collect her."

"He seems a bit older, but I'm sure he treats her well enough?"

For the first time, Salvatore pried her hand off his arm and crossed to the car in long, urgent strides. He seized the door before Matteo could close it. Matteo's eyes went flat, and he cracked one knuckle of his right hand against his palm, a single dry sound in the evening quiet. I lifted two fingers off my knee. He stilled.

Salvatore's voice was ice, but his eyes churned with something far more complicated. His thumb turned slowly against his wedding band. "Adriana Rizzo. This is your husband?"

"This is what you call 'doing fine'? Binding yourself to someone like him?"

"What happened to the woman who was too proud to settle? Where did she go?"

"He's not worthy of you. Sever it. If it's about tribute, I'll wire you whatever you need."

I opened my mouth, then stopped, struck by how absurd it all was.

Why would I explain anything to him?

I simply pushed him aside, pulled the door shut, and said quietly, "If you really feel you owe me, then give me back my hands."

Everything else was meaningless.

And I knew that was the one thing he could never do.

Bianca's teeth sank into her lower lip. "Adriana! If you'd just listened to my husband sooner, you wouldn't have ended up like—"

Salvatore cut her off with a sharp frown. "Bianca. That's enough."

Before either of them could react, I told Matteo to drive.

On the way home, my phone rang. My daughter's bright voice filled the car. "Mommy, are you home yet? Sofia has a surprise for you!"

Warmth flooded through me. She was the one who'd taken the honor at the youth showing, and yet she was the one preparing a surprise for me.

"Sofia, Mommy's almost there. Be a good girl and wait for me, okay?"

But when the car rolled through the gates of the Vitale estate and I stepped out, I saw Salvatore's car parked right behind us, idling past the sentries at the wall.

They had followed me.

Bianca was already on Salvatore's arm, and she spoke before I could. "Adriana, it was my idea to come."

"I just wanted to make sure you're doing all right."

She glanced past me at the great stone house rising behind the garden lights, a mocking smile curling at the corner of her lips. "Don't tell me you're here to give lessons at this hour?"

She paused, letting out a theatrical sigh. "Well, I suppose with a name stained by theft, most people won't take you in. Have to scrape together what you can."

"But do you know whose home this is? This is the seat of the Don of the Vitale Family."

Of course I knew.

The Vitale bloodline was the most powerful in the territory. Beyond Riverton, nearly every shipment that moved through the coast passed under their hand, and every Family that wished to breathe paid its respect.

Even Salvatore had to lower his eyes when he dealt with them.

Bianca took two steps closer, her voice laced with warning. "If Don Vitale learns you've been deceiving him, neither my husband nor I will be able to save you."

"Adriana, you really should keep your feet on the ground. Honesty goes a long way."

Right then, my daughter's call came through again. "Mommy! Sofia saw you from the window!"

"How come you're not inside yet? My surprise is all ready!"

The sound of her soft, syrupy little voice melted away every ounce of frustration in my chest. "Be good, sweetie. Mommy's coming right in."

I hung up. Salvatore stood frozen in place.

He stared at my phone as if he couldn't believe what he'd just heard, his thumb going still against his ring. "Daughter? Adriana. You have a child?"

The next second, my impatient little girl came bounding out of the mansion, her tiny figure darting joyfully beneath the glow of the garden lights, past soldiers who softened the moment they saw her.

She threw her arms around my leg and nuzzled hard. "Mommy! If you don't come inside soon, my surprise is gonna burst!"