Chapter 1

I've always had a habit of taking people at their word.

In high school, a girl who liked bullying me broke our classroom projector.

When the teacher walked in, she shoved a broken piece into my hand and whispered, "Hold this. Don't say anything."

I raised my hand.

"Mr. Harris, she broke the projector and gave me this piece. She also told me not to say anything."

At twenty, during my first internship, a senior colleague asked me to take the blame for missing money.

"You're new," she whispered. "The boss won't be too hard on you."

I nodded and turned to our supervisor.

"She took the money. She says you won't punish me because I'm new. Is that true?"

After that, people stopped expecting me to understand their little hints.

I thought honesty was simple.

Apparently, my biological family disagreed.

I'd spent eighteen years searching for them. Three years ago, I finally discovered I was the missing daughter of Vincent Valenti, Don of one of New York's most powerful Mafia Families.

For my twenty-fifth birthday, they threw me a grand celebration.

But when I approached the head table, Sienna, their adopted daughter, was sitting between my parents.

She smiled and touched my mother's arm.

"Paige, I've sat here for twenty-one years. You don't mind, do you?"

I looked at the place card with my name on it, pushed aside beside her plate.

Then I asked,

"Why wouldn't I mind?"

"Isn't this supposed to be my birthday?"

...

The banquet hall fell silent.

Around the long table, the Valenti capos stopped talking. Even the servants seemed to hesitate, their trays suspended between guests.

Sienna's smile stiffened.

"Paige, I was only joking."

"Which part was the joke?"

She blinked. "I didn't mean anything by it."

"Then what did you mean?"

Her eyes began to shine with tears.

Before she could answer, my eldest brother, Adrian, stepped forward. As Father's underboss, he was accustomed to ending arguments with a single look.

"Paige. It's your birthday. Don't make a scene."

"I'm not making a scene." I pointed to the displaced place card. "That's my seat. Sienna moved my name and sat there. I'm asking her to move back."

"It's one chair," Adrian said. "You can sit anywhere."

"Then why can't Sienna?"

"Because she's always sat beside Mom and Dad."

I considered that.

"So if someone has taken something that belongs to me for long enough, it becomes theirs?"

Adrian's jaw tightened.

"You're twisting my words."

"Then explain what you meant."

He didn't.

Sienna pushed back her chair.

"I'm sorry, Paige." Her voice trembled. "You're their real daughter. I should have remembered that."

"I'll sit somewhere else." She stood, lowering her head.

My mother, Camille, immediately caught her wrist.

"Sienna, sweetheart, don't say that. You're our daughter too."

"I know." Sienna wiped her eyes. "I just don't want Paige to think I'm stealing her place."

I looked at her. "Then why did you move my name card?"

Her fingers froze.

My youngest brother, Nolan, slammed his glass onto the table.

"Enough! Do you enjoy humiliating her?"

"I'm asking about something she did."

"You know she's sensitive about being adopted!"

"She brought it up. I didn't."

"Paige!" Mother snapped.

I turned to her. "Am I supposed to pretend I didn't hear what she said?"

Mother's expression softened into the familiar disappointment I'd come to recognize over the past three years.

"Why must you question everything? Can't you let one small thing go?"

I looked at the enormous birthday cake beneath the crystal chandelier.

My name was written across it in gold icing.

This is my 25th birthday party.

Yet somehow, asking for my own chair at my own birthday party had become an unforgivable offense.

"I've already let it go for three birthdays," I said.

Mother frowned. "What?"

"The first year, you canceled my birthday dinner because Sienna had a migraine. The second year, Adrian took everyone to Paris for her jewelry exhibition. Last year..."

Before I could even finish, Sienna suddenly pressed a hand against her chest.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I didn't realize my presence made everyone so unhappy."

Her breathing quickened.

Julian, my second brother and the Family's private physician, hurried to her side.

"Sienna? Look at me. Breathe slowly."

"I can't..." She clutched his sleeve. "I feel dizzy."

Mother immediately wrapped an arm around her. "Someone bring the car!"

Adrian was already calling the guards. Nolan took Sienna's other arm, glaring at me as though I had personally caused her condition.

"Are you satisfied now?"

I glanced at Sienna.

"Is she having a medical emergency?"

"Can't you see that?" Nolan demanded.

"Then Julian should take her to the hospital. He's a doctor."

Julian looked up sharply.

"What are you suggesting?"

"That the other three of you don't need medical degrees to stay at a birthday party."

Nobody answered.

Sienna gave a faint sob. Mother tightened her hold on her.

"We're leaving, sweetheart. Don't be afraid."

Within minutes, all four of them had disappeared through the banquet hall doors.

I stood beside my untouched birthday cake.

The musicians had stopped playing. Across the room, guests exchanged uncomfortable glances, uncertain whether they were supposed to stay.

Father remained seated at the head of the table, his expression thunderous.

I'd spent eighteen years dreaming of finding him.

Now he looked at me as though I were a troublesome stranger.

"Sit down, Paige."

I pulled out the chair Sienna had abandoned.

"Is this my birthday party, Dad?"

"Of course it is."

"Then why did everyone leave?"

"Sienna wasn't feeling well."

"Julian went with her. He's her doctor. Why did Mom, Adrian, and Nolan have to go too?"

Father rubbed his forehead.

"Must you make everything into an interrogation?"

"I'm trying to understand."

"Then understand this." His voice hardened. "You embarrassed your sister in front of every capo in this room. You embarrassed our entire Family."

I glanced around the banquet hall.

Three years ago, when I first arrived at the Valenti estate, Father had told me that blood was sacred.

That a Valenti daughter would never stand alone again.

I had believed him.

"Tonight is my birthday," I said quietly. "Sienna took my seat. I asked her to return it, and everyone followed her out."

Father's fingers tightened around his glass.

"So tell me, Dad."

I looked directly into his eyes.

"Whose birthday were you celebrating?"

His palm struck the table.

"Enough!"

At that moment, I finally understood.

No matter how long I stayed, Sienna would always be the daughter they treasured most.

I was done trying.

Done with this house, and done with the people who called themselves my family.

They thought I was a poor orphan with nowhere else to go, someone who had no choice but to depend on the Valenti name.

But what they didn't know was that another family had wanted me for years.

If they don’t want me, then I’ll leave the Valenti Family for good.