Chapter 3

I dropped my eyes, ignoring the rotting wooden plaque, and bowed deeply the way a dependent bows to a made man.

"Don Corvo, Miss Giuliana, I'm sorry."

"It was my fault for not knowing the rules, but please, Don Corvo, don't destroy my flowers. I'll clean everything up."

Arthur Corvo seemed a bit taken aback by my bow. The angel-faced devil studied me the way he studied everything he might one day have to bury. Suddenly, Giuliana began trembling.

"Arthur, I feel dizzy..."

Her delicate, soft voice snapped him back to attention. With a wave of his hand, the gesture of a Don who never needs to repeat himself, he barked, "What are you waiting for? Do it!"

The lush lavender was fed into the grass crusher, turning into purple juice.

"No!" I screamed, desperately lunging forward and clutching whatever I could.

Arthur Corvo, startled, let go of Giuliana Rossi, who stumbled back and hit a tree trunk.

"Are you crazy?!"

His eyes were red with fury as he pulled me away, until he noticed what I held in my palm: a crushed flower and a broken, rotting wooden plaque.

"You..." he started.

Tears burst from my eyes. "You said you couldn't sleep well... That's why I planted the lavender. My father gave it to me to help you sleep."

The wooden plaque crumbled in my hand as I held it out to him. The old man's hands had planted that lavender for me before the machines and the safehouse infirmary took him from me for good.

"Arthur, I don't have a home anymore."

He froze. For a breath the whole garden went quiet, the enforcers by the wall gone still, and he reached out as if to embrace me.

But then a scream pierced the air. It was Giuliana. A cluster of caterpillars had fallen from the birdhouse I'd made, right onto her.

Arthur flinched and rushed forward, pulling Giuliana away. The caterpillars carried mild toxins, but he used his bare hands to pick them out of her hair, those same hands that had signed death warrants without a tremor.

When he turned back to me, his eyes were full of disgust.

"Almost fooled me with your act."

"Like throwing bugs, huh? Fine. All of you, stuff the bugs on the ground into her clothes."

His smile was gone, dropped flat, and the house soldiers moved at once, scooping up the caterpillars. The gardener seized me, holding me tightly.

"I didn't do it! How could it be me?!"

Arthur snorted, saying nothing. Of course. He hadn't believed me in a long time. Otherwise, in our past lives, he wouldn't have accused me of rigging the arranged-union draw without even asking.

At first, I still clung to the memory of the Corvo Family's kindness and wanted to warn him that Giuliana was hiding a secret. But now, I regretted it. I wanted to see him lose it when the truth came out.

So I stopped struggling and let the caterpillars crawl all over me. The spots they touched reddened, swelled, and itched unbearably.

Giuliana finally calmed down and gently tugged on Arthur's sleeve. Her tearful gaze flicked sideways, a half-beat too fast, before she resumed her trembling.

"Will this be bad? I'm fine now..."

"Giuliana, you're just too kind. That's why people take advantage of you," he said. "Come. I'll take you to the doctor."

He carried Giuliana and walked away, leaving me behind on the cold ground of the Vitale compound.

My body gave out and I collapsed onto the earth. My fingers had dug deep into the soil from trying to endure the pain, mud and blood coating my skin. I turned my mother's cheap silver ring once around my finger, slowly, the way I always did when the fear came back.

Because of Arthur Corvo, no one came to help me. In this house his word was law, and law meant no associate would risk touching what a Don had cast aside. I endured the nausea and pain, finally throwing off the caterpillars and staggering to the family doctor.

Inside, I saw Arthur behind a curtain, applying medicine to Giuliana. Though it was just a simple treatment, she gasped dramatically.

By the time he pulled the curtain back, Giuliana was limp in his arms, and his fingers were still wet with medicine.

Arthur glanced at my red, swollen, festering neck and tossed a bottle of potion at me. I was a second too slow. The glass shattered on the floor, spilling the liquid everywhere, the only sound in the sudden hush.

"No need to see a doctor. You're only good for filth."

In the Corvo Family, and in the whole city, Arthur was like the sky itself. If a Don of his rank said I couldn't see the doctor, no doctor in any territory would even look at me.

I knelt on the floor, half-covered in dirt, applying the potion with my mud-stained hands. When I finally looked up, I saw Arthur tenderly disinfecting Giuliana's fingers as if she were made of porcelain.