The Stand-In’s Stoke Back, Everyone Regretted It

First thing the next morning I put on the old coat Avery had thrown out, my "gift" from the Moretti estate since being brought back to the family. Nice fabric, worn through at the cuffs. She'd gotten tired of it.

I fixed my hair in the mirror. The face looking back was pale, but the eyes were unnervingly steady.

Out in the main hall, the orders had already come down. Luciano was having afternoon tea with Avery in the garden.

Don Moretti sat at the head of the table. When I walked up and volunteered to take the assignment, something lit up in his eyes.

"Nina. You mean that?"

I kept my head down. "Godfather, you've given me everything. Avery is my sister. If I can share her burden, it's an honor."

Only I knew that every word of that came out through gritted teeth.

Don Moretti turned the ring on his finger and nodded, like he was checking a piece of equipment.

"You've always been sensible." He smiled. "I thought I'd have to talk you into it. Nice to see you understand the bigger picture."

He didn't know that the Shadow King was my brother.

I kept my head bowed, hid my face, kept my voice soft.

"I've had a hard time out there. Being brought back to the family is already more than I could ask for. If I can spare my sister any trouble, that's what I should do."

Smooth and seamless. When you spend years as someone's servant, the thing you learn fastest is how to say exactly what they need to hear.

Luciano came in late, still glowing from his time with Avery. He got one foot in the door, heard my last words, and the look on his face went strange. He'd probably expected crying. A scene. Accusations. Not this.

Avery let a flash of satisfaction cross her face. She tucked herself under his arm and laughed, sharp-edged. "A servant's always a servant. Some people are just born to their knees. It's in the bone."

She barely glanced at me when she said it, the same tone she'd used when she'd made me jump into a freezing pool to fish out her earring, the same tone she'd used when she'd made me take the blame in front of the family elders.

Don Moretti gave her a token look. She pouted prettily. He chuckled, indulgent. Luciano's expression flickered. He started to say something but Avery tugged his arm, and he let himself be pulled into the Don's planning conversation.

I was the only outsider here. I stood in the cold while every person in that room circled around how to use me up.

I closed my eyes and pressed the weight of their looks into my memory until it was bone-deep.

They thought I was walking into my grave. They didn't know the Shadow King was my brother. Once he brought me back, I would become the most protected woman in the most powerful family in this city, and nobody would ever lay a finger on me again.

After the meeting broke up, Luciano came and found me.

He blocked my way, voice low and tight. "Nina. Why'd you agree? Did you change your mind about me? I told you I'd take care of you — don't do something stupid."

He still thought I didn't know the truth, that I was just sulking, going along with it out of spite. The fact that he'd lost control of the situation was clearly eating at him.

I stopped and looked up at him. My face was still.

This man, handsome and warm-eyed, the face I'd known for four years, and I had never once seen through him.

I smiled. "I'm doing it for you."

Something in his expression cracked. He grabbed my wrist. "I don't buy that. You said you'd wait for me. You said—" His voice shook. He was trying to keep it together and not quite making it.

I just looked at him. Four years, and this was the first time I'd seen him like this, eyes reddening, jaw tight, like a scared kid.

"Isn't this what you wanted?" I said quietly.

He froze.

"You want to marry Avery, don't you?" My voice sounded like someone else's, too calm and too distant. "You want to be the Don's son-in-law. You want a wife who's your equal in status."

"I—"

"I'm doing this for you." I cut him off, and even laughed a little. "What's the alternative — I make a scene? Scream that you can't marry someone else? Embarrass you in front of the Don, blow up everything you've worked for?"

Luciano's mouth opened. Nothing came out.

His hand went slack around my wrist and dropped to his side. He seemed to deflate, shoulders caving in. "Nina..."

"Don't worry." I stepped back. "I won't cause you any trouble once I'm gone."

He stood there watching me, something in his eyes: guilt, unease, and underneath it a shadow of loss, like something was slipping through his fingers.

But my eyes were cold. He had the nerve to look like he was about to cry.