Chapter 2
No one at the table moved their lips.
Sienna sat with her head down, wiping the table with a napkin.
Then the voice came again.
[Look at that. The old woman’s staring at my shoes.]
[Is she going to say I’m embarrassing the Kensingtons? Does she know I had to go without a decent pair of shoes for months?]
[Forget it. She doesn’t care. She only cares whether Cole looks like a proper heir.]
I’ve lived seventy years. I’ve never run into anything like this.
But I’d also never seen a child supposedly living in luxury while wearing cracked canvas shoes.
I set my teacup down. “Sienna. What’s going on with your shoes?”
Julian answered immediately.
“Mom, don’t worry about it. We got her two pairs of nice leather shoes last week. She claimed they weren’t her style and refused to wear them.”
Sienna’s lips pressed into a bitter line. “I never saw them.”
Cole’s tone was gentle, with a hint of exasperation.
“Sienna, Dad sent them to your school, remember? If you didn’t like them, just say so. Don’t pretend they never showed up.”
Sienna didn’t argue back.
She kept her eyes down, like she was long used to being silenced.
But I heard her inner voice, cold and sharp.
[Delivered to my school? To whose school?]
[I saw those shoe boxes in Cole’s social media post. They matched his new watch perfectly.]
[Whenever I say I didn’t get something, they call me a liar.]
I turned to look at Cole.
He wore a perfectly tailored dark shirt.
A new watch on his wrist. Understated, but clearly expensive.
I said nothing.
Julian placed a piece of fish on my plate. “Mom, don’t get upset over something so small.”
“Sienna’s been difficult lately. She supposedly demanded another round of lavish arrangements last month. I didn’t tell Sloane because I didn’t want to make her angrier.”
Sloane didn’t look up.
“What did she buy now?”
Julian sighed. “A few gowns. Some jewelry. Plus an entrance fee for a debutante salon.”
“I figured she’s at that age where she needs to learn how to move in society, so I let her go.”
Sienna suddenly set down her chopsticks. “I never went to any salon.”
Cole frowned. “Sienna .”
She looked at him. “I said I never went.”
Cole’s expression shifted into something wounded.
“So now you’re denying that too? Dad wanted me to go with you that day. You said you didn’t want me there and just blew the whole thing off.”
[Wasted my ass.]
[I was at school that day dealing with my class requirements. I had almost nothing left to get through the day.]
[There was a discounted sandwich at the place by the gate. I stood there forever and couldn’t bring myself to buy it.]
My breath caught.
I looked at Sienna’s hands.
Thin fingers. Short, neatly trimmed nails.
A small crack on the webbing of her thumb, like she’d been gripping a pen too hard or hauling heavy things for a long time.
I asked suddenly, “What happened to everything they said they gave you?”
