Chapter 38 *
Scarlett’s POV
I looked down at Madison. She was still on her knees. Tears running down her face. Mascara streaking.
"I don't need this brainless disappointment kneeling to me," I said. "Just slap yourself a hundred times and we'll call it even."
Madison's head shot up. Her eyes were wild.
"A hundred times? Are you insane? I'm not doing that!"
She tried to stand up. Tried to push past me.
I didn't say anything.
My hand moved fast. Sharp and precise.
CRACK.
The sound of my palm connecting with her cheek echoed through the ballroom.
Madison stumbled. Her hand flew to her face. Staring at me in shock.
"I don't usually dirty my own hands," I said. My voice was pleasant. Conversational. "But since you're being so difficult, I'll make an exception."
CRACK.
Another slap. Harder this time. The other cheek.
Madison's face turned purple. Both sides now. Perfect symmetry.
My mood improved considerably.
"Going back on your word is pretty pathetic," I said. I looked at the handprint on her face with satisfaction. "But I guess I'll forgive you. After all, you did call me your better."
Madison collapsed onto the floor. Sobbing. Her whole body shaking.
No one moved. No one said anything.
Then I heard it.
A large serving cart being pushed into the ballroom.
I turned to look.
Two servers were pushing a massive cake. Six tiers. Elaborate decoration. White fondant with gold accents.
And written across it in gold frosting: "Congratulations Zelda Romano - Academic Excellence"
The servers stopped in the middle of the ballroom. Looking confused. Looking around at all the shocked faces.
One of them cleared his throat nervously.
"Um, where should we put the cake?"
No one answered. Everyone was staring at it.
At that cake celebrating Zelda's achievement. The achievement that had just been completely overshadowed.
Zelda's face turned bright red. Bright, burning red.
She looked at the cake. At her name written in gold. At the word "Excellence."
Then she looked at me.
Her face crumpled completely.
She turned and ran. Actually ran. Out of the ballroom. Tears streaming down her face.
The sound of her heels clicking on the marble floor echoed. Then the slam of a door.
I couldn't help it.
I wanted to laugh.
She brought this on herself. All of it.
The murmurs started up again. Louder now.
"Did you see Zelda's face?"
"This is the most dramatic party I've ever been to."
"Are you getting all this on video?"
"This is going to be all over social media by tomorrow."
Good. Let everyone in New York know exactly what the Romano family really is.
I turned and walked toward the exit. My footsteps were steady. Like nothing unusual had happened.
Like I'd just attended a normal party.
Lorenzo’s POV
I watched Scarlett walk away and it felt like someone had dumped ice water over my head.
I couldn't let her leave. Not like this.
I didn't look back at Zelda. I didn't care about the hurt expression on her face. I just ran.
My footsteps echoed through the hotel lobby. I caught up with her at the entrance, blocking her path.
My chest was heaving. My heart was pounding so hard I could feel it in my throat. I tried to steady my voice.
"Scarlett, wait."
She stopped. She didn't look surprised to see me.
"Look, I know we haven't been... fair to you. I know we've pushed you to do things you didn't want to do. I'm sorry, okay? Just... don't be like this. Come home with me. Please?"
I softened my tone. I thought if I apologized, if I humbled myself a little, she'd listen. She'd come back.
She looked up at me. Her eyes were so calm it made me uncomfortable.
"Why do you think we can go back to how things were?" she said. "You can glue a broken mirror back together, but you'll always see the cracks."
I frowned. She was being too sensitive about this.
"We've lived with Zelda for over ten years," I said, trying to be reasonable. "Maybe we were a little biased toward her. I'll admit that. But those were small things. Nothing serious. We're family, Scarlett."
She laughed. It was cold and sharp.
"A little biased?" she said. "Did any of you ever ask me how school was going? Did anyone care about my SAT scores? After I got pregnant, did anyone ask what actually happened?"
My throat tightened. I couldn't answer.
I thought about how we'd all assumed Scarlett was just average in school. I'd never paid attention to her grades. And when she got pregnant... Zelda had hinted that Scarlett's private life was messy. We'd all just assumed the worst about her.
"Dad yelled at you in that parking lot at the Champlain Hotel," she continued. "He told you to stay there and think about what you did. Did he ever wonder if something could happen to me out there alone?"
"He was just angry," I said quickly. "He didn't mean—"
"Do you remember my SAT test day?" she cut me off.
I froze.
"Zelda and I had tests at different locations," she said. "The night before, Zelda said she was too nervous. She needed Mom to stay with her the whole time. So the next morning, Mom took the car and went with Zelda to her test center in Manhattan. A nice private school. Close and safe."
Her voice was steady but her eyes were hard.
"My test was at a public high school in Brooklyn. It took an hour and a half on the subway. Two transfers. Mom gave me a hundred dollars cash and told me to take an Uber. I told her an Uber to that location would cost sixty or seventy dollars. I wouldn't have enough for the ride back. Do you know what she said?"
I felt sick. My face was getting pale.
"She said, 'Then take the subway. You're used to it anyway.'"
"I asked her why Zelda needed her there but I couldn't even have the car. Do you know what Mom said to me, Lorenzo?"
I couldn't speak.
"She said, 'Because Zelda actually has a future. She's going somewhere. And you... well, you should be grateful you're even taking the test.'"
My mind flashed back to that morning. We'd all rallied around Zelda the night before. Mom had cooked Zelda's favorite breakfast. Dad had given her a pep talk. I'd driven out to get the Starbucks order Zelda said was her lucky drink.
And Scarlett... we hadn't even said good luck to her.
"I woke up at five in the morning," Scarlett said. "I took two hours on the subway to get there. The whole time I was thinking: if I score better than Zelda, will they finally see me? I went into that test angry. Determined. I wasn't aiming for top twenty schools anymore. I answered every question like my life depended on it."
"I got a perfect sixteen hundred," she said quietly. "And not one person in that house cared."
I felt like I couldn't breathe. I remembered that day. Zelda had scored well. We'd all celebrated. Taken her out to dinner. But Scarlett...
I didn't even know she'd taken the test that day.
"Things like that happened all the time," she said. "I'm not here to blame anyone anymore. I just finally understand something. No matter how hard I try, I will never belong in that family."
She looked at me and the last bit of light in her eyes went out.
"Let's just go our separate ways."
My thoughts were spinning. I reached out to stop her again.
"What about the baby?" I demanded. "Scarlett. You can't—"
"I'm twenty-two," she said coldly. "So what's wrong with me getting married and having a baby?"
She turned and walked out of the hotel without looking back.
I stood there, frozen.
It hit me all at once.
We'd taken Zelda's word for it. We'd assumed the worst about Scarlett. We'd forced her to consider an abortion. We'd forced her to marry Adrian in Zelda's place.
But she was twenty-two years old. Getting married and having a baby at twenty-two was completely normal.
None of us had asked for the truth.
And she was the one who actually shared our blood. She was Mom and Dad's only biological daughter.
Why had we pushed her so far away?
I stood there in the empty hotel entrance, my hands shaking.
This time, we'd really screwed everything up.