The Old Don and his wife already carried guilt over Frederico breaking off his blood-bound union with me. When they learned what had happened, they'd rebuked Chloe harshly.
Called her vicious. Said she'd shown callous disregard for another woman's life.
Chloe couldn't touch me, not with the Don and his wife shielding me. So she'd turned her fury on Ruby instead.
I watched Ruby's broken body twitch with each blow, barely clinging to life, and the tears wouldn't stop.
I seized Omero's sleeve and begged. "Omero, please save Ruby. Every fault is mine, all of it."
"She was only worried about me."
Omero's expression pinched with reluctance. "Penny, she's just a servant. Let the Don's daughter-in-law vent her anger and it'll blow over."
I stared at that handsome face of his, so perfectly composed, so perfectly human, and could not fathom the rottenness it concealed.
Because we were born lowly, our lives simply didn't matter?
Mine didn't. Ruby's didn't. And neither had the hundred-some families of Millhaven.