Colino's arms tightened around her. His jaw clenched. His eyes—dark as the river where the Family dumped their problems—fixed on me with undisguised fury.
"Have I not compensated you enough?" he snapped, his voice carrying the weight of a man accustomed to being obeyed. "Look at yourself, Anneliese. You're just like your mother. Petty. Greedy. Always playing the victim, always looking for a handout."
He took a step toward me, and I could smell Piper's perfume clinging to his skin.
"You two deserved the punishment."
My breath caught in my throat like a blade had been pressed to my windpipe. The corridor spun around me, but I stood rooted to the blood-slicked marble, too stunned to move.
"Petty and greedy?" I whispered, staring at the man I'd loved—the man I'd been promised to since I was nineteen years old—like I was seeing him for the first time. "Is that really what you think of me? That seeking justice for my mother—a woman who died in your family's service—makes me some money-hungry lunatic?"
Tears blurred my vision, turning the world to watercolors. But I refused to let them fall. I would not give them the satisfaction.