00:00On my wedding day, my husband Marco's sister-in-law Elena collapsed at the reception.
00:07She's pregnant. About two months. Marco dropped to his knees in front of his father,
00:12said the child was his. Marco's mother Isabella had Elena dragged out. They shipped her to a
00:17convent outside the city. Afterwards, Marco felt very guilty towards me. He spent money and jewelry
00:25to make it up to me. The night I went into labor, he locked my servant out of the house.
00:32Elena lost her child because of you. Yours doesn't get to live either. This is what you earn. I heard
00:39Elena laughing outside the window. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back on my wedding day.
00:45The wedding convoy had just pulled through the gates. The maid of honor screamed. Marco's sister-in-law
00:51Elena was slumped against a bridesmaid. Elena's husband Dominic, the Don's eldest son, had been
00:58shot and killed in a fight 14 months ago. That was the story everyone in this house believed.
01:04Elena had refused to leave the estate after the funeral, said she wanted to honor his memory,
01:09said she'd stay loyal to the Carbone name. The Don gave her the highest level of protection,
01:14ensuring she wouldn't be found by those seeking revenge. Now she was unconscious on the floor of
01:18the reception hall. I shoved through the crowd and grabbed her wrist. Get the doctor, now! Dr. Ferrara
01:23quickly came over, examined her, and then remained silent. Elena was under the Don's personal
01:28protection. Saying she's pregnant is like throwing a bomb in a crowd. What's wrong with her? I leaned
01:36over Elena. My thumb found the nerve below her jaw and pressed in hard. Elena, what's wrong?
01:42Dominic is dead. You can't leave us. The words landed on the Don and his wife like a slap.
01:46Doctor, tell me the truth. Whatever is happening to Elena, there isn't a hospital,
01:53surgeon, or specialist in this country I can't bring to her.
02:00She's pregnant. About two months. I stood up and said it loudly and clearly.
02:04Pregnant? Elena is pregnant?
02:07That can't be right. Dominic's been in the ground over a year.
02:11Check again! Dr. Ferrara, there has to be a mistake. How is this possible?
02:15We called another doctor. He confirmed this too. The Don looks angry. His wife sat down hard.
02:20Marco was both crying and laughing. I watched Elena's eyelids flutter. She'd been awake for a while.
02:26Elena, someone raped you, didn't they? You can tell us.
02:30She was raped! She's been living your home!
02:34Who touched her in my house?
02:37My poor girl! You were scared to say something, I know!
02:41I pulled a pin from my hair. Let me try.
02:43Elena's lashes were trembling harder now. Hold her still.
02:46I brought the pin down toward her face. She made a small sound and opened her eyes.
02:50What happened? You fainted. And the doctor says you're carrying a child!
02:56I cut in before anyone else could speak.
02:58Elena? Dominic has been gone 14 months. How are you pregnant?
03:04You can tell us. Whatever happened, we will handle it.
03:08She looked at Marco, then at me.
03:09Don't ask me that question. It's all my fault.
03:12Elena, if you don't give us a name, people will draw their own conclusions.
03:15You're under the Don's protection. If someone violated that, it's an insult to this entire family.
03:20You know what that means.
03:21Even if it kills me, I won't say his name.
03:23Take her to the docks. Let the sea bury both her and her disgrace.
03:27Elena swayed like she might actually go under. Marco was on his feet in a second.
03:31No! Stop!
03:32Marco got down on his knees.
03:33Marco, if she won't name the father and this gets out the wrong way, that's not just a family problem.
03:38Do you understand what I'm saying?
03:42You won't say his name because you love him.
03:44You're protecting him. Is that it?
03:48Elena, if you wanted to leave this family and start over, the Don has always said the door was open.
03:54Why would you do it this way?
03:55Every pair of eyes in the room drilling into her.
03:57So it's true. You've betrayed this family.
04:01My eldest son treated you with nothing but love and respect.
04:04After he died, you swore you would honor his memory.
04:07We stood by you.
04:09We protected you.
04:10We treated you as our own daughter.
04:12And this is how you repay us?
04:13By disgracing his name and bringing shame upon this family?
04:16Before anyone could react, she stepped forward and struck Sophia hard across the face.
04:20You shameless whore!
04:22Elena crashed to the floor.
04:23Marco rushed to her side without a second thought, pulling her into his arms.
04:26Father, mother, please, stop asking.
04:31He tightened his grip around Elena before saying the words that froze the room.
04:36The baby she's carrying is mine.
04:40Relief washed over me.
04:41He had admitted it with his own mouth.
04:43In my previous life, Marco had sacrificed everything for Elena.
04:46I wanted to see just how much he was willing to lose for her.
04:50I staggered back several steps, covering my mouth in disbelief.
04:54Marco, what are you saying?
04:57Elena is your brother's widow.
04:59How could the child she's carrying possibly be yours?
05:02I shook my head frantically.
05:03This can't be true.
05:05Unless...
05:09Unless the reason she refused to leave after Dominic died was because of you.
05:14You've been involved with your own brother's wife all this time?
05:21While Dominic was risking his life for this family, you were sleeping with the woman he trusted most?
05:27My eyes filled with despair.
05:29If you were already in love with her, then why did you agree to marry me?
05:34The guests weren't whispering anymore.
05:36Full volume now.
05:37I've never seen anything like it.
05:38That woman was supposed to be untouchable.
05:40The whole family is rotten.
05:41Elena was on her knees, clinging to Marco.
05:45Why did you say it?
05:48I was going to take this alone.
05:50I never wanted to ruin you.
05:53I wanted her first, before Dominic ever proposed.
05:57You made that match without asking me.
05:59She doesn't love him.
06:00The Don's voice dropped to something flat and dangerous.
06:03Then she should have said so when she had the chance.
06:06She didn't, because she wanted the power that came with my name.
06:09He turned to Marco.
06:11Do you understand what you've cost this family today?
06:13Marco looked at me.
06:14Sarah.
06:15He thought I would help you.
06:16You come from good people.
06:17A real family.
06:18I'm asking you.
06:19Give Elena a place here.
06:21She's quiet.
06:22She keeps to herself.
06:23She won't threaten you, won't compete with you.
06:24You'll barely know she exists.
06:26He was still on his knees.
06:27In two lifetimes, I had never seen Marco kneel for anything.
06:31He looked certain I would say yes.
06:32Because walking away meant losing everything been promised.
06:36Please.
06:37If Marco doesn't claim this child, I have nothing left.
06:40My voice was even.
06:41You want me to cover for this?
06:43Not a chance.
06:44My family has a name worth protecting.
06:46I'm not dragging it into whatever this is.
06:48This engagement is over.
06:50Whatever happens in your life from now on has nothing to do with me.
06:54I remembered my previous life.
06:56The blood soaking the sheets.
06:58The locked doors.
06:59His voice.
07:00Cold and final.
07:02Telling me my child didn't deserve to live.
07:16Isabella was on her feet instantly.
07:19Sarah, wait.
07:20Don't do something you can't undo.
07:22We'll handle this.
07:24Marco will handle this.
07:25Get Alina to the back.
07:26She turned to her staff.
07:27Get the Vos family on the phone.
07:29This is their problem to clean up.
07:30Alina grabbed Marco's jacket with both hands.
07:32Don't let them take me.
07:34Marco.
07:35Marco looked at his mother.
07:36She's carrying my child.
07:37I can't just hand her to someone else.
07:39If I walk out of here and word reaches the wrong people about an illegitimate pregnancy involving a woman under
07:46the dawn's formal protection, that is not a quiet problem.
07:49I looked at Marco one last time.
07:51You love her that much?
07:52Then fight for her properly.
07:54Call off this engagement.
07:55Go public.
07:58Marco stood there calculating.
08:03Fine, I'll call it off.
08:06I'll marry Alina.
08:07By the time I changed out of my gown, the news was already all over town.
08:12Marco had blown up his own wedding to claim his dead brother's widow.
08:16The baby was his.
08:17My father came through the front doors of the Carbone estate before I'd finished packing.
08:22Where is he?
08:23My brother didn't wait for an answer.
08:25He walked straight into the reception hall and put his foot through Marco's chest.
08:29Hard.
08:59The Macera family is done with yours.
08:59The next morning, my grandfather put on his best suit.
09:03He was 71 years old.
09:05He had served the Carbone organization for decades before my father built the Masseria operation into what it was today.
09:11The Don owed him more than either of them could count.
09:15He said,
09:17My granddaughter walked into this in good faith.
09:19On your son's word.
09:21The Don said nothing.
09:23Marco knew about Alina before this.
09:25He deceived all of us.
09:27My father leaned forward.
09:29That's not a mistake.
09:32That's a calculation.
09:33And it was made at our expense.
09:35Marco acted without the family's knowledge.
09:37The Don had no part in...
09:39I'm not here to argue about what the Don knew.
09:41I'm here because of what happens next.
09:44You must cease protecting the women of the Vos family.
09:47Your family formally acknowledges that the reputation of the Marcella family has been tarnished.
09:51We accept the loss and will no longer have any dealings with you.
09:53I took a document to my mother.
09:55She looked at it for a moment.
09:59Sarah, where did this come from?
10:01These were all things Marco told me in my past life.
10:03When he locked me in that room and humiliated me.
10:06That every Wednesday afternoon since the funeral,
10:08Alina's car left the estate at 2 and came back at 6.
10:12And that between those hours, it sat on Ellery Street.
10:14Outside a building where apartment 4B was leased to a woman who does not exist.
10:19And that this pregnancy was not the first one.
10:21There had been another, in the spring.
10:23Handled quietly by a doctor two hours outside the city, who does not keep records.
10:27My mother put the folder down.
10:29None of this can be guessed, she said.
10:31Some of it I don't think the Don knows.
10:34He doesn't.
10:35Then how do you?
10:37I looked at her.
10:38Does it matter, I said, if all of it is true?
10:44There's one more thing.
10:45Marco had not been hiding Alina from his mother.
10:48Isabella had been paying for the room.
10:49My mother held my eyes for a long moment.
10:51Then she picked up the phone and called the car.
10:54And my mother called on Margaret Hale.
10:56Margaret Hale had no official title.
10:58She didn't need one.
10:59She owned the city's two largest newspapers,
11:02a Sunday magazine that ran in four states,
11:04and a radio network that reached every kitchen table from here to the coast.
11:08She had buried politicians, rehabilitated disgraced families,
11:12and quietly ended the careers of three police commissioners who had made the mistake of crossing
11:17her advertisers.
11:18She was not connected to any organization.
11:20That was the point.
11:21She was something the organizations couldn't touch,
11:23because she wasn't playing their game.
11:25Margaret Hale did not respond to tears.
11:27She responded to facts, delivered cleanly.
11:29I'll need the timeline.
11:30Names, dates, the doctor who confirmed the pregnancy.
11:33Have your people send it to my assistant by five.
11:36And the coverage?
11:37Leave that to me.
11:39The Carboni family has been quietly untouchable for a long time.
11:43I've been waiting for the right story.
11:45She looked at my mother over the top of her glasses.
11:47Now I have one.
11:48The response came down fast and from multiple directions at once.
11:51Marco's title, his rank, his seat at any table that mattered, gone.
11:55Alina's formal protection was stripped the same afternoon.
11:57The Voss family wanted nothing to do with it.
12:00She's brought nothing but disgrace to the Voss family.
12:03How does she still have the nerve to come home?
12:06She should be stripped of our name.
12:07The family's senior members convened a closed meeting and voted to remove her from the official
12:12records entirely.
12:13Alina Voss, as far as her family was concerned, no longer existed.
12:17The Don ordered that she be disciplined.
12:19By the time Marco reached her, she was bruised, bloodied, and barely conscious.
12:23She lost her baby.
12:24The doctor said her emotions were too unstable, and this miscarriage had severely damaged
12:28her.
12:29She would never be able to conceive again.
12:31But Mark didn't tell her.
12:33Marco came to my father's house 11 days after the story broke.
12:36He stood in the front hall.
12:38My brother watched from the top of the stairs.
12:40He had prepared.
12:41It happened once, one night, March.
12:43I'd been drinking since the anniversary of Dominic's death, and she came to my room
12:47crying, and I did not push her out, and I have hated myself every day since.
12:50Once!
12:51Once!
12:51Sarah!
12:52I swear on my brother!
12:56Go on.
12:57He was good at it.
12:58He had a version for everything.
12:59That Alina had threatened to take her own life if he didn't protect her.
13:02That the only reason he claimed the child at all was to keep the Don's name out of a
13:06scandal.
13:07That he had done it for the family, and that everyone had misunderstood him.
13:10I said, Are you done?
13:11Sarah!
13:11Ellery Street.
13:13Apartment 4B.
13:14Leased to a woman who doesn't exist.
13:1619 months of Wednesdays, 2 o'clock to 6.
13:18I watched the color go out of his face, one shade at a time.
13:20He put his hand on the wall.
13:21How do you...
13:22That's not what you should be worried about.
13:26He said, Fine.
13:28Fine.
13:30Tell me what you want.
13:35Nothing.
13:36My brother came down the stairs.
13:38Marco was outside in under a minute.
13:40And his coat came out after him.
13:41It went on for 19 days.
13:44He sent flowers to my mother, who had them left in the street.
13:48On the 11th day it rained, and he knelt down on the pavement outside our gate and stayed
13:53there.
13:55People saw.
13:57By evening, it was in three houses that Marco Carbone was on his knees in the rain for
14:02the Marcilia girl, and that she had left him out there like a dog, and wasn't that a little
14:08much, after everything, when the boy was clearly destroyed.
14:12Then, on the 14th day, at a dinner I did not attend, he told a table of eight people that
14:19we had spoken privately, and that I had forgiven him.
14:23I went out to the gate that night myself.
14:26Marco got up fast, soaked through, unshaven, and underneath all of it, certain.
14:33He thought he had finally found the pressure that worked.
14:36You came out.
14:37Stop telling people I've forgiven you.
14:41Then forgive me.
14:43No.
14:45Sarah.
14:45He wiped the rain off his face.
14:47Tell me what it takes.
14:48There's nothing left I won't do.
14:49Name it.
14:50You have nothing left that I want, including your life.
14:56Then he turned and walked out into the rain without his coat.
14:59The Monday after, I went to my father's office and asked for the port ledgers.
15:04He gave me the ledgers.
15:07I want to be worth something that isn't a wedding.
15:09By August, people had stopped saying the girl the carbones humiliated.
15:12They had started saying the Marsilia woman.
15:14My brother threw a dinner at the end of the month.
15:16Half the city came.
15:17Not for me, for the show of it.
15:19For the pleasure of standing in a house that had beaten the carbones without firing anything.
15:23I was on the stairs when I saw him.
15:24A man near the terrace doors.
15:26Alone.
15:27Not drinking.
15:28Not working the room.
15:29Dark suit.
15:30No jewelry.
15:30No bodyguard within 10 feet of him.
15:32He was looking at me.
15:33When I looked back, he did not smile, and he did not look away.
15:36I started down the stairs.
15:37By the time I reached the floor, he was gone.
15:40I found the butler.
15:40I found my brother by the bar and asked him the same question.
15:43Tommaso looked across the empty terrace, and his face did something complicated.
15:53He set his glass down.
16:02The man by the terrace, who was he?
16:04Mr. Rinaldi, miss.
16:05He asked me to give you his regards and not to introduce him.
16:07Why not?
16:08He didn't say.
16:10Luca Rinaldi.
16:11He has the port.
16:12All of it.
16:13From the grain terminal down to the yard, Sarah.
16:15He asked for you once already.
16:16What?
16:17Two years ago.
16:18Came to father himself.
16:19Father turned him down.
16:20Why would he turn down the man who owns the water?
16:22Because at the time, you wanted Marco Carabone.
16:24Marco and Elena had nothing now but each other, which turned out to be very little.
16:34Marco dropped to his knees before Isabella.
16:36Please.
16:38Don't abandon Elena.
16:40Give her a chance to live.
16:42She pointed a trembling finger at Sophia.
16:45She was your brother's widow.
16:47And now you expect us to welcome her back into this family as your wife?
16:52Have you completely lost your mind?
16:54Marco lowered his head.
16:55If we let things settle for a while, she can leave the city.
17:00She'll take another name.
17:02When the scandal dies down, I'll bring her home.
17:05Isabella's expression hardened.
17:08If all you wanted was to keep her as your mistress, your father and I might have looked
17:13the other way.
17:14But marry her?
17:16Never.
17:17Dreamed down Elena's face as she clutched Marco's arm.
17:21Marco.
17:22I'll accept anything.
17:23I don't need to be your wife.
17:26I'll even be your mistress.
17:28Elena in a rented house two miles from the Carabone estate.
17:31Marco had arranged it.
17:33Staff, security, a housekeeper who reported back to him.
17:36He visited when he could, which was less and less as the weeks passed.
17:40The Carabone organization was in damage control.
17:42Marco had lost his standing.
17:44To get any of it back, he needed allies.
17:47And allies came through family connection.
17:48And family connections came through marriage.
18:03Isabella went to her brother's household and negotiated quietly.
18:06Her brother has an adopted daughter.
18:08Not the kind of match anyone bragged about, but available.
18:11Her name was Claire.
18:12The engagement was announced six weeks after my wedding day collapsed.
18:16Nobody asked Elena.
18:17I saw Elena at a luncheon outside the city.
18:20She was still recovering and her face was very pale.
18:22When she saw me, a slow smile moved across her mouth.
18:26Sarah, are you coming to the party alone?
18:30Elena.
18:31Or, sorry.
18:32What do we call you now?
18:34You were a Voss, then a Carabone.
18:36Now what exactly?
18:47At least I'll be in the house.
18:49At least he chose me.
18:51He chose you as a plan B.
18:53You're just his mistress.
18:55I heard Claire's family is already at the estate.
18:57Did you buy her a gift yet?
18:58You'll want to make a good impression on the woman of the house.
19:01I didn't wait for her response.
19:02I walked back to my table and didn't look back.
19:07Isabella did not go quietly.
19:09She could not defend her son, so she went after me instead.
19:12Within two weeks, the story was in every drawing room in the city.
19:16That I had broken the engagement out of jealousy.
19:19That I had known about Elena for months and staged the scene at my own wedding.
19:24That there was a reason a girl of 22 had that much information about another woman's private life.
19:29And it was not a reason a decent family would want in the house.
19:35Instead, I sent Isabella one page.
19:37No letter with it.
19:38Just a photostat of a lease on Ellery Street.
19:41On the first Thursday of September, the wives played cards at the Barone house.
19:45Isabella stood in the doorway of a house she had been welcome in since she was a bride, holding her
19:49gloves.
19:52She left without speaking to me.
19:55A minute later, a girl I didn't know sat down in the chair beside mine.
19:59You're Sira Marcellia.
20:02I am.
20:07She turned her cup around on its saucer.
20:09Claire, my uncle signed the papers on Tuesday.
20:14Everyone in this room knows what I'm being handed.
20:17Nobody will tell me the details.
20:18She looked at me.
20:19You know all of it.
20:21Tell me everything.
20:22And I'll owe you for the rest of my life.
20:25It was fact.
20:26Marco's engagement to Claire moved quickly.
20:28The Carbone organization needed the stability.
20:32Elena found out from the housekeeper.
20:34She confronted Marco that same night.
20:48Marco was tired and irritable and increasingly short with everyone.
20:52You're marrying her.
20:54You're actually doing it.
20:55We talked about this.
20:56You knew this was coming.
20:57You said we would get married.
20:59I said I'd try.
21:00The situation changed.
21:01You know what you mean to me, but I need this alliance.
21:03I don't have a choice.
21:04I lost the baby and my name and my family.
21:07I lost everything, Marco, for you!
21:15He didn't answer.
21:20Now you want me to walk into that house as your mistress?
21:24He crossed the room and crouched in front of her.
21:31Listen to me.
21:33Whatever happens, you're the one I want.
21:36Claire is a formality.
21:38You'll have everything you were supposed to have.
21:40She looked at him for a long moment.
21:42The morning after the wedding, Elena was dragged into the main hall by the household staff.
21:47Claire's eyes swept over her before she let out a cold laugh.
21:52So, you're the woman willing to throw away her dignity just to become someone's mistress.
21:57Elena's face turned pale.
21:59Miss, Mrs. Claire, I...
22:01No.
22:02You don't speak until you're spoken to.
22:05I'm the lady of this house.
22:06From today on, you answer to me.
22:09Elena clenched her fists but lowered her head.
22:12Yes.
22:14Claire smiled with satisfaction.
22:19At least you know your place.
22:21Prepare a room for her.
22:22She turned to one of the maids.
22:29Whenever I need you, you'll come immediately.
22:33She paused, her smile never reaching her eyes.
22:36If I call and you keep me waiting,
22:40you'll regret it.
22:43Marco visited Elena's room less and less.
22:45A few weeks after the wedding,
22:48Claire arranged for a pretty young staff member to be promoted.
22:52Marco stopped visiting Elena's room almost entirely after that.
22:57One afternoon, Claire summoned Elena to the main sitting room.
23:10Something you should know.
23:11You can't have children.
23:13The doctor noted it after your incident.
23:16Marco's known for months.
23:18Elena said nothing for a long time.
23:21He didn't tell you because he didn't want the drama.
23:25But I think you deserve the truth.
23:27Claire looked at her with something close to pity.
23:29You're welcome to stay,
23:30as long as we're clear on what you are and what you aren't.
23:33Marco came to see Elena that evening.
23:36He told me we'd have more children.
23:38He told me he'd find a way.
23:43Yes.
23:44He is good at deception.
23:54It doesn't change anything between us.
23:56We'll find another way.
23:57Maybe adopt through the family network.
23:59Some cousin's kid who needs a placement.
24:00You'll have someone to raise.
24:02You've known for months.
24:03I didn't want to upset you while you were still recovering.
24:13I'm just a hidden mistress, Marco.
24:15I'm someone they all know, but nobody talks about.
24:17I have no family, no title, no children, no name.
24:24He reached for her hand.
24:26She picked up the heavy glass ashtray from the side table and threw it.
24:30You have me.
24:31It caught him on the side of the head.
24:32He went down hard, didn't move.
24:35The telephone rang at my father's house at 11 at night.
24:39I knew before I picked it up.
24:40There is a particular way a phone rings when it is late and nothing good is coming.
24:45Sarah.
24:46Elena.
24:47Very calm.
24:48Too calm.
24:49He's on the floor.
24:50He isn't moving.
24:51There's a lot of blood in the carpet.
24:52I've been sitting here about an hour looking at it.
24:55Is he breathing?
24:56I don't know.
24:57I haven't checked.
25:00Elena.
25:01I want to ask you something.
25:02Her voice changed then.
25:03Not calm anymore.
25:04Curious.
25:05From the second I went down on the floor at your wedding, from that exact second, you
25:09knew, didn't you?
25:11You called for the doctor before anyone else moved.
25:14You knew to ask me who I were protecting instead of asking me who did it.
25:17Something in her throat cracked.
25:18Everything after that you did your fast.
25:20Nobody.
25:20You fainted at my wedding.
25:22Everything after that you did yourself.
25:24The line was quiet for a long time.
25:26That's fair.
25:27That's actually fair.
25:31Elena.
25:33Put the phone down and open the door and call for the doctor.
25:36Do me one favor.
25:38What?
25:39Don't come to the house tonight.
25:42Then the line went dead.
25:44She locked the door.
25:46She found the utility cabinet in the service corridor and took what she needed.
25:50She worked quickly and without hesitation, moving through her room and into the connecting
25:56hallway, pouring accelerant along the baseboards, across the rugs, under the door frames.
26:03Then she lit the lighter.
26:06The smoke reached the main house within minutes.
26:08Claire appeared at the far end of the corridor with two staff members.
26:11She looked at the smoke, then at the locked door.
26:13She's been unstable for weeks.
26:14The fire department can go in once the fire is smaller.
26:17I won't let my employees take any risks.
26:20She turned back to the reception room.
26:23It was Marco's valet who raised the alarm 20 minutes later, red-faced and gasping.
26:28Mrs. Carbomi.
26:30I can't find him anywhere.
26:32Claire's expression changed.
26:34Two shapes in the wreckage.
26:36They buried them in the same week.
26:39Claire came to see me nine days after the funerals.
26:43The Don had not left his rooms in a week.
26:46Isabella had gone to her sisters in the country, and everyone understood she was not coming back.
26:52They've given me the household accounts and the Vitele contracts because there's nobody else
26:56who can read them.
26:57I'm 20 years old, and on Tuesday, two capos came to me to ask permission for something.
27:04Did you give it?
27:09I said I'd think about it.
27:10She almost smiled.
27:12I poured the coffee.
27:14I want to ask you something, and I'd like the real answer because I'm the only person
27:18left who's on your side of it.
27:21That day at the card table, you already knew they'd destroy each other, didn't you?
27:26You didn't do most of it.
27:27You watched.
27:29I didn't know.
27:31Claire reached into her bag and put a bundle on the table between us.
27:34Envelopes.
27:34Tied with string.
27:36The corners scorched brown.
27:37The whole thing smelling of smoke.
27:39These were in his studio.
27:40The fire didn't reach that side of the house.
27:42Every envelope had my name on it in Marco's handwriting.
27:45No address.
27:46No stamp.
27:47He wrote the top one the night before he died.
27:49I put my hand flat on the bundle and did not pick it up.
27:53There are 11 of them.
27:54I opened one.
27:55Not the last one.
27:56The first one from March.
27:58Four days after his engagement to Claire was announced.
28:01Four pages.
28:02I read 11 lines.
28:03He wrote about the house he would have built.
28:05He wrote about how his mother had ruined his life.
28:08He wrote about how the family had never once let him choose anything.
28:13I burned all of them in the garden without opening the rest.
28:17It took a while.
28:19Then it was October, and my brother filled the house with the sons of every family worth
28:23naming and stood there like a man at an auction.
28:27See anyone you like?
28:28Just tell me.
28:29I'll talk to mom and dad.
28:31I went out to the balcony to get away from it and leaned on the railing.
28:34He looked up at that exact moment.
28:36Our eyes met.
28:37Luca Rinaldi came up the stairs and stood a proper distance away.
28:40Your father turned me down two years ago.
28:43I know.
28:44My brother told me.
28:46So you waited.
28:47So I waited.
28:50Two years is a long time to watch a house you were never invited into.
28:56Longer than that.
28:58Two summers ago, I put my sister into the Carmoni household.
29:02Kitchen staff first, then upstairs.
29:06Nella.
29:08Nella.
29:09I told her one thing.
29:10Whatever else happens in that house, be near that girl's door.
29:14I could not breathe.
29:17Because in the life that burned, on the night the doctor was sent home, and the key went
29:22into his left pocket, there had been one person in the whole world beating her hands against
29:27the outside of that door until they bled.
29:30They had put her out into the rain.
29:33She never told me who sent her.
29:36I asked her not to.
29:39Why?
29:44Because you were going to marry him.
29:47And it would have been a cruel thing to make you know.
29:50I looked at this man who had stood at the edge of my life through two of them, and had
29:54never
29:55once stepped in front of me without being asked.
29:58I knew fate was giving me a second chance.
30:00I knew he was going to marry him.
30:00I knew he was going to be like, I knew I was going to go.
