"The lady of the house is hosting a banquet for the most powerful families in the city. If you disturb her guests, you and your little brat won't have enough lives to pay for it."
"Go on, get. Get out of here."
I'd expected exactly this. I deliberately stepped back, dropped to my knees, and raised my voice for the whole street to hear.
"Someone help me get justice! Dante Ferrante married me six years ago in a proper ceremony. I bore him a daughter! He promised to bring me back within three years and make me his wife before the Family. But now that he's claimed the Ferrante territory, he left me and my child in a tenement on the waterfront eating scraps! Is that something a human being does?"
The estate sat on a busy street in the old neighborhood, where everyone knew everyone's business. The commotion drew neighbors from every direction, and whispers rippled through the growing crowd.
"They say the new Ferrante Boss is famously devoted to his wife. He's got two children with her and won't even keep a woman on the side. So where did THIS wife come from?"
"Probably a fraud. I mean, look at her. The Ferrante house is connected. She claims to be his wife, but she looks like a beggar off the road. Bet she's just some grifter trying to latch onto a Family name."
I listened without a flicker of emotion, then reached into the bundle I'd brought and pulled out a marriage certificate.
"Take a good look. This is Dante Ferrante's own handwriting. If he refuses to acknowledge me as his wife, I'll take this certificate straight to the Commission and demand justice."
The head steward, lurking in the shadows of the gate, caught a glimpse of the handwriting on the certificate from a distance. His brow furrowed.
He leaned toward the gate soldier. "Stay here and watch her. I'm going in to inform the Boss and the lady of the house."
I saw every bit of it.
Sure enough, before a quarter hour had passed, Dante Ferrante came striding out of the estate, and right behind him, draped in gold and silver, was Gianna Greco.
The steward pointed at me. "Boss, this woman claims to be your wife. If she's a fraud, I'll have her thrown out at once."
Dante looked down at me from the top of the steps. "Lift your head."
I tilted my chin up slowly, the ghost of a smile on my lips.
The moment he saw my face, every drop of color drained from his.
"Serafina, is it really you? What are you doing here?"