Chapter 1 - The Birthday Game
Vivian Rossetti knew something was wrong before she saw her son.
It was the silence.
Not complete silence. The backyard of the Rossetti estate was still filled with music, the splash of the swimming pool, the clinking of glasses, and the artificial cheerfulness of a birthday party designed by people who believed money could make anything beautiful. Red, blue, and gold balloons floated above white tables. A three-tier cake stood beneath a striped canopy. Children ran between carnival booths while adults laughed beneath expensive sunglasses.
But one corner of the yard had gone strangely still.
Then Vivian heard Leo scream.
“Mom!”
Her champagne glass slipped from her fingers.
She ran.
The crowd opened reluctantly, and what Vivian saw stopped her heart.
Leo was tied against a padded carnival post with a broad party ribbon wrapped several times around his small body. He was dressed in the superhero costume he had begged to wear that morning. His cheeks were wet. His eyes were enormous with terror.
A few feet away stood Olivia.
The young girl wore a pastel rainbow dress and held a wooden piñata bat in both hands.
She raised it.
Behind her, Damon and Frank were laughing.
“Stop!”
Vivian’s voice cut through the party.
Olivia froze.
Vivian crossed the grass so quickly that several guests stepped backward.
She seized the bat before anyone could react.
“What are you doing?”
Olivia stared at her.
The girl’s smile disappeared.
“I was just playing.”
“Playing?”
Vivian threw the bat onto the grass and dropped to her knees beside Leo.
His entire body was trembling.
She tore at the ribbon.
“Mom…”
“I’m here.”
Vivian pulled the final loop away and lifted him into her arms.
Leo buried his face against her shoulder.
Damon approached with an irritated expression.
“Vivian, calm down.”
She turned.
“Calm down?”
“It was a game.”
“A game?”
“No one was going to hurt him.”
Vivian looked toward Frank.
Her father-in-law appeared more annoyed by the interruption than concerned about his grandson.
That frightened her almost as much as what she had just witnessed.
Vivian lowered her voice.
“Leo, sweetheart, tell me what happened.”
Leo hesitated.
His fingers tightened around her dress.
“Grandpa said I had to stand there.”
Vivian slowly looked at Frank.
Frank’s expression changed.
Only slightly.
But she saw it.
“What else did he say?”
Leo sniffed.
“He said I was the prize.”
The words seemed to remove all the air from the backyard.
Vivian stared at Frank.
“You called my son the prize?”
Frank lifted his chin.
“You’re turning a children’s game into something ridiculous.”
“He was tied to a post.”
“With ribbon.”
“While someone swung a bat beside his head.”
“Olivia knew not to hit him.”
Olivia suddenly spoke.
“They told me I could win.”
Vivian looked at her.
“Win what?”
Olivia’s face went blank.
Damon stepped forward.
“That’s enough.”
Vivian turned on him.
“No. It isn’t.”
Damon was Leo’s father, and yet he had stood there laughing.
That realization hurt more than she wanted to admit.
“You watched this?”
Damon exhaled.
“You’re embarrassing everyone.”
Vivian almost laughed.
“Our son was terrified, and you’re worried that I’m embarrassing you?”
“Nothing happened to him.”
“He was screaming.”
“Kids scream.”
Leo flinched at his father’s raised voice.
Vivian immediately pulled him closer.
“Don’t.”
Damon stepped nearer.
“You always do this.”
“Do what?”
“Turn everything into a crisis.”
Vivian stared at the man she had married seven years earlier and wondered when she had stopped recognizing him.
Frank joined his son.
“This family has tolerated enough of your theatrics.”
Vivian’s eyes narrowed.
“My theatrics?”
“You came into this family and immediately began deciding how everything should be done.”
“I’m deciding that my child shouldn’t be used as a piñata.”
A few guests looked away.
Frank’s jaw tightened.
“You need to remember whose house you’re standing in.”
Vivian stood.
Leo remained behind her.
“And you need to remember whose child you tied to that post.”
Frank reached for her arm.
Vivian pulled away.
Damon moved between them.
For several seconds, voices rose and bodies shifted. Frank backed into the carnival prize rack.
The wooden display shook.
A small box fell from Frank’s jacket pocket.
It struck the ground.
The lid opened.
Something gold rolled across the grass.
Olivia gasped.
Vivian looked down.
A ring.
Small.
Far too small for Frank.
She picked it up.
The Rossetti crest was engraved into the gold.
Vivian knew that crest.
Every legitimate Rossetti heir received a signet ring when formally recognized by the family.
Leo already had one locked inside Vivian’s bedroom safe.
But this ring was smaller.
Vivian looked at Olivia.
Then at Frank.
Olivia stared at the ring with unmistakable recognition.
Vivian’s pulse quickened.
“Olivia?”
The girl said nothing.
“Have you seen this before?”
Damon interrupted.
“Vivian, give it to Dad.”
She closed her fist.
“No.”
Frank’s face hardened.
“Give me the ring.”
Vivian looked at him.
“Who is it for?”
No answer.
She turned toward Olivia.
The ring looked exactly her size.
Then something even stranger happened.
Frank looked toward the two bodyguards stationed beside the patio doors.
Not Damon.
Not Olivia.
Not Vivian.
The guards.
As though he expected them to do something.
Vivian stepped backward and positioned herself between Leo and the men.
Her voice became quiet.
“Who promised Olivia my son’s place?”
Nobody moved.
Nobody laughed now.
Even the music seemed grotesquely cheerful against the silence.
Olivia’s eyes filled with tears.
Frank whispered, “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Then explain the ring.”
He didn’t.
Vivian looked at Damon.
Her husband’s face had lost its color.
And suddenly she understood something that frightened her far more than the bat.
Damon knew.
Maybe not everything.
But he knew something.
Vivian took Leo’s hand.
“We’re leaving.”
Damon blocked her path.
“You’re not taking him anywhere.”
Vivian stared at him.
“He’s my son.”
“He’s my son too.”
“Then start acting like it.”
She moved around him.
Leo followed.
They had almost reached the house when Olivia called after them.
“Mrs. Rossetti?”
Vivian stopped.
Olivia stood alone beside the fallen prize rack.
She looked frightened now.
Not cruel.
Not triumphant.
Frightened.
And when she spoke, her voice was barely audible.
“Grandpa Frank told me something yesterday.”
Frank shouted, “Olivia!”
The girl jumped.
Vivian turned fully toward her.
“What did he tell you?”
Olivia looked from Frank to Damon.
Then to Leo.
“He said after today…”
Her lower lip trembled.
May you like
“…Leo wouldn’t be the Rossetti child anymore.”
And that was the moment Vivian realized the birthday humiliation had never been a game. nd59
