I smiled faintly. "He wronged me this deeply. You think I can just turn the page? I need to make him pay first."
That same day, I took Valentina to the Ferrante estate and sent word inside.
"Tell Dante Ferrante his wife has come home."
The soldiers at the gate took one look at my tattered clothes, wrinkled their noses, and moved to shove us back toward the street.
"Where'd you beggars crawl out from? This is the Ferrante house."
"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?"