Chapter 4: The Hours Before the Rain
The order had come in the late afternoon, delivered in the same calm tone Roman’s mother used for staffing changes and seating charts.
I was in the east sitting room when she entered with two of the household staff behind her. She did not raise her voice. She simply stated that the Kane name would not be diluted by a Queens girl who had tricked her son into a private marriage and then compounded the insult by becoming pregnant. The hair, she said, would be cut as a reminder that belonging to this family was not automatic. The staff did not look at my face. They looked at the floor, at the walls, at anything except the scissors.
I did not scream. Screaming would have given her the scene she wanted. I sat still while the length fell around the chair in uneven pieces. When it was done she told me the gates were open and that I was to leave the property before Roman returned from the city. No one offered a coat. No one offered shoes. The cream dress was what I had been wearing when the afternoon began. The rain had not yet started.
