“She said something about readying me for an event, but she wasn’t specific, and I didn’t get a chance to ask when she proceeded to remind me how lucky I am you chose to grace me with your attention. How grateful I should be to carry your last name. How I have a duty as your wife to devote myself to you and to The Society. Etcetera, etcetera.”

“Well, she is thorough if not dramatic.”

“Can I at least call her?”

“My sister?” he feigns confusion.

“My sister.”

“I will personally take you to see both your sister and your father myself after the gala.”

I’m surprised. “You will?”

“If you behave.”

I bite my lower lip. “For more than fifteen minutes?”

He nods.

“When is it?”

“In two nights.”

“Do you promise it’ll be a normal visit? No tricks? Nothing stupid you can talk your way out of?”

“You’re not a very trusting little thing, are you?”

“I’ve learned my lesson with you.” I resume eating, feeling at least a little victorious.

“You’re close with your sister?”

I nod. “I was close with both of them until Hazel left.”

“I remember that. Have you had contact with her?”

I look up at him, study his face in the play of candles. I would give anything to see him in full light.

“If I said yes, would you report it to The Society?” I know what will happen if they ever find her. She’ll be punished publicly for having turned her back on The Society. For having walked away from a Sovereign Son.

“Have you, Ivy?”

“No, Santiago, I have not. But if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”

“Your father doesn’t search for her.”

“What?”

“He hadn’t ever really.”

I’m confused. I’m sure he sees it on my face, too, and maybe he’s just trying to figure out if I’m lying or if I know anything. Because he doesn’t fill in any blanks.

“How do you know that?” I ask a little more uncertainly.

“I know a great deal.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. Of course he’s looking for her. She disappeared after—” I stop abruptly. Was he friends with the man she was supposed to marry? They’re all like brothers, right? The Sovereign Sons. All have each other’s backs.

Hazel ran away days before her wedding. She just vanished into thin air. No note, no nothing. I understand her not leaving anything for our parents because they were the ones pushing her, but she didn’t even leave one for me. I have always wondered if she could because I don’t believe she’d leave without a single word to me.

“They won’t stop looking for her. But you probably know that,” he warns.