As if sensing I’ll bolt, he wraps a hand around the back of my neck and pulls me to him and anyone who is looking at us would think he was kissing my cheek but he’s not. He’s whispering to me.

“Judge is my friend. You’ll need to get used to him.”

“He’s…I can’t.”

“I asked him to take you, Ivy. If anything happened to me, he knew what to do.”

“What?” I ask, pulling back to look up at him. “How?”

“It is the Rite.”

The Rite. God. It’s like we go back in time every time I set foot in this place. The Rite is when one Head of Household, if he’s the only male of age, passes on those in his charge to another in his absence or death or if he were to become somehow incapacitated.

“I trust Judge with my life. I trusted him with yours.”

“When you thought I tried to kill you.”

“Did he hurt you, Ivy?”

“He kept me in a cellar. He kept me—”

“Did he hurt you?” he asks again.

I shake my head.

“If he hadn’t stepped in that night, you’d have spent those days in a Tribunal cell, and trust me, that would have been far worse.”

“So, what? I should thank him?” I try to pull away, but he catches my arm.

“You should be respectful,” he says, and I realize it’s grown quieter. Santiago smiles and pulls me close again. “And you will behave.” There’s a pause after the will.

“Well, well,” Mercedes says, approaching with a wide grin on her face, drink in hand, eyes dropping instantly to my stomach before returning to mine. Her disdain or outright disgust of me is so apparent I’m sure Santiago must see it.

Judge has a hand at her elbow, eyes on me. He must know I recognize him.

“Santi,” Mercedes says. “So nice to see you two out and about together, a little family in the making.” She swallows what’s left in her glass, sets it on a passing waiter’s tray, grabs a full flute, and brings it to her lips.

“Easy,” Judge tells her, but I hear it, and I wonder if he’s keeping her in the cellar too because she gives him an annoyed glance but doesn’t sip from her glass.

He nods. And I try to understand the dynamic. Surely Santiago wouldn’t have sent her to him for whatever it is she did. Surely, Judge wouldn’t be the consequences he talked about.

Just then another man comes to us. I don’t know him, but he whispers something to Santiago. Santiago nods and turns to us.

“Do you ladies think you can behave yourselves for five minutes?”