Chapter 23

Amelia was the name of my detestable stepmother. But I loathed her name so much that I tried not to remember it. It was the name my mother used to repeat incessantly when she was ill, blaming her for the destruction of her marriage. Even as a child, I understood that my father was more to blame for my mother's suffering than his mistress. Yet, my mother was fixated on blaming her. Amelia, that homewrecker. Amelia, that foreign tramp.

Her name was like that of a ghost I preferred not to summon. And now, though she was a ghost to me, her reaction to Lucius was unsettling. It was like he was her ghost.

"Amelia," my father discreetly reprimanded his wife. "That's not an appropriate question to ask my successor."

"What do you mean, your successor?" she asked, horrified, turning to Serge. "You never mentioned that."

"Since when have you cared about the names of my business partners, woman?" he replied disdainfully, then turned to us. "Did you exchange words when he came to our house to c