Chapter Nineteen
The trouble with Valentina started over breakfast, three days after the move, though Amara would later realize it had probably started long before that — the moment she signed her name to a marriage certificate carrying the Knox name.
Valentina showed up unannounced, the way Amara was learning family did in this house, letting herself into the kitchen with a key Amara hadn’t even known existed, and an expression that made it clear she still considered the whole estate — koi pond included — fundamentally hers to walk through.
“You must be Amara,” Valentina said, setting a designer handbag on the counter like she owned the counter too. “I have heard so much.”
“All good things, I hope.” Amara kept her voice light, though something in Valentina’s tone had already put her o
