{FRANCESCO}
I watched my firecracker in awe. She kept her expression blank and her chin held high even as she watched her father and stepmom walk gracelessly away with their head hanging. She might not have realised it yet but more than a few people watched that interaction with the tyrants from her past. And those people evaluated her strengths, deciding whether she was someone to mess around with. She passed the test flawlessly. She had proven that she could use the authority her marriage to me would place in her laps, and although I knew that would cost her, I wasn't willing to let others see any cracks in her mask.
I stepped closer just in time to catch her as she swooned, almost stumbling.
"Hang on, firecracker," I murmured in her ear. "It'll be over even before you know it."
She turned to me, her chest heaving and falling at a fast pace as she struggled to breathe steadily. "I... I-I humiliated them," she breathed out.
