Alessandra Stathos recalls killing her first love, Hektor Galanis, after he responded to her admission of love by breaking up with her. She wakes up next to a boy named Myron; she casually dismisses him, but he proposes marriage. Alessandra rejects him offhandedly, annoyed that Myron has “outlived his usefulness” (9). Because they’ve had sex, Myron is astonished, and Alessandra thinks about how he is the fourth that month.

Alessandra’s father, Sergio Stathos, Lord Mathis, enters. He growls at Myron to leave. When he is gone, Sergio complains that Alessandra’s sexual exploits make it difficult to find a “suitable match” for her, but Alessandra reminds him that legally she cannot marry until her older sister, Chrysantha, has done so.

Sergio reports that Chrysantha has been dismissed from the household of the Shadow King, but that he has arranged her betrothal to a duke. Alessandra is pleased that it is now her turn to marry and announces that she intends to marry the Shadow King. Her father scoffs. Alessandra will never marry so high after consorting with so many men.

Though Alessandra likes sewing, she can’t make all the required garments for a trip to the palace, so she works with a seamstress though she makes her seductive undergarments herself.