In the days when our household on the Palatine Hill was accustomed to placid routines and the steady clink of bronze struck true, a shadow fell across our hearth. Gold and silver—simple denarii saved in a common cista for unforeseen need—began to dwindle as though seized by a secret hand. Such an offense in any familia is as if the very bond of trust has been sundered. And so I, Julia Aemilia, wife of Gaius Cornelius and mother to our son and daughter, set forth to unmask the culprit—only to discover that the greatest thief among us was the daughter-in-law I had welcomed beneath my own roof.
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