Mirabella sleeps peacefully in the bed, oblivious to the wreckage I've made of everything.
I sink onto the edge of the mattress, guilt nearly bringing me to my knees. It killed him when he thought I died.
His words echo in my mind. I picture Adriano the way he must have been when he heard the news, devastated, broken.
Because of me.
I knew it would hurt him and I did it anyway.
I remember the way he used to look at me, like I hung the moon and stars.
The gentle touches, the fierce protectiveness.
He loved me, and I repaid him with grief.
I deserved the anger I saw on his face tonight. Deserved worse, probably.
But what choice did I have?
Don Lorenzo would have killed me, killed our baby.
Still, knowing I was right doesn't ease the guilt crushing my chest. I made Adriano suffer for years.
That’s not something anyone can forgive.
My stomach twists as Alessandro's cold gaze returns to haunt me.
He doesn't trust me.
How could he?
His father was right to suspect me, even if he never knew the whole truth.
That's the part I can't let slip.
Not yet.
Maybe not ever.
Dread settles through me.
I've told them what I could.
Lorenzo's ultimatum was real.
The threat to my life and my unborn child's was real.
But there's so much more buried beneath those partial truths.
What would Adriano do if he knew?
I've seen what happens to traitors in this family.
Would he kill the mother of his child?
The thought chills me to the bone. The Adriano I knew wouldn't. But that was before I broke him. Before I let him believe I was dead. Before I withheld his child from him.
This new Adriano… I'm not so sure.
