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Still, she’d been nervous. She hadn’t had a sonogram or any kind of examination since discovering the pregnancy. What if she’d made a mistake? What if something was wrong with thebaby?
But everything had been perfect, the baby’s heart beat like a runaway train inside her stomach, not the thump she’d expected, but achoo-choo-choosound shown as a flash on the ultrasoundscreen.
She’d had to hold back tears as the doctor, a direct but warm woman with black hair and gray eyes, pointed out the various parts of the baby’s anatomy. The doctor said everything looked fine, and Aria had left with a prescription for prenatal vitamins and iron, and an appointment for the followingmonth.
Guilt had warred with euphoria as she’d gotten dressed and left thebuilding.
She needed to tell Damian. She was robbing him of these early months of her pregnancy, of the chance to see their child and hear his or her heartbeat, to share in herexcitement.
And she was doing it for selfish reasons. To protect her own desire to see Malcolmdie.
She hadn’t exactly been thinking clearly these past few weeks. She’d buried her grief about Primo under layers of logic and the determination to kill Stefano andAnastos.
But it didn’t matter that Primo had deserved what happened to him — that he’d brought it on himself in spite of having more than one opportunity to get outalive.
He’d been her brother. Losing himhurt.
No amount of reason or rage would change that. Hiding her pregnancy from Damian didn’t change it either. Even being in Greece when Damian killed Anastos hadn’t changedit.
She didn’t want her relationship with Damian to be built on lies or omissions. Didn’t want to hide from him the way she’d been forced to hide fromPrimo.
They had to be themselves with each other, come whatmay.
That was theirbargain.
She heard Nora on the beach when they’d talked about Braden andDamian.
Sometimes I push to get my way, sometimes he pushes back. We always work itout.
Aria had admired Nora so much for her bravery, had recognized her own cowardice in the shadow of Nora’s words. While Nora had opted to be honest — even if it meant a fight — Aria had hid, hanging on to her rage, her desperation to exact revenge on Stefano Anastos and Malcolm. In a way, she’d put those things aboveDamian.
She owed him an apology for that, owed him thetruth.
She looked down at the picture in her hand before slipping it back in her pocket. The sky had darkened while she’d been sitting, and she was suddenly anxious to get home to Damian. To have dinner and look at him across the little kitchen table, to fall asleep against him in thestudy.
To tell himeverything.
She picked up her pace as she headed for the park’s exit, smiling at Andre when she saw him leaning against a tree marking itsentrance.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, “ she said to him. “I’m ready to go homenow.”
