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‘How are you feeling, Ana?’ he asked, putting an arm around my shoulder. ‘You were shot. You shouldn’t be out of bed, dear.’
I looked at him for a moment before turning back to the babies. I kept my back rigid, refusing to make it comfortable for Emilio to drape himself around me.
‘It was just a flesh wound,’ I replied. ‘I’m trying to stay out of your family’s way until the hospital discharges me.’ It was kind of the truth.
‘How thoughtful of you,’ Emilio said, pulling me closer to his side. ‘Always so thoughtful. Tell me, did you decide to drop this little bastard off before his mother died or after?’
Oh God. Sweat started to gather around my temples, and my skin was all itchy. I needed to get away from this man. I didn’t say anything.
‘I asked you a question, cholita.’
I yelped as bony fingers pressed into my bullet wound. I gagged, the pain so sharp that I almost puked right then and there.
‘Ahhhhhhhh,’ I cried, doubling over from the pain so my forehead was pressed against the cool glass window that separated us from the babies in the nursery.
Emilio didn’t like that. He tugged on a handful of my hair, forcing my head back up, and pulled me along so we were standing directly in front of the bastard baby he was talking about.
Emilio grinned, his gold tooth reflecting the harsh fluorescent lights that hung overhead. Even after nine years, I’d never gotten used to that tooth, and it made me jump every goddamn time he opened his mouth.
‘Mariana,’ he said, his voice like chains being dragged through rocks. His eyes were so much like Dornan’s that it scared me. How could you come from a man like Emilio Ross and not turn into him? That thought burrowed into my brain and sat there, dormant, waiting for the time when I’d have to rip it out and answer it.
Somehow, I knew we were heading towards destruction, even as we stood in the calm aftermath of Allie’s failed attempt at vengeance.
It wasn’t over. It would never be over. Emilio’s cold hand squeezed the back of my neck as he directed my gaze towards the smallest baby in the line-up.
‘I’m taking this boy home,’ he promised, his words turning vicious. ‘I’ll raise him as my own. And if you ever try and leave your post . . .’
I sobbed from the pain of his fingers inside my wound. ‘I’ve given you almost ten years,’ I whispered. ‘You told me you’d let me go once I repaid the debt.’
He chuckled. ‘That was before. This is now. Do you have any idea how fucking marvellous you are at what you do? I was going to shoot you that night but you insisted on coming with me. You’ve only got yourself to blame, dear.’
I couldn’t stop crying. The pain! I just wanted him to get his hands away from me.
‘You try and leave, and I’ll find you, Ana,’ he continued. ‘I’ll find you and I’ll make you watch while I kill that boy in front of you.’ He returned his black eyes to me and grinned. ‘It’s a shame your family is dead. Your sister would be much more fun to kill while you watch than a fucking child.’
My blood ran cold. Even though I knew he was talking about this baby who’d been born in the back of a trafficking truck, all I saw was Luis. And it wasn’t just Luis any more. There was another baby, a secret that lived inside me.
I had to get out. I had to find a way to get out of this hell, for both of my children.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
MARIANA
Dornan woke up.
But nothing was ever the same between us.
Because when I looked into his eyes, I no longer saw the man who had saved me all those years ago.
I saw the man who’d morphed into a monster before my very eyes.
Part of me thought it would have been better if Allie’s bullet had killed him, so I wouldn’t have to keep living this lie. The bullet didn’t kill him, though. It didn’t kill him, and he got better, and I still couldn’t bring myself to tell him that I was pregnant with his child.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
MARIANA
I still hadn’t told him.
