I stood there in the shadows watching as my husband lovingly held his mistress and took her to the hospital for a prenatal checkup.
Two years ago, when I miscarried, the doctor told me that it was not due to my poor health but rather due to my husband's negligence. He had not brought me to the clinic on time when my water broke, and my child suffocated to death. Even after that catastrophe, my husband did not bother to bring me to any of the checkups this time either, citing his duties with the Family.
"Stop whining like a weakling! Can't you do something productive for once! You are the wife of the Don of the Moretti Family, so for God's sake stop being selfish! I must take care of the Family as well. Ask your mother to take you to the doctor."
This was what he had said to me when I begged him to accompany me, yet here he was looking so concerned as he collected medications for his mistress.
I realized it wasn't that he was too busy. It was just that I was never his priority. He had long abandoned me in his heart.
Since the hospital was crowded, Nico held Valentina close to him before speaking.
"Baby, about the sour delicacies I brought… they've been a day old so don't eat them anymore." Valentina laughed when Nico fussed over her health.
"Just a day old, so what? They're perfectly fine, Nico!"
"No, what if it harmed your health? Come, I'll buy you your favorite hot chocolate. It's getting really cold, baby."
"This time I'll compromise, but you have to promise me that we'll have a lot of sour delicacies at our wedding."
"Anything you say, baby. Our wedding would be the most lavish one in all the allied Families. Just wait a month more. When Bianca delivers, I'll find some excuse to send her away in the name of recuperating. I will make you the most envied lady of the Moretti Family."
"If you say so." She pouted, making him kiss her.
I froze at the words. I could almost hear my heart shattering. It was ironic how they resembled the loving couple that Nico and I used to be. And to think he was already trying to get rid of me.
I followed them like I was bound with invisible rope, wanting to see what they would do now. I shivered as the cold wind gushed against me without mercy while I saw my husband carefully wrapping Valentina with a scarf after putting his warm jacket around her.
When the skies roared as it thundered dangerously, I stood in the background beside a tree as Nico hurriedly took his mistress inside the car, worried that she would get drenched in the oncoming rain and suffer. With the lower car windows, I could see my husband of seven years gently cupping Valentina's face and kissing her.
Surprisingly, she opened her eyes looking straight at me before deepening the kiss. The jacket was discarded, and I could see them making out with such intimacy that it made bile rise up my throat.
It seemed all this time she was completely aware of me watching them. Time and time again Valentina would look at me as if to signify that my husband was never mine in the first place.
I took out my phone and shakenly dialed my husband's number.
Nico, who was kissing his mistress, saw my caller ID and for a moment guilt flashed across his face. Yet as soon as Valentina encircled his neck calling him sweetly, he gritted his teeth in annoyance before hanging up.
When I called again he picked up in anger.
"What?! Don't you have any work to do so why are you always disturbing me?!" He hung up and even blocked my number.
Droplets of water poured from the skies as clouds rumbled when the car drove away, leaving me standing on the side pavement getting drenched in freezing rain. The street was empty. A soldier posted near the clinic entrance had seen his Don leave and gone with him, the way soldiers always did. Nobody remained.
"I give up on a cheating man like you, Nico. From now on there is no relationship between us. You can have him, Valentina."
I gathered up courage and dragged myself to the lawyer's office in my drenched clothes. Clara Ricci took one look at me, removed her glasses, folded them with precise, deliberate care, and set them on the desk before calling for a dress for me to change into. The sympathy in her eyes was controlled, professional. She had seen wives of powerful men walk through her door before, but perhaps not like this. Not seven months pregnant and soaked through to the bone.
I presented all the evidence I had collected to her, along with the audio and video which had Nico explicitly telling Valentina:
If she gives birth to a son and agrees that you can be my wife, then I wouldn't mind keeping her as a mistress. If she refuses, then I will threaten her with our child and throw her out of the Family.
I winced, heart thrumming painfully when I heard those words. My thumb drifted to the inside of my wedding band and turned it slowly, deliberately, the way I always did when something inside me was hardening into decision.
"Ma'am, now that I have everything in front of me, I will make sure that you get rid of Don Moretti and live a better life."
As soon as I exited the office, I saw my mother calling me.
"Bianca, I heard the maid telling me that you had a high fever yesterday. Did Nico take you to the hospital?"
My lips wobbled as I could hardly stop the heart-wrenching cry leaving my lips. Hot tears streamed down my face, and I fought to contain my emotions.
"Mom, I… I am better."
"Don't lie, Bianca. Your voice is so low. Are you really alright?"
"Yes. Yes, Mom." I closed my eyes, lying so that my mother wouldn't be worried. "Nico is here with me. He's buying me hot chocolate. He even took me for a health checkup and the doctor said that I can go into labor any day now." My mom sighed.
"It's okay then, but frankly speaking I don't trust Nico after how irresponsible he was in the past. But since you are together, it's okay."
I took a deep breath as my body shivered with cold.
"Bianca, it's raining so hard, darling. You better come back soon. I have cooked your favorite food today."
I did not answer that and hung up so that my mom could not hear me breaking down. There I kneeled on the pavement as my legs lost strength. The rain hammered the concrete around me, and somewhere in the distance a church bell was ringing, steady and indifferent, the way the world keeps turning when yours has stopped.
I cried because I lost everything at this moment. All my life turned out to be a lie.
