He stumbled back, voice shaking. "Jesus. Who are you? What did you do to piss off Mr. Valenti this badly?"
Even now, even bleeding, I was being judged.
"I'm…" My lips trembled. "I'm his wife."
I stretched my hand toward him. Blood smeared the concrete floor.
The diamond ring barely sparkled anymore. Dull. Like me.
"This… this is the ring he gave me," I whispered. "Custom. One of a kind."
That finally got to him.
His face went pale. "Wait here."
He helped me sit up, then hesitated, pulling out his phone.
"Boss," he said carefully. "I was checking inventory in the back warehouse. Your wife is locked in the heater room. She's bleeding badly. Should I call an ambulance?"
There was a pause. The kind of pause that filled rooms in this world, the kind that made men hold their breath because the wrong silence from a Valenti could end a life.
Then Marcello's voice, distant and cold.
"Bleeding? From what? Did she hurt Donatella's lizard? Figures. That thing's Donatella's baby."
My chest tightened.
Then his voice went even sharper, colder. "Don't take her anywhere. She's fine. She's acting. I'll deal with her later."
Click.
The call ended.
The man stared at his phone for a long second, then looked at me.
I knew that look. I had seen it on every face that orbited the Valenti compound. Fear of the Family always won. It won over decency, over conscience, over everything that made a person human.
He turned and walked past me.
I closed my eyes. That was it.
But minutes later, I heard footsteps again.
He came back, jaw tight, muttering to himself.
"You're pregnant," he said, voice low, almost a whisper. "My wife is too. If I left you here… I'd never forgive myself."
He didn't wait for permission. He lifted me up, wrapped his jacket around me, and called for an ambulance with hands that shook as much as mine.
When the sirens finally came, I exhaled for the first time in what felt like years.
I was alive.
Barely.
But when they rushed me into the hospital, reality slammed me again. No delivery room. No equipment. No bed.
The Valenti family had already reserved everything. Even at the hospital, even beyond the iron gates of the compound, I still wasn't allowed to give birth.
Marcello had already sealed the city shut. Worried something might go wrong with Vittoria's delivery, he had pulled strings through every channel the syndicate controlled and quietly locked down every usable machine in the hospital. Every operating room. Every emergency unit. Nothing left for anyone else. That was the reach of the Valenti name. Not just power over people but power over the spaces between them, the hospitals, the exits, the air itself.
One look at me was enough for the doctor to decide. Staying meant death.
She grabbed my phone, scrolled, and stopped at the contact marked 'My Hubby'. She dialed while nurses rushed around me.
"This is a doctor," she said fast, voice urgent. "Serafina Valenti is in critical condition. There's a high risk of fatal complications. You need to come now."
Marcello's voice came through sharp and irritated.
"So you really crawled out," he said. "And now you're bribing doctors to act for you?"
He didn't pause.
"I'm not coming back. I know your body. You're fine. Stay where you are and stop embarrassing me."
The doctor didn't say anything. She just looked at me, then turned away and told her colleague to prepare a transfer. There was nothing else she could do.
When I realized where they were taking me, I almost laughed.
Vittoria's hospital. The one Marcello had commandeered like a wartime general requisitioning a fortress, every corridor swept clean for the woman he actually loved.
The doctor tried one last time to reason with Marcello. I heard him through the wall, his voice flat and final.
"I don't care who else needs it. Vittoria comes first. I won't risk her life for anyone."
My strength drained out of me and I slid down against the wall, numb. My right hand drifted to the base of my throat without thinking, pressing against the pulse that was getting weaker by the minute.
That was when I saw him.
Marcello's secretary stood at the end of the hall, staring at me like he'd seen a ghost. He hesitated, then turned and hurried away.
"Sir," he said quietly, "there's a pregnant woman outside. She's covered in blood. It looks like it might be Mrs. Valenti."
Marcello didn't even lift his head.
"That's impossible," he replied. "In her condition, she couldn't get here."
The secretary lowered his voice.
"Maybe you should check. If it really is her—"
Marcello's eyes hardened.
"If it were her, she'd already be screaming about money. She'd never let herself end up like that."
The doctor kept pushing. Marcello threatened her career. Not with corporate leverage or legal complaints. He told her, in that measured Valenti tone that never needed to rise above conversational volume, exactly what would happen to her practice, her license, and her family's safety if she did not walk away.
She came back out a moment later and apologized to me, eyes full of regret. There was truly nothing she could do.
But I was no longer locked in the heater room. As long as I could breathe, I wasn't giving up.
I held my belly with one hand and borrowed the doctor's phone with the other. My fingers shook as I dialed a number I had sworn never to use again.
"Dad," I whispered. "Please help me. I won't disobey you anymore."
