"Seducing me when you're pregnant? There's a baby in there. Be good and wait for me in the car."
I watched him turn back toward the villa and only went downstairs once he was close, settling into my seat at the dining table as if I'd never left.
A strange relief washed through me. Thank God there were no children between us. Nothing to tether me. Nothing to make leaving harder than it already was.
Dante pushed the door open wearing that familiar look of apology.
"Sweetheart, something urgent came up with the family business. I have to fly out of town right now. Be good and stay home for a few days, okay? I'll bring you a gift when I'm back."
I nodded.
He searched my face, found nothing wrong, and left with peace of mind.
I watched his back disappear through the door, then glanced at the calendar on the table. Two more days. This was probably the last time I would ever see him.
The compound went quiet after his car pulled through the gate. The soldiers on the perimeter shifted posts without a word. They answered to him, not to me. They always had.
That afternoon, a text came through from an unknown number on my burner.
It was an ultrasound photo.
I'm carrying Dante Romano's baby. His FIRST child. You barren hen. If you know what's good for you, sever the blood pact and get out of my way!
The number was unfamiliar, but I knew exactly who it was. Adriana.
The baby must have given her the confidence to make her move, bold enough now to provoke me outright.
But I had already decided to leave. Whatever I once felt for Dante was dead. The ultrasound photo stirred nothing in me at all. My thumb drifted to the pale band of skin where my ring used to sit, then fell away. There was nothing left to touch.
Dante didn't come home for the next two days, just as I expected.
I used the time to go through every room, pulling out everything that had ever belonged to me. What I couldn't use, I donated or burned. All that remained fit into a single suitcase of essentials I'd need at the Archive. The compound staff watched me carry bags to the incinerator behind the garden wall but said nothing. Omertà ran deep in this household, even among the housekeepers.
On the morning I left, I woke before dawn, packed the last of my things, and waited by the door for the car from the Commission.
I was about to call Vittorio Marchetti to ask how far out the car was when my phone buzzed again. Another text from Adriana.
This time it was a photo of her in a wedding gown, standing in a sea of flowers, while Dante knelt on one knee holding out a ring.
Dante proposed! We're having a wedding today. He promised he'd give me and the baby a proper title. The ceremony is just the first step.
No wonder he kept sneaking off to make phone calls these past two days. He was planning all of this as a surprise for me. He said even though it was rushed, he made sure everything was the absolute best. He wants me to be the happiest bride and mother in the world.
I'd guess the next time he comes home, he'll be throwing a severance agreement in your face. If you want to save yourself the last shred of dignity, get out of that villa before he has to tell you. That house's donna will be me, sooner or later!
This time, I replied.
"Congratulations. You're about to get everything you wanted."
The moment I hit send, the car arrived. I grabbed my suitcase and got in.
We hit a red light on the way. Through the window, I heard someone on the sidewalk gasp.
"Oh my God, look at that motorcade. Who's getting married with that kind of money?"
I turned without thinking. Dante sat in the back of a black Maybach in a tailored suit, eyes soft with tenderness as he smoothed Adriana's hair beside him. Two escort cars flanked the sedan, soldiers behind tinted glass, the whole convoy draped in white ribbon like a funeral procession pretending to be a celebration.
He finished, turned his head, and his gaze locked with mine. The tenderness drained from his face. All that was left was horror.
A second later, my phone rang.
