"Have you figured out what you did wrong yet?"
I opened my mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Everything went dark and then—I was out.
When I came to, I was back in the bedroom, lying under a thick, heavy comforter. The heat from the radiator pressed down like a hand, suffocating, but I still couldn't stop shivering.
"You're awake?"
Lorenzo sat on the edge of the bed, holding a steaming cup of water. Behind him, a soldier stood just inside the door, hands folded, eyes on nothing.
"Take your meds," he said, as if nothing had happened. "Why didn't you say anything if you were feeling sick? Instead, you chose to throw a tantrum and cause a scene in front of the whole compound."
I turned my face away, refusing to look at him.
"Don't be so stubborn," he said sharply. "Your fever's hit 104. Are you trying to die?"
"Wouldn't that be convenient for you?"
My voice was raw and raspy, barely more than a whisper. Lorenzo's expression shifted—guilt and something like concern flickered across his face. For a moment, he didn't look like the same man who'd forced me into the snow before every associate in the house.
He took advantage of my hesitation, grabbed my chin and forced the pills into my mouth, then tipped the cup of water after them.
I choked, coughing hard, water spilling down my chin and soaking my neck. I must've looked completely pathetic.
Right then, the door swung open.
Serena walked in, her eyes glinting with triumph. "Enzo, your mother's here!"
A moment later, Donna appeared in the doorway, black rosary beads moving slow through her fingers. She took one look at me and gasped.
"What on earth—Adriana, what happened to you?"
Lorenzo let go of me, wiping the spilled water off his hand like it was nothing. "She's just being dramatic. Got sick, threw a fit and now refuses to take her medicine."
Donna immediately scolded her son for not taking better care of me. Then, smiling sweetly, she produced a beautifully wrapped box and held it out.
"Adriana, this is something I picked out just for you."
She gave me a subtle wink, her way of saying this is your reward for cooperating. Her eyes told me the rest: it was time I raised the matter of letting Lorenzo take both women under one roof, the way the old houses did when the blood demanded it.
I didn't take the gift. My throat burned too much to speak and honestly, I didn't want to say a single word. So I shut my eyes and turned away.
But she couldn't wait.
Donna clutched Lorenzo's hand, the beads gone still against her palm. "Enzo, I've been meaning to talk to you. Adriana said something yesterday. She was thinking, since Serena's stayed so loyal to this Family after your brother passed, maybe it's time she carried a child. It would give her someone to rely on. Something to secure her place, for the future of the name."
The room fell silent. Even the soldier by the door seemed to stop breathing.
Lorenzo's face shifted, shock, then rage, like he'd just been slapped. "What the hell are you talking about, Mamma?"
Completely oblivious, she kept going, excited now. "It's not just me. Adriana brought it up herself. And honestly, I think it makes sense. What do you say?"
"Adriana." He spun toward me, fury written across his face.
"All this because I haven't touched you? Did you dream up something this insane to shame me under my own roof? What happened to what we swore to each other? And what the hell does that make Serena—just a womb to be passed around the Family?"
I opened my eyes, finally meeting the gaze of the man putting on a show as if he hadn't been sneaking to her bed behind my back for God knows how long.
So I said calmly, "I brought it up. What, are you saying you're not interested?"
My question caught Lorenzo mid-breath, his angry words dying in his throat.
He didn't dare deny it, not really. But he also didn't want to look too eager, didn't want the truth in his eyes to betray the thrill he was trying to hide. His thumb found the rim of the water cup and traced it slowly, though he never drank.
Before he could answer, Serena suddenly burst into tears.
"Enzo, I don't know what I did to upset your wife so much, to make her humiliate me like this," she sobbed, voice trembling just enough to sound believable. She pressed a black-lace handkerchief to her lips, a beat too late. "I'm your brother's widow. I've buried a husband. People in this Family already whisper enough about me, and now this."
Lorenzo gently patted her shoulder, eyes full of pity. You could see the tension in him, how badly he wanted to wrap her in his arms and play the hero. But instead he turned to me, face hardening.
"Adriana, I can't believe how twisted you've become."
Finally, Donna seemed to feel the shift in the room. The rosary began to move again. Awkwardly, she tried to smooth things over.
"Enzo, come on, can't you just do this one thing, for your brother's sake?" she said, her voice hopeful, a little desperate. "I know you want to protect what you have with Adriana, but the Marchetti name can't end with you. Can't you think of it as giving your mother the grandchild this Family needs?"
