Sienna POV
Silas violently yanks his hand back, his eyes darting toward me in panic.
"Sienna, it's not what it looks like."
He grabs a dirty rag, wrapping it around his bleeding finger.
"Lucia is just an associate," he stammers. "We're conducting business for the syndicate."
I pull my phone from my coat pocket and tap the screen, ending the recording.
"I just recorded that entire exchange," I say, my voice flat. "Including your plan to steal my inheritance. I'm accustomed to your past whoring, Silas. I don't care. But I will not let you rob my family blind. "
Silas's face drains of all color. He steps forward, reaching for my arm.
"Sienna, please, listen to me. Whatever you think you heard— "
I sidestep him smoothly.
Lucia immediately plays the innocent victim. Tears well up in her eyes as she presses a trembling hand to her chest.
"Sienna, I swear. We only know each other through the market. I was just trying to help stop the bleeding!"
I refuse to entertain their pathetic charade. I turn my back on them and head for the steel door. I need to get out. I need to get this recording to my father. I need to protect my child from whatever game they're playing.
Lucia lunges forward, her fingers digging into the fabric of my coat.
"Wait, you have to believe me!"
The sudden, violent pull throws me off balance. My heel catches on a patch of wet, slimy concrete, and my feet went out from under me.
I crash hard onto the unforgiving floor.
The impact shot a blinding agony through my lower back, and a secondary pain tore through my abdomen. The air was vacuumed from my lungs. My fingers dug into the fabric of my coat over my stomach, the nails bending. A cramp, sharp and terrifying, tore through my lower body. I looked down. A dark stain was blooming across the pale wool of my coat, a slow, horrifying crimson that seeped into the gray concrete beneath me.
Lucia screams, her hands flying to her mouth in a display of feigned horror.
Silas rushes over, the color draining from his face until it was the color of ash. He scoops me up into his arms.
"Hold on, Sienna!"
He kicks the door open, sprinting toward his truck. The pain was a white heat. Black spots bloomed at the edges of my vision, coalescing until the darkness swallowed everything.
I woke to the hum of fluorescent lights, a harsh, sterile glare that assaulted my eyes. The smell of antiseptic tells me I am in the underground syndicate clinic. A nurse checks my vitals, her face pale and drawn tight with clinical anxiety.
"The baby survived the fall, Mrs. Romano, but the situation is extremely critical. We are doing everything we can to stabilize you both."
Relief, so profound it was dizzying, washed over me.
Silas sits in the chair next to the bed. He leans forward, his face a mask of hard, unforgiving lines.
"Why did you hide the pregnancy from me?"
Before I can answer, his burner phone buzzes, shattering the silence. He answers it, his expression shifting to one of sheer panic. He stands up so quickly his chair scrapes against the floor.
"I have to go. Syndicate business."
He doesn't even look at me as he rushes out the door.
I know exactly who called him. Lucia.
I press my hand against my stomach, feeling the fragile life still clinging on inside me. The recording is still on my phone. I just need to survive long enough to use it.
Hours pass. I stare at the blank ceiling, tracing the cracks in the plaster.
The door opens.
Silas walks back in, his eyes red-rimmed and exhausted. He carries a small, steaming bowl. He sits on the edge of my bed.
"I brought you something to help you recover," he murmurs, handing me a small paper cup filled with water and a crushed, chalky pill. "It's a strong painkiller from the doctor."
Too weak to fight, I swallow the bitter liquid.
Moments later, a devastating, unnatural cramp seizes my entire body. My spine arches off the mattress. I grip Silas's arm, my nails digging deep into his skin.
"What did you give me?" I choke out.
Silas pulls me into a suffocatingly tight embrace. Tears spill from his eyes, landing hot and wet on my cheek.
"I am so sorry, Sienna," he whispers brokenly. "The fall caused catastrophic internal tearing. The doctor said the baby wouldn't survive the night, and the hemorrhaging was killing you. I had to give you the abortifacient to protect your life."
My heart seemed to stop. My lungs refused to draw air. The agony in my stomach was a distant fire compared to the tearing sensation in my chest, a violation so profound it felt as if my soul were being shredded.
He's lying.
I looked into the eyes of the man I had married. I remembered his words in the market. The inheritance. The plan. And now—the timing of this sudden "emergency" abortion, right after I had recorded his confession. His pupils did not contract, his breathing did not falter; his body registered my agony with the mechanical indifference of a clock.
Another massive cramp hits me, ripping a scream from my throat.
The edges of the room blur. I fall back against the pillows, helpless, as the darkness took me.
But before the blackness swallowed me whole, one thought burned through the pain:
He didn't just kill our child to save himself.
He killed our child because it was proof of a union he never intended to honor.
