The one who's truly being deceived... is me. My phone lit up in my palm, the reminder surfacing quietly. The procedure at the clinic that afternoon. Dominic's eyes flicked to the screen, his brow drawing together.
"Tesoro, what procedure?"
I slid the phone into my bag and smiled. "Nothing. Just noise. I understood everything you told me. I understand you."
Satisfied, Dominic pressed his lips to my forehead. "That's why you're my Gemma. You always understand. Let me see to the guests, and I'll come home tonight to keep you company."
I followed him without a word, my heart weighed down with unease. But he didn't return to the great hall where the Family had gathered. He took the back stair, up toward the private rooms.
Through the door, left carelessly ajar, I saw her. Adriana, wearing nothing but a thin sheath of lace. Her voice poured out like something warmed and honeyed.
"Dominic, why did you take so long? I've been waiting forever."
Dominic hesitated, uncertainty passing over his face like a shadow. "I think Gemma isn't well. Maybe we skip tonight. There'll be time enough after the wedding. I should look in on her first."
Adriana looped her arms around his neck, pressing herself against him. "Dominic, are you really going to leave me here alone? It's been so long since we last did this. Haven't you missed me?"
Her fingers traced along his jaw. She touched the pendant at her throat, then let her hand drift back to him. "We'll be married soon. I want to give you a child. Tonight you don't have to hold back. As many times as you want. All right?"
Something clouded Dominic's eyes, and in the next breath every hesitation vanished. He pushed her back onto the bed, his restraint crumbling into nothingness.
The sounds that followed twisted like a knife into my heart. I couldn't watch anymore. I turned and fled, stumbling blind through the corridors and out of the hotel. The moment the cold night air hit me, nausea crashed over me in violent waves, forcing me down to a crouch, heaving dry sobs against the pavement.
A sudden chill struck me. A bottle of iced wine, upended over my head. Adriana stood above me, letting the empty glass drop, her lips curling in mockery.
"Gemma, what are you, some kind of breeding animal? Five stillborn children, and you're carrying again?" She crossed her arms and tilted her head. "Don't think I wouldn't notice. That was morning sickness, just now. I'm the Family's physician. I know these things."
I went very still.
She sneered, cruel amusement gleaming in her eyes. "You actually think being pregnant again will make Dominic love you? Don't be stupid. One word from me, and he'll take your child the way he took the other five. After all, I'm the one he truly loves."
Adriana drew out her phone and held it up before my face. My breath hitched. Images of my dead children filled the screen.
"Beautiful, aren't they? And guess what. This one, in your belly? It'll end up just like the others."
My vision blurred with rage. Without thinking, I raised my hand to strike her. She was faster. She snatched a shard from the broken bottle and dragged it across her own palm.
Blood welled from the wound as she loosed a piercing scream. Before I could move, Dominic came running. The instant he saw Adriana's bleeding hand, his face darkened, and every soldier who'd trailed him out went still, hands drifting toward their coats, waiting for a word that didn't come. He shoved me aside and pulled her into his arms.
"Gemma, what the hell are you doing?" he roared.
Adriana clung to him, weeping pitifully. "Dominic, I only wanted to be kind, to bring her in for a drink. But she said I stole you from her. Then she came at me. Maybe... maybe she isn't right in the head, after losing so many children."
Dominic turned to me, his gaze burning with cold disgust.
"I was the one who chose to marry Adriana. If you have a quarrel with that, bring it to me. What right do you have to take it out on her?"
I opened my mouth, desperate to explain, but his next words froze me in place.
"Adriana's hands mend the men of this Family. Her hands save lives. And you dared put a mark on them? How vicious can you be, Gemma?"
His voice was sharp, filled with pure contempt. The ring on his finger had stopped turning; his hand had gone perfectly still.
"With a mother as cruel as you, it's no wonder every child you carried was born dead. That's simply your karma."
