Chapter 3

I had no one left.

After I was diagnosed with cancer, my relatives stopped visiting, my parents slowly accepted that I might not survive, and the man I had been dating disappeared. Dante was the only person who stayed.

He sold what little he had, paid for my treatment, and made me believe that love could survive anything.

That belief had carried me through ten years of pain.

During treatment, I kept working remotely under Professor Evelyn Shaw. Her closed medical research project accepted only a few doctoral candidates each year. She had asked me more than once to join after my recovery, but I kept refusing because I did not want to leave Dante.

Now it was fading inside his own house.

That night, Dante stayed in my room. I did not refuse him, though the faint rose perfume on his shirt made me nauseous.

The next morning, he kissed my forehead, looking almost relieved.

“The two most important women in my life can finally get along,” he said. “Thank you, Aria. I’ll make it up to you.”

I said nothing.

After breakfast, he returned my phone and allowed me to walk in the garden, though two Russo guards still followed me.

The first thing I did was call Professor Shaw.

“If the project still has a place for me,” I said, “I want to join.”

There was a pause. Then she said, “Aria, I’ve been waiting for you to say that.”

For the next few months, I stopped fighting Serena.

She had Dante hire a private chef, a prenatal doctor, and a stylist for the wedding. I stayed in the old observation room and ate whatever the servants brought me. Even when she flaunted the jewelry and wedding gifts Dante gave her, I felt nothing.

As the wedding approached, Serena’s doctor said her condition was unstable. Don De Luca insisted the ceremony could not be delayed, so Dante packed his things that night.

I sat in the corner of my room, one hand over my belly, feeling weaker than I had in years.

Dante paused at the door.

“Are you okay?”

I did not answer.

“Aria, I’ll come back as soon as the wedding is over. It’s only a fake ceremony. When I return, I’ll stay with you properly.”

I wanted to tell him that I needed him too, that our child needed him too.

In the end, I only nodded.

Dante stared at me for a moment, as if surprised I had let him go so easily.

He had almost reached the door when he suddenly came back and hugged me.

“Forget it. I won’t go. I’ll send someone else.”

For one brief second, my heart moved.

Then I remembered that whenever he was forced to choose, I was always the one asked to understand.

“You should go,” I said quietly. “If anything happens to Serena’s child, you’ll feel guilty forever.”

What I meant was: if anything happens to her child, you’ll blame me forever.

Dante slowly let go.

Just as he reached the front door, a maid hurried over.

“Mr. Russo, please let Miss Aria move back upstairs. The room she’s in is too damp. It isn’t good for her or the baby.”

Before Dante could answer, Serena said, “That won’t work. I’ll be coming back after the wedding. How can she take my room?”

“I don’t want to move back,” I said.

Dante’s expression softened.

“When I return, I’ll buy you a new house. I’m sorry you’ve suffered these few days.”

Then he got into the car and left with Serena.

I watched the convoy disappear, then went back to my room and began packing the research notes I had hidden for years.