He Bet I'd Come Crawling Back, But I Left

Before I could make it out the door, Chiara rushed after me and grabbed my hand. Before I could pull away, she pressed my palm against her still-flat stomach.

She smiled. "Feel it, Emma. This is Vincenzo's son. You've been married to him for years and never got pregnant once. Shouldn't you be happy the Casanovas finally have an heir?"

Her body was warm beneath the thin silk. I went still. A memory I had spent three years trying to bury came rushing back.

Three years ago, survivors of a family the Casanovas had wiped out kidnapped me.

They dragged me to an abandoned warehouse, shoved a gun against my temple, and filmed the whole thing. Then they sent the video to Vincenzo. They wanted two West Coast piers in exchange for my life.

Hours later, the warehouse doors burst open. Through the dust, I saw Vincenzo. His tie hung crooked around his neck, and his cuffs were covered in dirt. He looked like he'd dropped everything and raced straight to me.

"Emma!"

My name tore out of his throat.

For one stupid, hopeful moment, I thought he had come to save me because he cared.

I had spent years telling myself our marriage meant nothing. Seeing him there made me wonder if maybe—just maybe—I had been wrong.

Then Chiara stepped out of the car behind him. She claimed she'd been so worried about me that she'd cried until Vincenzo agreed to bring her.

Vincenzo shot one of my kidnappers dead while Chiara untied me.

Then, as he came toward us, something flashed in the shadows.

"Look out!"

I tried to lunge toward him, forgetting my ankles were still tied. I hit the concrete hard.

A second later, something ripped through my stomach. Pain exploded through me. I looked down. Blood was spreading across my clothes.

Then I looked at Vincenzo.

He wasn't beside me. He was covering Chiara with his body.

I lay in a pool of blood, unable to move. I wanted to look away. I couldn't.

He wrapped himself around her, one hand cradling the back of her head as if even the slightest touch could break her.

Chiara screamed into his chest. Vincenzo held her tighter.

"Don't be scared." Three words. That was all it took to crush whatever hope I'd had left.

The doctor later told me the bullet had destroyed my uterus. I would never have children.

Vincenzo stayed beside my hospital bed for three days and three nights. He did not sleep.

His guilt was real. He held my hand for hours, and I saw his eyes turn red more than once.

I was foolish enough to think we might have another chance.

Now, three years later, Chiara was making me touch the belly carrying the child I could never give him.

Vincenzo stood beside her. There wasn't a trace of the guilt I'd seen in that hospital room.

"I need a son, Emma. You should understand that."

I pulled my hand away.

Oh, I understood.

I understood all too well. Every part of me that bullet had torn through reminded me that, in his eyes, I had never been the one worth protecting.

I was an orphan from a ruined family, a woman who had failed for nine years to give him a son. Now, I was a cast-off wife, left to be humiliated in front of an entire ballroom.

Chiara was still smiling. She rested her hand on her stomach again and told Vincenzo in a sweet little voice that the baby had kicked her.

He bent down at once and pressed his ear to her belly. They acted as if no one else existed.

The guests gathered around to congratulate them. Nobody cared that I was still the Donna.

"Vincenzo, I think Emma is still angry... She won't say anything kind about our baby... Maybe I shouldn't have come..."

At the sight of my icy expression, Chiara leaned against Vincenzo as if I had hurt her.

Someone in the crowd even called out, "The Donna should have more grace than that!"

Vincenzo made no attempt to stop them.

Instead, he turned to me and said coldly, "You can't give me a son. The least you can do is show some grace. Give Chiara and my baby your blessing. Is that so hard?"

I said nothing. He grabbed my hand, forced my palm flat against Chiara's belly, and lowered his voice.

"Say it, or I'll have your mother's things thrown out tonight. Your choice."

I flinched as my mother's face flashed through my mind.

In the end, I forced the words through my teeth. "May the baby be safe." Chiara immediately doubled over, acting as if she were in pain, then accused me of pressing too hard.

Vincenzo reacted as if the world were ending. He knocked my hand away, pulled Chiara against him, shouted for a doctor, and scooped her up in his arms before rushing her to the hospital. As he passed me, he called out one last threat over his shoulder.

"If she loses that baby, you pay with your life."

While the whole farce played out, I drove back to the Casanova estate and packed my mother's belongings.