03

The rhythmic beep of the clinical monitor was the first sound Audrey heard, confirming that her secret no longer belonged to her alone. Opening her eyes, the white ceiling of the clinic sharpened into focus, but it was the expression on her parents' faces that made her shudder. There were no traces of the reprimand she expected, nor fury for tarnishing the family honor; on the contrary, their faces radiated an almost obscene satisfaction.

Audrey felt faint once more at a piercing doubt: had Alessandro already revealed what happened at the hotel? Did they know the proof of her chastity had been shattered and that her pregnancy was the irrefutable evidence of her disgrace?

"What happened?" she articulated with a dry throat, searching for a sign of reproach in their eyes.

"You passed out, but your husband brought you here personally," Eliot replied with a smile overflowing with renewed ambition. "And best of all, sweetheart... the doctor gave us the news that will save us from destitution. Why didn't you tell us you were with Alessandro?"

Realization struck her with the force of a physical blow. The faint had forced the doctors to run immediate tests, and the truth about her condition had been exposed before the least appropriate people.

"Does he know?" she asked in a thread of a voice.

"He knows. And that changes the rules of the game," her father affirmed, rubbing his hands together. "That baby is an insurance policy. Now that you're expecting a child from the most powerful man in the country, he can't turn his back on us."

Audrey felt nauseated by her own father's mercantile coldness. But before she could retort, the door swung wide open. Alessandro Di' Giovanni strode into the room radiating glacial fury. His eyes, burning with contained rage, ignored the Sullivans and locked onto her.

"Leave us," he commanded in a voice that brooked no argument.

Her parents scurried out with complicit glances, convinced their fortune was secure. Alessandro stood tall, watching Audrey as if she were a piece of evidence in a treason trial.

"If you're going to reproach me, get it over with," she spat, trying to keep her voice from trembling.

"I came to stop you from trying to take advantage of me," he snapped, tossing an envelope disdainfully onto her lap. "I know you weren't a virgin when we were together. You planned this pregnancy to blackmail me, to force me to hand your father's shares back in exchange for your silence."

"That's not true!" she cried, feeling rage burn hotter than fear. "I didn't even know who you were!"

Alessandro loomed over her, invading her personal space. The scent of his cologne summoned a sensory memory of that night, but his words brought her brutally back to reality.

"I won't be a Sullivan puppet. That child is a Di' Giovanni, and I'll take responsibility because it's my firstborn. But you aren't part of the equation."

He pulled a document from the envelope whose title screamed at her from the page: Waiver and Child Support Agreement.

"Sign this," he ordered. "You will forfeit all your maternal rights the moment the baby is born. In exchange, I'll give you a divorce and you will disappear from our lives forever. If you refuse, your father sleeps in a prison cell tomorrow morning for fraud."

Alessandro turned on his heel and walked out without looking back. Audrey sat alone, pressing the paper to her chest as tears streamed down. Yet just when she thought she had lost everything, a nurse hurried in and locked the door behind her.

"Mrs. Di' Giovanni, forgive the interruption," the woman whispered, handing her a second medical report Alessandro had not seen. "There's something in your blood panel levels the doctor didn't mention in front of your husband... something that explains why your body reacted that way when you fainted."

Audrey opened the envelope with trembling hands. Reading the first line of the additional results, her breath caught short. Alessandro's game was about to turn far more dangerous.