Chapter 3

I felt like I'd been struck by lightning.

My eyes traveled past the boy and found Raffina.

She was walking toward us with two ice cream cones in her hands, smiling.

The world spun around me, and the ground felt like it was sinking under my feet.

Raymond and Raffina had a child.

I'd already braced myself for the breakup, but I hadn't been ready for a bullet like this one.

I staggered back a few steps, my voice shaking.

“She's Marco's widow, the woman you swore to protect like family. This is how you take care of her?”

I pointed at Raffina. “So these three years, all that talk about her being family, it was an act? You two are disgusting.”

The words had barely left my mouth when my cheek exploded into fire.

The crack rang out sharp, and Raymond's hand hung suspended in the air after the slap.

“Shut your mouth.”

His forehead was sheened with sweat, and his face was contorted like someone had just punched him in the gut.

“You don't understand anything—”

He scooped the boy up. “Del, look at him. Look at this child's face. You really have the heart to leave a boy this sweet without a father?”

The kid looked at least half like Raymond.

A wave of nausea rolled through me, and I stared at him in disbelief.

For three years Raymond had spoken to me only with tenderness, and now, not only had he fathered a child with someone else, he'd hit me for that child's mother.

What a joke.

The baby inside me seemed to feel my grief and kicked.

I laid a hand over my belly and straightened my spine, burning every tear off with rage as I locked my eyes on the two of them.

“You can be that boy's father,” I said with a cold laugh, “but you'll never be the father of mine.”

Raymond's head jerked up, his eyes red, and he spaced out his words like nails.

“You really are a cold-blooded woman.”

I gave him a small, contemptuous laugh and said nothing.

I had always been this way. I said no to what I didn't want, straight to its face.

Raffina suddenly started weeping, soft and broken.

“You're the Don. I never thought Del wouldn't even let you have another child.”

“Ray, she must hate me. That's why she hates this baby.”

“If I've caused her so much pain, I can leave. I can make it on my own.”

Raymond set the boy down and turned to comfort her. “Don't worry. I already told you, the Carraso family is your home.”

He whipped around to glare at me. “Raffina is family. I won't allow you to insult her or her child. Apologize. That's family rule.”

I was about to hurl sharp sarcasm at them.

But Raffina got there first.

“Del, don't be upset. I was the same way when I was pregnant. Hormones, probably?”

She tilted her head, putting on a thoughtful little frown.

“Yesterday the accounting team mentioned something. Even Del, someone so sharp, made a mistake on the family books.”

Then she stuck her tongue out and added, “Oh, I don't really understand any of that. It just slipped out.”

Raymond looked at me and clicked his tongue impatiently, his voice going cold.

“Del, when did you become this petty? The family accounts are not your toy for tantrums. Can't you act like an adult?”

I stayed calm in the face of the smear. “Don't underestimate my professionalism. The accounts are in perfect order, and you can audit them anytime.”

Raffina wrapped both arms around Raymond's elbow and pressed herself against him, her voice going soft and clingy.

“Ray, I believe Del's professional, but she needs rest in her last trimester. Let me go over the books with you instead, just for now.”

Raymond's eyes lingered on me a long moment, then he said flatly, “Fine.”

And just like that, the two of them turned and walked off together, back to the compound, without me.

I reached into my purse and took out the sapphire engagement ring.

I smiled.

Then I dropped it straight into the storm drain.