Chapter 1
“How long did you know she was carrying my child?”
Victoria stared at her engagement ring in my hand.
Preston was still half-buried beneath the overturned telescope rack.
Elena stood behind me with one palm protecting her stomach and the other gripping what remained of the ultrasound.
Nobody answered.
I looked at Victoria.
“Four months?”
Her face changed.
Good.
I had guessed too low.
“Five?”
Silence.
Then Elena whispered:
“She knew before I did.”
I turned.
“What?”
Victoria closed her eyes.
Preston swore under his breath.
There.
Another piece.
I stepped toward him.
“You asked why she was still alive.”
He looked away.
Wrong choice.
“What did you think happened to her?”
Victoria finally spoke.
“Dante, don’t.”
I turned toward her.
“Don’t what?”
“Do this here.”
Almost funny.
She had tried burning proof of my unborn child beside a fireplace in the middle of our engagement reception.
But the problem was apparently location.
I looked back at Elena.
“When did you try to tell me?”
Her mouth trembled.
“The first time?”
First.
My jaw tightened.
“How many times?”
“Four.”
The room disappeared.
She had sent a letter to my estate.
Then called my private office.
Then came to one of my restaurants.
Then tried again after the ultrasound confirmed the pregnancy was progressing normally.
Every attempt vanished before reaching me.
I looked at Victoria.
She whispered:
“I was protecting what we were building.”
Then Preston muttered:
“She was supposed to be gone.”
I crossed the distance between us.
“Gone where?”
He said nothing.
Elena did.
“Wisconsin.”
I looked at her.
She swallowed.
“They arranged a job. An apartment. Money.”
“Who?”
She pointed toward Victoria.
Then Preston.
I stared at them.
“You tried to relocate the mother of my child.”
Victoria’s voice broke.
“I thought if she had a life somewhere else, everything could remain clean.”
Clean.
That word.
Then Elena said:
“I refused.”
Preston laughed bitterly from the floor.
“Obviously.”
I looked at him.
“And then?”
His expression changed.
Enough.
May you like
Whatever happened after Elena refused was the reason he expected her not to be standing here tonight.
And suddenly the engagement ring in my hand felt like the least important thing Victoria had ever tried to hide.
