“B-but—” I shook my head, my brain working overtime, trying to make sense of what he was telling me. “Why let her go when you moved heaven and earth to track me down and drag me back here?”
“Because you had an obligation to provide me with an heir. That was the deal.”
“We tried—”
Gio held up a hand, cutting me off. “Save it. I’m fully aware of the measures you took to deny me that before you ran.” He scoffed. “To think of all the time and money wasted on fertility testing, only to learn that you’d been taking birth control the whole time. I bet you had a good laugh, thinking you’d gotten one over on me, didn’t you?”
I swallowed thickly, the protective hold on my stomach growing tighter.
“I never wanted any of this.” My voice came out barely above a whisper.
My husband leaned his elbows on his desk, steepling his fingers. “You wanna leave, Rory? Then, fine. As soon as you give birth, you’re free to walk out those doors.”
A flicker of hope sparked within my chest. “Really?”
He dipped his chin. “But my son stays here.”
I mentally cursed myself for walking right into that one. Gio was never going to let his heir go, and there was no world in which I would willingly walk away from my baby.
Hanging my head, I accepted my fate. “I’m not going anywhere without him.”
“That’s what I thought.” There was a smug undertone to those words, and I’d never hated him more.
Blinking furiously against the tears that threatened to fall, knowing I would be Gio’s captive for so long as I lived, I changed the subject. “I suppose I should touch base with Allegra, see what I can do to help.”
Gio remained silent for so long that I dared to lift my head. His eyes were cast to the side when he said, “She’s dead.”
My knees buckled, and I gripped the nearest chair to keep from collapsing to the floor. There was a buzzing in my ears. “D-dead? When? How?”
“A few years ago. Car accident. Matteo has remarried.”
His casual reply, like the life—or subsequent death—of his brother’s wife was of little or no consequence, sent a chill down my spine. I could only imagine he would be similarly unaffected should I meet an untimely end. Once he got his precious heir, I would become disposable to him.
“Um.” Trying to regain my bearings, I asked, “Do I know his new wife?” Though I’d hated my role at Gio’s side, I fulfilled the social requirements to the best of my ability. I hosted luncheons for the mafia wives, brought meals to the families with new babies, and sent flowers to those who had lost their husbands in service to the Bellini Family.
“Unlikely. She’s an outsider.”
That information shocked me into silence. Who in their right mind would volunteer to swim in these shark-infested waters if they had the choice to stay on dry land? She had to be either insane or incredibly naïve, and I found myself curious to get aread on this woman who would step willingly into a world I’d fought so hard to escape.
“It’s really no concern of yours, seeing as you won’t be accompanying me,” Gio remarked.
“I’m not?”
His eyes locked on my left hand, still curled around the back of a chair. “As far as I can tell, a certain piece of jewelry hasn’t been returned to its rightful place.”
Damn him. If we were playing a game of chess, he’d just backed my queen into a corner. I was going stir crazy, the four walls of this giant house beginning to close in on me after only a few weeks. I craved fresh air, a taste of freedom—even if only the illusion of it.
Shoving my stubbornness aside in favor of the chance to communicate with someone from the outside world, I gritted out, “You win. That gaudy-as-hell diamond will be back on my finger by morning. Can Ipleaseaccompany you to Matteo’s house for Bianca’s party?”
“See, was that so hard?” he asked condescendingly as victory shone in his dark brown eyes.
My hands curled into fists. Nothing would please me more than to punch him right in his smug face, but I needed to keep my composure. I was currently walking a tightrope when it came to Gio, and one wrong move could spell certain doom.
“All right.” He patted the polished wood surface of his desk. “Hop on up here so I can get back to work.”
I blinked at him, brows drawing down. “What?”
A sigh of annoyance spilled from his lips. “You walked in here”— Gio gestured a hand toward me—“looking like that, announcing you needed an orgasm. Let’s get on with it.”
