"Kai, that's not..."
"That's an order. Not a request. If I go down, you get her out. You make sure she's safe. You protect her like you'd protect me. Do you understand?"
Marco stared at me for a long moment. Emotions warring on his face.
"I understand. But for the record, I think you're an idiot. We're both getting out of this alive. You, me, Aria, Lia. Everyone."
"I hope you're right. But if you're not, you know what to do."
He nodded. Didn't argue further. We both knew when I made my mind up about something, there was no changing it.
Tonight we went to war. Against my father. Against his guards. Against everything he'd built.
And we'd either win and save everyone I loved, or we'd die trying.
But at least we'd go down fighting.
For love. For freedom. For the future Aria and I deserved.
That had to count for something.
Chapter Twenty-Five
ARIA
Three days until the wedding and I might be pregnant.
The thought kept circling in my mind like a predator stalking prey. Relentless. Inescapable. Terrifying in ways I couldn't fully articulate.
A baby. Potentially. Maybe. I still didn't know for certain but my body was screaming all the signs. The nausea. The exhaustion. The way certain smells made my stomach revolt. The period that was now almost three weeks late.
I'd never planned to be a mother. Had never really thought about it beyond vague someday fantasies that involved being older, established, married to someone I actually loved. Not trapped in a nightmare where the father of my potential child was wounded and exiled while I was locked in a room waiting to be married off to his father.
The universe had a truly twisted sense of humor.
But beyond the logistics and timing, there was something else. Something that kept me up at night staring at the ceiling.
What kind of world was I bringing a baby into?
A world where fathers murdered daughters' fathers for business arrangements. Where mothers died under suspicious circumstances. Where violence was currency and love was weakness. Whereinnocent people became collateral damage in games played by men with too much power and too little conscience.
Was that fair to an innocent child? To bring them into this darkness?
My parents had tried to shield me from the worst of it. Had given me a relatively normal childhood despite the family business. Had loved me and protected me and wanted better for me.
And look how that turned out. Papa murdered for trying to save me. Mama dead from cancer that probably developed from the stress of this life. Me locked in a room about to be married off like cattle.
Would I be able to do better? Could I protect a child from this world when I couldn't even protect myself?
The thoughts spiraled. Dark. Consuming. Made worse by the isolation and fear and lack of control over my own life.
I pressed my hands against my still-flat stomach. Wondered if there was actually something growing in there. A tiny cluster of cells that was half me and half Kai. A piece of the man I loved that would be mine forever regardless of what happened.
That thought brought both comfort and terror in equal measure.
If I was pregnant, I wanted this baby. Desperately. Wanted the chance to be a mother. To love this child the way my parents had loved me. To give them something better than what I'd been handed.
But wanting wasn't the same as being ready. And I was so far from ready it wasn't even funny.
