Her eyes well up with tears. “I should have told you from the beginning. I’m so sorry, Tommy.”
“Yes, you should have,” I say, kissing her softly. “You had nothing to worry about. I told you a long time ago that you were never going to be able to lose me. Not even if you wanted me gone.”
A knock at the door is followed by a text from my guard letting me know Dr. Rossi has arrived. Gi stiffens, clutching my arm, and I gently pry her hand free.
“Hey, sweet girl.” I make her look at me. “This is just a checkup to learn more about the baby. That’s all. Okay?”
She nods, and I pull her out of bed, watching as she pulls on a pair of my sweatpants and one of my t-shirts. They dwarf her, but she’s so fucking adorable with her messy bun, sleepy eyes, and little baby bump that I just want to throw her back in bed and sink inside her. I can’t fucking believe my girl is having my baby.
I answer the door, and Dr. Rossi enters, all business. He begins immediately to attach a wand-like device to a tablet and get set up for her test.
“Ms. Marino, please lie flat on the couch and lift your shirt, then lower your waistband below your belly.”
Gi looks at me in alarm, and I try to keep the worry off my face.
“Why does she need to do that, Doc?”
I guide her to the couch and help her tuck the waistband of my sweatpants into her underwear below her belly. Moving behind the couch so that Dr. Rossi has more room to work, I smooth my hand over her stomach.
“There were high levels of human chorionic gonadotropin and alpha-fetoprotein in her blood, so I just need to do a quick confirmation check.”
“Is that bad?” she asks.
“Confirmation of what?” I snap.
I lean over the back of the couch holding her hand, squeezing it softly. Dr. Rossi sits on the stone coffee table and squirts a clear jelly on her stomach, then moves his wand through it, looking at the image on the iPad. Why the fuck isn’t he saying more?
A womping sound like a galloping horse fills the room, and I stare at Gi, horrified. “What is that?”
“That,” Dr. Rossi says, maneuvering the wand over her belly and pressing in, “is the heartbeat.” He leans in closer to his iPad. “Both of them.”
Gi lets out a strained laugh. “Good to know my heart is still beating.”
“Not your heartbeat,” says Dr. Rossi. “Your babies’ heartbeat. You have two of them.” He holds up the iPad to show us a blobby screen that I’m guessing he thinks is proof of what he’s saying.
“Oh my God!” Giovanna claps her hand to her mouth and stares at the screen. I stare with her, speechless.
Holy shit.
“Mmm, yes,” says Dr. Rossi. “A little boy, there. A little girl right…here.” He maneuvers the wand, changing the shape of the gray blob, but I still can’t make out shit.
“If you say so, Doc,” I murmur.
“Wow! Your little machine must be magic. I thought you couldn’t tell the gender of the baby until it was bigger,” Gi says, leaning up off the couch to see the screen better.
Dr. Rossi frowns. “No, 16 weeks is about normal for gender reveal, especially if they’re being cooperative, which they are.”
My brain unfreezes for a second, latching onto the number. She’s only been home for a few weeks. She was gone for about eight weeks—
“I was pregnant before I was taken?” She looks like she’s going to pass out, and I stare at her in alarm.
Una said that last night.
She also said that Antonio was the father.
My heart rate picks up, and I break out in a cold sweat. What is she not telling me?
“But I was bleeding,” Gi says, her eyes wide. “I was bleeding a week after they took me. How is that possible if I was pregnant?”
