My heart stops, then restarts with a painful lurch.
I turn to Siena with a breezy laugh, feeling Vin’s gaze on me. “Pregnant at the same time? Last time I checked you and Giovanna were the only ones so lucky.”
She laughs with me. “I meant the restaurant. You’re giving birth to your baby, and I gave birth to mine.”
Ah yes. The restaurant. My baby. The only one I’ll ever have. I can almost feel Vin deflate.
“Vin!” I’ve never heard Matti sound so animated. “Come meet your niece!”
I turn Vin’s way and he blinks, the hard edge slamming back into place.
I carefully hand Emilia back to Siena. “I should check on Giovanna.”
“Sophie—” Vin’s voice stops me halfway to the door.
I don’t turn around. No way I’m letting him do this to me again in front of everyone. Not on this special day.
“Congratulations on finding Aurelio,” I say quietly. “I hope being boss is everything you wanted.”
Then I walk out before he can see me fall apart.
54
Vin
The second I walk into that hospital room and see Sophie holding Siena’s baby, I can’t fucking breathe. She’s so fucking beautiful with her hair pulled back, still in her scrubs from helping with the delivery, tears streaming down her face as she cradles the tiny thing against her chest.
Emilia Sophia, named after Siena’s sister and of course Sophie.
My throat tightens watching her rock the baby, whispering something I can’t hear. She looks like she was born to do this, like holding that baby is the most natural thing in the world.
When Siena makes the comment about them both being pregnant I almost lose my fucking mind. Pregnant? With my baby?
When Sophie sees me, I know she’s reading my mind. She cleans it up quickly, makes it clear: she’s not pregnant.
But it hits me: the birth control.Fuck. I had Dr. Rossi replace her birth control pills with placebos, before I knew her father was innocent, before the Irish contract. And it’s been over a month since I last fucked her, which means that I didn’t succeed in breeding her the way I wanted.
It also means that if she fucks someone else, she could end up withhisbaby.
The thought makes me want to put my fist through the wall.
“Vin?” Matti’s voice cuts through the haze. “You good?”
I’m not good. I’m the furthest thing from good.
I need to know if she’s seeing anyone, if she’s let anyone touch her since me. The idea of another man’s hands on her body—FUCK.
Sophie catches me staring. For a second, something flickers in her eyes, I don’t fucking know what, before she hands the baby back to Siena and moves toward the door.
She won’t look at me as she leaves and Matti is calling me to hold the baby, but I intercept Sophie in the hallway instead.
“We need to talk.”
She doesn’t look at me. “No, we don’t.”
“Sophie—”
“Whatever you have to say, I don’t want to hear it.” Her voice is edged with steel. She tries to step around me, and I grab her arm.
