Narrowing my eyes, I approached him and studied the flowers. “They’re white lilies,” I said softly. “Funeral flowers. They symbolize death.”
Burns nodded.
“Show them to Michael when he gets home and tell him to come find me in the greenhouse.”
I walked through the kitchen and poured a glass of wine.
“I won’t be able to help you all cook today,” I said, shaken by the flowers. “I need to focus on something else.”
“Of course,” Carmen said, patting my shoulder.
I headed to the greenhouse and sat in the chair that faced the large curved window. Staring at the back yard, I slowly sipped as I formulated what I needed to say to Michael.
When he appeared, he leaned down to kiss my hair before sitting in the chair beside me. “Hey, stella. How was your day?”
“Good.” I drank the final sip of wine and set my glass on the floor beside me. “Actually, not good. I assume Burns showed you the flowers.”
Michael nodded. “He’s disposing of them now.”
Sighing, I leaned back in the chair, acknowledging the mess I’d made. “We need to talk.”
Michael remained silent, arching an eyebrow when I turned to look at him.
“What happened to Dr. Spano and Dr. Strong?”
Michael’s eyes darted between mine before he answered. “They received threats at their homes. Adrian is Italian and understands my business. He offered to take over.”
“Damnit,” I said, shaking my head. “I put them in danger.”
“They’re fine now, Bianca,” he said, squeezing my forearm. “I assigned a lookout at each of their places, and there haven’t been any incidents since.”
Resting my head on the high back, I stared at the ceiling. “I want you to teach me how to shoot. How toreallyshoot. I don’t want to be left vulnerable ever again. And I want a semi-automatic gun to carry with me.”
Michael rubbed his chin as he contemplated. “Okay. What else?”
I faced him and smiled. “That waswaytoo easy. I was sure you were going to fight me on that.”
He slid his hand into mine and laced our fingers. “I find that it’s very difficult to say no to you when you smile at me like that.”
Squeezing his fingers, I bit my lip. “Please be serious.”
“I am being serious. I agree you need to know how to protect yourself. What else do you wish to discuss?”
Inhaling a deep breath, I steeled myself to tell him the truth. “I want you to be honest with me from now on. No secrets.”
“Okay.”
“And I promise to do the same. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the miscarriage. It was a long time ago, and it was something I pushed away because it was very painful.”
His fingers tightened on mine, offering support.
“It happened when Alexis had just turned seven. I was four months pregnant with our son. Victor and I got into a terrible argument in the hallway, right above the stairs one evening.”
Tears stung my eyes, but I forged ahead. “Victor backhanded me, as he did sometimes, and Alexis ran out of her room, screaming for him to stop.” I swiped the tear that fell down my cheek. “My biggest regret was that she witnessed me fall.”
“That fucking bastard,” Michael said through clenched teeth.
“He hit me again and I fell down the stairs. I was rushed to the hospital, where I learned I lost the baby. That’s when I had the D&C. It was...awful,” I said, swallowing the huge lump of emotion in my throat.
