“What?”Istareupat Tommaso. If he wasn’t holding me, I would’ve stumbled back onto the bed. “The pregnancy test was negative.”
He smiles down at me, and I want to drown in the ocean of love I see in his eyes, even though I still don’t trust myself to believe it.
“When Johnathon did your check-up and drew blood, I had him run a pregnancy test on the blood sample. It’s much more sensitive for detecting early pregnancy.”
“I’m pregnant?” Joy, disbelief, and doubt all war within me.
“Yes,il mio sole.”
Then, maybe because it’s all too much, or maybe because of hormones, I burst into tears.
Tommaso gathers me into his arms and sits with me in his lap on the bed. I cry, overwhelmed with everything that has happened and what I discovered today. He doesn’t try to soothe away my tears; he just holds me as I break down.
It feels so right being in his arms, yet that doubt lingers. Rosa is gorgeous, clearly from their world, and I’m…just me. Gina Caruso, or Gina Santoro if I dare believe it, who loves sweatpants and messy hair in private but also quietly elegant clothes when the moment calls for it. Not like Rosa—the perfectly poised princess.
A mafia princess. From another powerful mafia family.
Jesus, I hate that woman.
Not only because she was supposed to marry Tommaso, but the dislike I felt for her was a reaction before I even knew all that.
“Did Rosa go to the same school I did?”
Tommaso wipes away the last of my tears. “Yes. Do you remember her?”
“Not really. I just didn’t like her the moment I saw her today.”
“She has that effect on people.” He runs his hand down my back. “I’m sorry I’ve kept you away from Alessia and Mia, your friends at school.”
He’s told me their names, but other than that, I don’t know anything more about them, and no memories of them have returned.
Guilt coats his face. “I promise, once this is all figured out, I’ll bring them here so you can be reintroduced to them. But until I find your father and figure out why Vincenzo Pisani wants you—”
A memory hurtles at me, and I jerk.
“Vincenzo wants you,” my father says as I stare at him in horror in his home office.
The next flash of memory hits me from the same encounter.
“During Emanuele and Vincenzo’s visit, we finalized all the details of the deal. They needed to return home due to some heart problems Emanuele was experiencing, but Vincenzo will be back in a few days to take you to Catanzaro with him, andyou’ll be whatever he wants you to be. His whore, his toy to offer to others…whateverhe wants.”
“That will shame you,” I try to reason, vibrating with horror. “All the money you paid to send me to Santa Elisabetta—”
“Will be a waste?” He scoffs, shaking his head. “You’ll still be a refined piece of ass, one that many in our world prefer.”
Bile surges upward, and I jerk, retching. Tommaso curses, holding me tight as he pulls a waste bin to me. I grab it like it’s a lifeline keeping me away from that heinous flash of memory while I hurl my guts out.
I’m sobbing and choking and puking, unable to stop. I hear Tommaso shout, but I can’t understand what he says; I can’t focus on anything except the flash of memory that is causing me to purge like it’s something toxic within me.
How could that be my father? I can’t reconcile that version of him being the same man I calledBabbowhen I was a young girl.
After I’m finally done puking, I can’t stop crying. Tommaso holds me, cradling me, protecting me, and I don’t know how long I go on, but I can’t stop. Not even when I finally tell him in fragmented, broken sentences what the memory was.
I can’t stop sobbing.
“Shhh,il mio sole. It’s going to be okay.”
“It’s just a mild dose,” I think I hear Johnathan say. “It won’t completely sedate her nor will it harm her or the baby; it will just allow her to breathe and come out of it.”
