Then her emerging, looking shaken. Getting into Emmanuel's car.
Where did she go for those forty-five minutes?
I make a call.
"Boss?" It's Marco, one of my best trackers.
"I need you to pull camera footage. Columbia University, three weeks ago." I give him the date and time. "Track a woman. Five-seven, dark hair. I need to know where she went."
"On it."
I hang up.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there's an explanation.
But the sick feeling in my gut tells me I'm not.
Gemma didn't just defy me.
She betrayed me.
And I have no idea what I'm going to do about it.
CHAPTER 15
Gemma
"She's a curse. Bad luck. First her mother, then her. The Nero women are poison?—"
"That's enough. You're not yourself. Get some rest."
"Promise me. Promise you'll do what's necessary. For the family. Always for the family."
"I promise."
I scurry away from Antonio's door, down the hallway, down the back stairs, and as far away from my husband and his uncle as possible.
Listening to Saint agree with Antonio, to promise him to get rid of me, for the good of the family, made me sick.
My hands are shaking. My vision blurs with tears.
Six months ago, I would have been glad about this turn of events, but now, now…
My blood is boiling. Saint made me care for him. He told me that we would have a baby when it was right and implied he didn't even want to conceive right now.
He fucking lied.
He always planned to get rid of me when he could. Maybe, he's been planning it all along. Maybe, he is the reason we haven't conceived. He might be stopping it somehow.
I make it to our bedroom and slam the door. My chest is heaving. I can't breathe.
The beach house flashes through my mind. Saint holding me. Sharing secrets with me. Telling me that we'll have a child when we are ready. Pretending he doesn't mind.
All of it a lie.
"I promise."
He promised to get rid of me.
