“Dad, please!” Aerin whines. “You can’t do this. I won’t let you!”
“Do you have any idea of the position I’m in?” Guido snaps back. “Do you? Can you stop being selfish for a second and just think of the bigger picture?”
“Selfish? I’m not being selfish!”
“Yes, you are!” His voice rises and becomes crystal clear as the guard opens the door, giving me a full view of the booming argument.
Guido stands in front of his desk, tissues clutched in one hand to press to his mouth each time he coughs. His face is purple with rage and sweat beads his forehead. Aerin is across the room near the coffee table, her hands on her hips and her face twisted with fury that makes her eyes bright and her cheeks flush.
She’s beautiful.
That anger fades the moment she glances at the door and does a double take when she sees me.
“You’re only thinking of yourself, Aerin, and it’s about time you took some real responsibility!”
Her eyes snap back to her father. “Are you kidding me? Are you blind to everything I’ve done? Everything I’ve been doing? It’s because of me that I survived the cabin, do you understand that? I saved Falco’s life. Yeah, it was terrifying, but I was the one there doing those things. I did it. I was also the one who put together the plan to cancel the wedding.”
“Plan?” Guido scoffs so hard that he ends up coughing. “You didn’t have a plan, you had a hope and a theory. You just didn’t want to get married, and you would be by now if not for your brother.”
“No! I would have refused and I would have worked something out. And it wasmewho brought Giacomo down. You would still be blind and thinking he’s trying to be a good son when he was plotting both our demise! You were so blinded by your rage at Falco that?—”
“Can you blame me?” Guido roars. “That bastard got you pregnant!”
As he dissolves into another harsh coughing fit that draws a guard from the wall to help him, any words I clutched to announce myself fade from my mind.
Aerin looks at me in a panic, her eyes wide and her lips parted while all the color drains from her cheeks. I look down at her stomach as that yelled word echoes around my mind.
Pregnant? Aerin’s pregnant?
No…she can’t be.
I wasn’t responsible when it came to contraception, but I hadn’t thought about it properly. So caught up on everything else, from my overwhelming love for her to trying to keep her safe, that something as simple as a condom just never entered my mind.
“Pregnant?” I repeat quietly, slowly walking toward Aerin.
She places one hand on her abdomen and swallows so hard that I hear the slightgluck. “Yes. I… Oh god, I didn’t want you to find out this way. I was going to tell you when you were well. I’m so sorry.”
Pregnant.
There’s a baby inside her.
My baby.
Our baby.
My mind remains blank and locked on that one word as I approach until I’m a foot away. Then, very slowly, I place my hand over hers. “You shouldn’t have come for me and risked this.”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” she replies softly. “I had to come and get you.”
“Pregnant,” I repeat again. “I…I can’t believe it.” Warmth suddenly buds in my chest and spreads through me like I’ve just stepped outside in the heat of the midday sun. A smile pulls at my lips, one I don’t even try to fight, and my heart begins to race. “Oh Aerin.”
“I know you love me,” she says and her voice becomes a whisper. “I was so furious with you that I missed it, but that day in the gym when you yelled at me and pushed me away, you said you loved me.”
“I did?” Immediately, the memory surges and my lips part. I did and I didn’t even realize it.
“You did,” she murmurs. “I love you too. Just so you know.” A playful edge enters her smile as she gazes up at me, then she shifts her hand until we’re palm to palm. As our fingers thread together, her eyes begin to sparkle with unshed tears. “Are you mad?”
I shake my head. “Why would I be mad?”
