"Everything else was built on that lie." My hands are shaking again. I can feel the violence rising, can feel how close I am to losing control completely. "Every time you touched me. Everytime you let me inside you. It was all built on deception. Fuck, Giulia, I took your fucking virginity, and I didn’t even know it!"
She flinches back. "I love you." Her voice breaks on the words. "That's not a lie.”
"You don't get to say that to me,” I growl. "You don't get to tell me you love me after what you've done."
"Luca, please?—"
"You took away my choice. In every possible way, you took away my choice. You decided I was going to fall for you. You decided I was going to betray my oath to your family. You decided I was going to become complicit in this—this fucking disaster. And you did it all without asking. Without giving me any say in what happened to my life."
"I know. I know, and I'm sorry?—"
"Sorry doesn't fix this. Sorry doesn't change the fact that you're a liar and a manipulator. Sorry doesn't change the fact that the woman I fell for doesn't exist."
"She does exist. I'm right here?—"
"No,” I snap harshly. "You're the woman I should have stayed away from. And you're not—you're not Valentina."
The name hangs in the air between us. The ghost of someone who never existed.
"There's something else," she says, and her voice is so small I almost don't hear it. "I'm pregnant."
The words stop me cold. "What?"
"I'm pregnant. With your baby. I've been trying to tell you, but?—"
The rage that's been building explodes inside me. It's not loud or violent. It just feels cold and absolutely devastating.
"You're pregnant. And you're just telling me now." Every word sounds hollow and icy coming out of my mouth.
More tears spill down her cheeks. "I tried to tell you before. Tonight, I was going to?—"
"How long have you known?"
“Since just before the last time we were here. I missed my period, and I took a test, and?—"
I stare at her. "You've known for what… almost two weeks that you're carrying my child, and you didn't think that was something I should know immediately?"
"I was scared. I didn't know how to tell you?—"
"So you just kept lying. Kept playing your little game. Kept pretending everything was fine while you were carrying my baby and planning to marry another man."
"I'm not going to marry Alessandro. I can't. Not now?—"
"Why?" The question comes out sharp. "Because you're pregnant? Because you finally have a reason to call off the wedding that doesn't involve admitting you've been fucking one of your father's soldiers?"
She flinches like I've hit her. "That's not fair?—"
"Fair?" The word is almost a shout. "You want to talk about fair? You lied to me for months. You manipulated me into falling for you. You made me complicit in betraying everything I've sworn loyalty to. And now you're telling me you're pregnant—that you're trapping me with a baby I had no say in—and you want to talk about fair?"
"I'm not trapping you?—"
"Yes, you are." I stand up sharply, and this time she doesn’t flinch back, just looks up at me with those eyes that are so achingly familiar. "You're trapping me into a life I never chose. Into a relationship built on lies and being a father when I never agreed to any of this."
"You don't have to be involved. If you don't want?—"
"Don't." I grit my teeth. "Don't you dare suggest I'd walk away from my own child. Don't you dare use that as some kind of test to see if I'm a good man."
"I'm not?—"
