When I finish, the silence stretches out between us.
"You're telling me," Romeo says finally, his voice so controlled it's terrifying, "that you've been fucking my sister for weeks… months. That she's pregnant with your child. That she's been lying to both of us this entire time. And you expect me to believe you didn't know?"
"I didn't know," I say it so fast I almost choke on it. "I swear on everything I have, Romeo. I didn't know it was her. She looked completely different. She acted completely different. There was nothing—nothing—that made me think Valentina was Giulia."
"Except she was." Romeo moves closer, and every instinct I have screams at me to back up, to prepare for the violence I can see coiling in his muscles. "She was Giulia the entire time. And you were too fucking blind to see it."
"Yes." I don't try to defend myself or make excuses. "I was blind. I was stupid. I was so desperate for something that was mine that I didn't see what was right in front of me."
"And now she's pregnant." Romeo's voice is flat and cold. "With your child. While she's engaged to Alessandro Marchesi. While our father is planning a wedding that was supposed to secure an alliance, and is now meant to take that same family down."
"I know."
"Do you?" I can see the fury in his eyes, how close he is to losing control completely. "Do you understand what this means? What you've done? What she's done?"
"Yes." My voice is steady, even though my heart is racing so fast I can feel it in my throat. "I understand that I've betrayed you. That I've betrayed Dante. That I've destroyed everything I've built here. And I understand that you have every right to kill me for it."
Romeo stares at me for a long moment, his eyes searching my face for something—truth, maybe, or deception, some sign that I'm lying about not knowing.
Then he takes a step back and runs his hands through his hair, the gesture so uncharacteristically agitated that it makes me feel a moment of hope.
"Did you ever know?" he asks again, and this time there's something different in his voice. Something that sounds almost like he wants to believe me. "When you were with her. When you were touching her. When you were—" He stops himself, his jaw clenching. "Did you ever think it was Giulia?"
"No." I meet his eyes, letting him see the truth written across my face. "I swear to you, Romeo. I didn't know. Not until tonight. Not until I saw her without the wig and the makeup and the mask. Not until it was too late to take any of it back. There were moments that I thought she had mannerisms that reminded me of her, but I thought…" I take a deep breath. “I thought I was just seeing what I was trying not to think about.”
He studies me for another long moment, and I can see him weighing my words against what he knows about me, about his sister, about the situation we're all trapped in now.
Finally, he nods once, sharp and decisive.
"I believe you." The words should bring relief, but instead they just make the weight on my chest heavier. "You're too fucking loyal to betray me deliberately. And Giulia—" He stops,his expression darkening. "Giulia is smart enough to pull off a deception like this. To create an entire identity just to get what she wants."
"I'm sorry." The words feel inadequate, but I say them anyway. "I'm so fucking sorry, Romeo. I never meant for any of this to happen. I never meant to?—"
"I know." He cuts me off, his voice tired. "I know you didn't. But that doesn't change what's happened. That doesn't change the fact that my sister is pregnant with your child while she's engaged to another man. That doesn't change the fact that our father is going to lose his fucking mind when he finds out."
The mention of Dante makes my blood run cold. Romeo might believe me, might be willing to hear me out, but Dante is a different story entirely.
Dante doesn't forgive betrayal or give second chances, and he’s already given me one when I stepped out of line. He kills people who threaten his family, and I've just become exactly that.
"We need to tell him." Romeo's voice cuts through my spiraling thoughts. "We need to tell him before Giulia does. Before he hears this from anyone else. Because if he thinks you deliberately betrayed him—if he thinks you knew who she was and touched her anyway—he'll kill you. No hesitation. No mercy. Just a bullet."
My blood feels like ice in my veins. "I know."
"But if we go to him together… if I vouch for you. If I tell him that I believe you didn't know—" Romeo pauses, his expression grim. "Then maybe—maybe—there's a chance he'll let you live long enough to figure out what the fuck we're going to do about this."
The fact that Romeo is willing to stand by me, to vouch for me, to put his own credibility on the line to save my life meansmore than I can put into words. But it doesn't make the situation any less catastrophic.
"When?" I ask, my voice tight.
"Now, before Giulia has a chance to spin this her way. Before she can make it look like you're the villain and she's the victim."
"She is a victim." The words come out before I can stop them. "I mean—she's not innocent. She lied. She manipulated me and created this entire situation. But she's also trapped in an engagement she doesn't want. She's desperate and scared and?—"
"And pregnant with your child." Romeo's voice is hard. "Which means she's not just my sister anymore. She's your responsibility. Your problem. Your catastrophe to manage."
I shut the fuck up. He's right. Everything else is secondary to figuring out what we’re going to do about this.
"Let's go." Romeo moves toward the door, and I follow him, my heart pounding so hard I can feel it in my entire body. "And Luca? When we get there, let me do most of the talking. Dante respects you, but he loves Giulia. And right now, you're the man who got his daughter pregnant while she was engaged to someone else. That's not a position you want to be in without backup."
