"Anyone who questions the timeline or suggests anything inappropriate will be dealt with," my father continues, his eyes moving to Luca. "Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir." Luca's voice is hollow, empty of everything except resignation.
My father's gaze sharpens. "I want to be very clear about what's at stake here, Luca. You have two choices. You can marry my daughter, accept responsibility for the child you've created, and remain part of this family. Or you can refuse."
The word hangs in the air like a blade.
"If you refuse to marry Giulia, you're not just walking away from her. You're walking away from the family. From Romeo. From everything you've built here over the past decade. You'll be seen as a man who refuses to make his mistake right, even though—" and here my father's voice takes on an edge that makes my skin crawl, "—even though you claim you didn't know what you were doing."
Luca's jaw clenches, but he doesn't speak.
"More than that," my father continues, and now he's looking at me with an expression that makes me want to disappear, "if you refuse, Giulia will be unmarried and pregnant. Damagedgoods in the eyes of every family that matters. No one will want her. She'll be a liability and an embarrassment."
Each word lands like a slap, stripping away another layer of dignity, another piece of the person I used to be. "I'll have to send her away," my father says, his voice almost conversational now, as if he's discussing the weather rather than my entire future. "Somewhere quiet where she can't cause any more problems. One of the estates in Sicily that no one visits anymore. She'll have the baby there.”
My breath catches in my throat. No. No, he can't?—
"The child will be raised by a carefully selected family. People we trust, who will give it the kind of stable, respectable upbringing that an illegitimate Ciresa bastard wouldn't receive otherwise." My father's eyes are cold and calculating, showing me exactly what my future looks like if Luca refuses. "And Giulia will spend the rest of her life paying for her mistakes. Alone. Exiled. A cautionary tale about what happens when you betray your family's trust."
The room spins. I grip the arms of my chair so hard my knuckles turn white, trying to anchor myself to something solid while my father systematically destroys every possible future I might have had.
He's going to take my baby. He's going to send me away and take my baby and give it to strangers, and I'll never—I'll never get to hold my child, never get to watch it grow, never get to be a mother in any meaningful sense of the word.
"Is that what you want for the mother of your child, Luca?" My father's voice is soft now, almost gentle, and more cruel than any anger could be. "Is that the future you're choosing for her? For your son or daughter?" He pauses. “And of course, for your refusal to follow orders, you will die. But perhaps that’s preferable to a life with a woman who entrapped you and a family who will always remember that you betrayed them.”
I can't look at Luca. I can't bear to see his face as he processes what my father is offering him—a choice that isn't really a choice at all.
Marry me and be bound to a woman he hates for the rest of his life. Or refuse and condemn me to a living hell and himself to death.
The silence stretches out, thick and suffocating. I can hear my own heartbeat pounding in my ears, tears streaming down my face even though I'm trying desperately to hold them back. This is my fault. All of it. Every terrible consequence, every destroyed life, every shattered dream—it all traces back to my choices, my deception, my desperate attempt to have something for myself before I was locked into a marriage I didn't want.
And now Luca is paying the price for my selfishness. My child will too, if he refuses.
"I'll do it." His voice cuts through the silence like a knife. "I'll marry her."
The words should bring relief, should feel like salvation. But instead, they feel like a death sentence, because I can hear everything he's not saying in the flatness of his tone, see it in the way he still won't look at me, and in the rigid set of his shoulders.
He's not doing this because he wants to. He's doing this because he has no choice.
My father nods, satisfied. "Good. The wedding will be small—immediate family only. No need to make this more of a spectacle than it already is."
"I want one thing understood." Luca's voice is steady now, controlled, and when he finally turns to look at me, his eyes are empty of everything except cold determination. "I'm doing this for the baby. And for my own survival. Not for her."
The words drive the air from my lungs.
"She made her choices," Luca continues, his gaze never leaving mine, making sure I understand exactly what he'ssaying. "She lied. She manipulated. She created this entire situation. And now we both have to live with the consequences. But I want it clear—I'm not doing this because I love her. I'm not doing this because I forgive her. I'm doing this because it's the only option that doesn't end with one or both of us destroyed."
I can't breathe, can't process the devastation in his words, the way he's looking at me like I'm something toxic he's been forced to swallow.
This is what I wanted. I wanted Luca. I wanted to be with him, to have his child, to build a life together. And I got it.
But it wasn’t supposed to be like this.
"Understood," my father says, and there's something almost approving in his voice, as if Luca's cold rejection of me makes him think better of Luca. "Giulia, do you have anything to say?"
I open my mouth, but no words come out. What is there to say? That I'm sorry? That I never meant for any of this to happen? That I love Luca and I thought—I thought if he just knew, if he just understood how I felt, that maybe he could love me back?
But those words are meaningless now. Worse than meaningless—they're insulting, given what I've done to him.
