Page 80 of Diary of a Mafia Princess

She patted me on the leg, and her smile turned bright. “But this is not a pleasant topic of conversation. Mr. Guerra isn’t a bad man. She betrayed him. He is loyal to those who are loyal to him.” She squeezed my leg. “I’ve worked here for a long time and have been very loyal. I don’t speak of him outside this house, not even to my own family, and he has rewarded that loyalty with a steady income, much more than I would earn doing this sort of work for any other household. I know you’re nervous, but he will be a good husband to you.”

Yeah, a great one. Until he found out I was exactly the same as his last wife, sleeping around with men behind his back, trying to pass off a baby that wasn’t his as an heir to the Guerra throne.

My chest tightened, the walls suddenly feeling like they were caving in.

If I didn’t get Carlos Guerra to sleep with me, to make him believe this baby was his so wholeheartedly that he didn’t for a second question its paternity, then both me, Dax, and this baby would be dead.

Carlos had proved he was capable of it.

I hated this. Hated all of it. Hated my father for what he’d do to Dax if I didn’t go along with all this. Hated Carlos for being the sort of man who would accept a bride sold to him. Hated everything about this entire world.

I just wanted to go back to Dax’s house, to his bed, where it was safe and it had felt like my family couldn’t touch us.

A tear rolled down my face, and Virginia put an arm around my shoulders, squeezing me tightly. “Oh, sweetheart. None of that.” She started humming something, a tune that sounded intentional. It was gentle and melodic and comforting.

“I used to sing that to my boys when they were small,” Virginia said wistfully.

My heart clenched, thinking about her holding a younger version of Dax the way she held me now.

She laughed and let go of me. “They’re much too big for it now though.”

I smiled at her wistfully. “I don’t know. If you have a good mom, I’m not sure you ever outgrow her arms.”

My mother clearly had never loved me the way Virginia loved Dax and his brothers.

But I would love this baby like that. I knew that I already did. I would lay my life down for it, before I’d send it off to be a fucking pawn in a messed-up power game two middle-aged men played to feel important.

“Would you teach me that song?” I asked Virginia, without really thinking about it, other than the fact I couldn’t remember any lullabies because I was pretty sure my mother, nor any of the straight-faced nannies we’d grown up with, had sung one.

Virginia glanced at me. “Sure. But why?”

I froze. I had no good answer for that. “I, uh, I just like it.”

Her expression was curious.

But it only reminded me that, at some point, I was going to slip up and someone was going to realize what I was hiding. Hell, maybe I already had by telling Lynx. My gut had said I could trust him, and I needed someone to know. Someone to be on my side.

But I couldn’t hide it forever.

I’d thought Carlos’s ex-wife ballsy. Sure, it hadn’t worked out well for her, but it wasn’t going to work out well for me either if I kept hiding in this room, not doing the thing that needed doing.

I opened my mouth to ask Virginia if she knew where my husband-to-be was, but she squeezed my hand.

“Sweetheart, if you were wanting to learn that song to sing to your children one day…”

My blood ran cold.

She knew. She had to know. Had she gone through my drawers? Found the images?

I didn’t know what to say. Couldn’t make my mouth work. Fear wrapped around me too thick and fast, and my brain whirred a million miles a minute, trying to come up with an explanation or a bribe that would stop her telling Carlos about the baby in my belly.

If I told her it was her grandchild, would that be better or worse?

I didn’t even know; my brain couldn’t think that through fast enough.

She looked at me so seriously, her mouth pulled into a straight line. “Did they tell you Mr. Guerra has had a vasectomy?”

I blinked, because that was about the last thing I’d expected her to say.