Chapter 3

Meeting their stunned faces, I pushed the door open and walked in.

"Sloane, listen. Let me explain."

I gave a short, brittle laugh, picked up the chart from the foot of the bed, and pointed at the words threatened miscarriage.

I asked him quietly.

"Explain what, exactly? Explain how, precisely, you managed to get her pregnant?"

"Or explain how you ended up in bed with my best friend in the first place?"

"Or perhaps explain how, going forward, my own brother is going to raise your and Celeste's daughter right in front of my eyes?"

My voice was flatter than I had expected of myself.

But the slight tremor at the end gave away the thing that was almost swallowing what was left of my reason.

Damien opened his mouth. Nothing came out.

My gaze moved from the panic on his face to Julian's forced composure, and finally to Celeste — to the relief of someone who no longer had to hide.

And across Celeste, across the relief of someone who no longer had to hide.

I pulled my mouth into a thin curve and uncurled my hand, where my nails had cut into the skin of my palm.

I was turning to leave when Damien caught me from behind.

"Sloane, it isn't what it looks like. It was an accident."

"Please. Let's not do this."

At that exact moment, a button on his shirt popped loose.

A patch of skin at his collarbone was suddenly visible.

I caught it out of the corner of my eye and nearly gagged.

There was a bright red mark there. The kind that made it very clear how far things had gone the night before.

I shoved him off me.

Damien staggered back, off balance, and his elbow caught the electric kettle on the cabinet.

The back of his hand went red at once from the scalding water.

"What are you doing?"

Celeste lifted his hand up to inspect it, her face full of pity.

"You wanted to know when it started, didn't you? Fine. I'll tell you!"

"Shut your mouth!"

She ignored Damien's roar, keeping her eyes on me.

Hatred rose slowly to the surface of them.

"The night of your twentieth birthday. Damien said there was an emergency with the family. I said I had a fever. Did it never once occur to you how convenient that was?"

"Celeste!"

Celeste's mouth curled into a cutting little smile.

"After that night, he couldn't stay away from me."

"You know why? Because I was his first."

"Because he told me, in his own words, that what he had with me was two souls answering each other, and what he had with you was a political marriage between the Five Families. One more piece of business he owed the old man."

"Sloane, from where I'm standing, you're the one who came in second."

From her first sentence I had been biting down on the tip of my tongue.

By the time she was done, the inside of my mouth was full of blood.

I raised my hand and slapped her across the face.

But in the same instant, Julian's arm shot out and shoved me hard.

"Sloane, have you lost your mind?"

"Do you not understand that she's pregnant?"

I lost my footing and went backward.

My forehead struck the corner of the table before I could brace.

The skin split, and blood ran freely down my face.

Slowly, everything went dark.

When I came to, before I could even open my eyes, I heard Celeste crying.

"Damien. The doctor said this may be the last time I ever conceive."

"If I lose this baby, I'll never be a mother. Not in this lifetime."

Damien was silent for a few seconds. Then he gave his answer.

"Then have the baby."

"When she wakes up, I'll talk her into adopting the child. It's the best outcome for everyone."

Celeste stopped crying.

"And if she says no?"

Damien's voice slowly turned to ice.

"You think she's in a position to say no?"

"The Ashford Don and Donna are long gone. Julian may be her brother, but he stands with me."

"Apart from the three of us, who does she have in this world?"

I gripped the sheet, ready on pure instinct to sit up.

But then Celeste dropped her voice lower.

"And what if she finds out about that?"

"That's two lives, Damien. Two."