Chapter 3

A baby.

The word passed through me like a live current.

Marissa curled into Dominic's chest like a stray kitten. Her palm settled on her stomach. She hit the word pregnancy deliberately.

"When."

I forced it out through my teeth. The white satin glove on my hand was crushed in my own grip.

Dominic's face was dark. "Don't listen to her. Get in the car. If you don't want her around, I'll send her away tomorrow."

My father stepped in front of me. His voice was iron.

"My daughter gave you seven years of her life. You spent them running around with other women. You think that's decent?"

He only moved his foot half a step forward.

Dominic's arm shot out to shield Marissa's stomach. Pulled her against him.

I laughed.

"Dominic. You lie like a teenager."

"Send her away where? To the maternity suite at the Four Seasons in Boston?"

Dominic went still.

Last month I'd seen a reservation confirmation on his phone. Four Seasons Boston. Booked for the day after our wedding. Special note attached to the booking: prenatal-suitable amenities requested.

I'd thought it was for our honeymoon. I'd started prenatals a month early.

Walked away from a Providence account I'd spent half a year closing. Cut caffeine. Cut wine. I'd let all of it go because I thought Dominic was finally going to take me in. Make me one of the Family.

I'd been prepping my body for a child.

I hadn't understood, until this moment, that the room was already occupied.

My eyes moved down to Marissa's stomach.

She was showing.

"What. Can't handle it? Just because I've got his baby?"

"What if I told you my child is the one who's going to carry the Sterling name? And you? You spend the rest of your life at that table and no one on it will ever call you one of us."

Marissa's voice pushed harder with every sentence. The provocation in her eyes tipped over into open contempt.

My father's face went white with rage.

"You have no shame. You're not going to hurt my daughter. Tomorrow I'm parking myself outside your office with a sign that says you seduced an engaged man."

"I don't have much left. But I've got enough for that."

My father barely finished the sentence.

Marissa's hands flew to her stomach. She pitched backward.

"Dominic. My baby. Something's wrong."

The rain came down harder. From drizzle to full downpour.

Dominic crossed the driveway in three strides. He caught her against his chest.

"Nora. Get your father's mouth under control. Apologize. To Marissa. Right now. One more word out of him and I'll have his tongue on the floor of this driveway."

"If anything happens to Marissa, I don't know how I'll answer to her father."

I looked up. Met his eyes.

"Answer? Which father are you planning to answer to, Dominic?"

"Marissa's. He's practically my father-in-law."

Something cold slid down my back.

My father was still standing right there. In the rain. And Dominic had just called another man his father-in-law to his face.

Five years I'd spent trying to earn a seat at that table. And Dominic had handed the title I'd never been given to a woman who'd never worked a day for it.

"Nora. Stop playing word games. Last time. Get in the car. You know what I'm capable of. I've always thought you were a smart woman. Don't make me revise that."

The sentences from him. Like the rain. They put out every last ember of expectation I'd had for seven years.

For this wedding, my parents had put together a $40,000 gift for Dominic.

The gap between our families was real. My parents had scraped for half their lives to pull that money together.

Just to give Dominic respect. All so I could stand as Dominic Sterling's Donna without ever bowing my head.

And now Dominic was calling Marissa's father Dad.

I couldn't lie to myself anymore. I finally understood that everything I'd done, every year I'd bled, would never buy me one ounce of respect from this man.

"And if I say no?"

Dominic's brow knit at the center.

"Fine."

"You. And you. Take that house apart. Every board. Every window. I want the driveway looking like a crater by the time we pull off. Consider it Marissa's wedding gift from the bride."