Chapter 3

But Lorenzo never stayed the night. He said he couldn't stand the smell of disinfectant in the ward, that it made him feel like something pickled in a jar, waiting to be examined. I was in so much pain I was drenched in sweat, but no matter how I begged him, he wouldn't stay.

Now Bianca had become the one who rewrote all his rules.

Maybe I was simply too worn down by all of it, because I actually fell asleep. When I opened my eyes again, it was Lorenzo's voice on the phone that woke me, loud and edged with anger, the impatience of a made man used to being obeyed.

"Adriana, I already told you Bianca doesn't touch your place in my life, and neither do the children. So why did you message her and order her out? Did you think to ask me first?"

"You can't even stomach two babies. How am I supposed to trust you with them later?"

His words left me cold inside.

I understood everything now. I just didn't have it in me to explain anymore.

"Yes. It's my fault," I said calmly.

"Whatever you choose to believe, I can't stand her. I have no respect for her."

"You'd do well to keep her close every day. Just pray I never find the opening to settle things with her."

Before he could answer, I hung up.

It was absurd. Eight years bound to one another, an alliance sealed between two bloodlines, and he wouldn't even try to understand what I felt. He took Bianca's word over mine.

The screen said it was only five in the morning, but sleep was gone. Lorenzo used to know I slept badly. He never once reached me before eight. Now, for Bianca, he was willing to break even that.

Lorenzo kept swearing Bianca would be nothing more than the nanny. Was that really the truth?

I felt hollow, and I didn't want to think anymore. I got up, checked out of the hotel, and took a car back to the estate. The morning rush swallowed the roads, and I sat in traffic close to two hours. When I finally pushed open the front door, I found the crew Lorenzo had brought in already at work.

Lorenzo was speaking to them in that low, serious tone men used when they wanted no mistakes. "Remember, the nursery gets the best materials, nothing less. Anything goes wrong, I don't pay. And repaint that bedroom. Powder blue. Children like it."

Bianca was folded softly into his arms, the two babies held between them. They were laughing together.

"Lorenzo, look! The babies love the color you picked!"

"Isn't Daddy clever? He knows what you want before you even say it. Blood ties really are something, aren't they."

Lorenzo brushed one baby's nose. A bubble of snot burst onto his hand, and he only laughed, his eyes full of light.

"Did you see that? He's praising me!"

"You already know your daddy, don't you? Say 'daddy' for me."

I had never seen him this happy. Not even the day he proposed. That day, he'd barely smiled.

I had asked him then, "Aren't you glad to marry me? Why won't you smile? Most people weep when they propose, they're so moved."

He'd only given me a cold look.

"A man in my position doesn't show too much. It gives others something to use against him."

My footsteps must have carried, because they both turned. Bianca dropped to her knees in front of me, both babies in her arms, her eyes flooding with tears.

"Miss Salvatore, please don't send me away. I can't leave the children. I never meant to come between you and Mr. Marlowe. I swear it, I'm only here to care for the babies. I won't touch your life."

"Please, don't take them from me. Look how sweet they are. They're even smiling at you. Won't you hold one? They take to you like a mother would . . ."

Before I could move, she pressed the baby girl into my arms. I froze. My whole body went stiff, and I didn't know what to do.