Chapter 4

Lorenzo lowered his head to check his phone. The baby in his arms suddenly slipped and fell to the floor, letting out a loud, sharp cry. He quickly picked her up and checked to see if she was hurt.

Bianca began crying and knelt on the marble in front of me.

"Miss Salvatore, if you're unhappy, come to me. Please don't touch my children. I beg you. I'll kneel for you!"

When she turned toward Lorenzo and saw his angry expression, her tone changed quickly.

"Signore Marlowe, please don't blame Miss Salvatore. She just didn't hold the baby properly. She didn't mean it…"

Before she could finish, Lorenzo's face turned cold. The kind of cold that made every soldier along the far wall find something else to look at.

"Adriana, I already told you Bianca was drugged. That's why she made mistakes. You shouldn't blame her. If you're angry, come to me! Why are you taking it out on a baby?"

"I didn't care when you sent messages threatening Bianca. I even forgave you for dropping the child. But this is your last chance. Today, you will apologize to Bianca."

The baby girl cried even louder, as if she knew her mother was in trouble. Lorenzo helped Bianca up and settled the baby back into her arms. Then he turned to me and glared. His voice was colder than ever.

"Don't you understand what I said? Apologize."

"Adriana, I've really spoiled you."

I looked at him. My eyes were cold and calm. I just felt tired and sad. In the vast, silent room, with the old-family portraits watching from the walls and the smell of leather and gun oil beneath the milk and the garlic, I felt the full weight of what an alliance was worth when it wasn't loved.

"You want me to apologize? Lorenzo, are you out of your mind?"

Bianca suddenly moved in front of me and begged, "Miss Salvatore, please don't be upset with Signore Marlowe. I know you didn't do it on purpose. I don't blame you."

"Just lower your head and say sorry. Don't let me ruin what's between you two…"

Before Bianca could finish, she slipped and fell hard to the floor. The two children rolled out of her arms. For half a second, before she turned her face back toward Lorenzo, the tremble dropped clean off her mouth and her eyes went flat and measuring. Then the mask came down again, and she was weeping.

"What are you doing?" Lorenzo shouted at me and shoved me away.

His forehead struck the corner of the table and blood began to run down.

"I think you've gone mad! You keep going after Bianca, again and again, and now you strike her while she's holding children!"

"She gave you your child and she already said sorry to you. What more do you want?"

"Apologize now, or answer for it."

I held back everything rising in me and spoke clearly, word by word.

"I will never apologize to your kept woman, Lorenzo. You can forget about that right now."

He laughed then, a beat too early and too loud, the sound landing wrong in the stillness. "If you won't take kindness," he said, going cold again, "then you'll be punished."

Then Lorenzo told the servant to take Bianca and the children away. He was so far past reason that he called for his men, ten of them, and had them drag me toward the door. One drove a boot into the back of my leg.

I lost my balance and dropped to my knees on the wet stone of the threshold. Two enforcers pressed down on my shoulders to keep me from rising.

Lorenzo stared at me with no emotion at all. "Then kneel here. Get up only when you understand what you've done."

"Watch her. If she stands, not one of you sees morning as a made man."

He turned and went back inside.

The sky had gone dark, and soon it began to rain. Cold water soaked through my clothes. I sat straight and refused to lower my head. On my finger, the alliance diamond had turned itself a quarter-turn inward without my deciding it, the stone hidden against my palm.

But my lower stomach hurt badly.

I realized something was wrong and caught the leg of the nearest man's trousers.

"My stomach hurts… Call Lorenzo… please…"

The soldier didn't even look down at me. He kicked me again.

"Be quiet. Don't play sick. Signore Marlowe is busy warming milk for his babies."

"This is what you get for wounding the woman he favors."

From inside the estate I could hear a baby laughing and Lorenzo's low voice telling some story. My head began to spin. And a warm wetness started to spread from beneath me into the rain.