Chapter 5

I couldn't take the pain anymore and collapsed to the ground.

In my blurry state, I thought I saw an eighteen-year-old boy pressing sanitary pads into my hands, his eyes red with worry, the son of a rival house who should have been my enemy and never was.

"I didn't know which brand you used, so I bought all of them. You can pick what you like."

The rain washed away the memory, leaving only my cold body behind on the stone of the Marlowe estate. I didn't know how much time had passed, but I heard familiar footsteps cross the wet flagstones.

Lorenzo's voice was cold.

"Have you finished pretending? If so, stand up."

"Adriana, look at yourself. What makes you different from a jealous woman now?"

"You should learn to control your temper. I'm doing this for your own good."

Before walking away, he threw a blanket over me, the gesture of a made man remembering, too late, that the world was watching how he treated a Salvatore.

He hadn't gotten far when one of his enforcers shouted through the rain.

"Mr. Marlowe, there's blood on the blanket!"

Lorenzo stopped and rushed back to me. He pulled the blanket off and his face turned pale.

"What are you all doing? Call a doctor now!"

"Can't you see my wife isn't well? Are you all blind?"

His voice faded and I lost consciousness completely. I couldn't tell whether my body or my heart hurt more. Memories from the eight years of the alliance flashed through my mind like a movie.

The last image was Bianca smiling, proud, certain, an outsider who had finally clawed her way to the seat that was never hers.

"Adriana, you lost."

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying in someone's arms. Lorenzo was holding me, his hand gently rubbing my lower abdomen. But his face looked cold and distant, the face he wore at sit-downs when a man's life hung on his mood.

When he saw me awake, he frowned.

"Didn't you know your period started? Why didn't you tell me?"

"If I hadn't noticed, were you planning to let yourself die in the rain?"

"Adriana, when will you stop being like this?"

I pushed him away and gave a small, cold smile.

"Does it really matter?"

Lorenzo opened his mouth to speak, but the sound of a baby crying came from the nursery. His expression changed quickly. He stood up and got ready to leave. I smiled faintly.

"Lorenzo, your acting is terrible. It makes me feel sick."

He paused, and a laugh came out of him a beat too soon, too loud, landing wrong in the quiet of the room. Then he still walked out.

"I'll talk to you after I calm the baby. I haven't changed. You're the one who has."

Lorenzo didn't come back for two hours.

A doctor came to give me medicine and mentioned, the way a man mentions weather he doesn't want to discuss, that Lorenzo was busy choosing a new formula for the twins. He said the Marlowe heir was comparing brands, reading every ingredient like it was a contract that could turn on him. The doctor also said he had never seen a made man so nervous about anyone in his life.

I laughed quietly. Because I had never seen it either. Lucky for me, Lorenzo wasn't around, so I started packing my things.

I threw away every gift he had given me across eight years of the blood alliance. Only a few sets of clothes were left. As I got ready to have a car brought around and leave, I passed by the nursery.

Then I walked in. Perhaps, once, I had imagined what a child between Lorenzo and me would look like. Since I was leaving, I thought it would be all right to look just once.

I leaned near the crib and gently poked the baby's soft cheek. The child had Lorenzo's exact eyes and brow. Tears fell before I even noticed.

The baby started crying loudly and blood ran from his nose. I reached out to call for help.

At that moment, the door was kicked open.

Lorenzo slapped me hard across the face. His expression was full of rage.

"I thought you had learned your lesson. These two children aren't even a month old. How could you put something in their milk?"

"Adriana, when did you become so cruel? I barely recognize you anymore!"

"Get out. Don't ever enter this nursery again without my permission."

After those words, Bianca rushed in and knelt before me, begging with tears in her eyes. She pleaded for me to spare her child. She said she was willing to die to make it right. For half a second, when Lorenzo's eyes were on the crib and not on her, the tremble dropped clean off her face and her eyes went flat and calculating, then the mask returned before anyone else could catch it.

When I saw the strange look in Lorenzo's eyes as he watched me, I felt frightened. Every explanation got stuck in my throat. The love I once felt was gone in an instant.

"Lorenzo, don't you believe me?" Bianca cried.

"How do you expect me to believe you? Adriana, please stop hurting my children. They did nothing wrong."

I closed my eyes in despair. Then I smiled sadly and tears fell. My fingers found the diamond on my hand and turned it a quarter-turn inward, hiding the stone against my palm.

"Okay, as you wish."

I picked up my luggage and walked away.

For seven days, Lorenzo did not send a single word. In contrast, Bianca's posts multiplied like a rat colony. She was in Paris, the Maldives, Turkey. He took her on every honeymoon we had once planned together, back when the alliance still meant something.

On the morning of the wedding, Lorenzo boarded the wedding car and drove to the hotel, one of the old-family holdings the Families used to launder their peace into celebration, just like before. But at the entrance, a Falcone soldier stepped into his path.

"Do you have an invitation?" the man asked, unhurried, one hand resting where a hand rests when it wants to be near a weapon.

Lorenzo looked shocked.

"I am the groom. Why would I need an invitation?"

The soldier looked at him the way you look at a man who has already lost and doesn't know it yet, then nodded toward the large wedding photo mounted at the door.

"The bride is Miss Adriana Salvatore, and the groom is Don Dominic Falcone. What business is this to you? If you don't have an invitation, leave. Don't block the way."

Lorenzo's face went pale.