"I'm in a gym."
"Exactly."
I wheel toward the door, then stop.
"Valentino."
"What?"
"Thank you." The words feel strange in my mouth. Foreign. "For staying. For helping. For not giving up on me when everyone else did."
Valentino's expression doesn't change. But something shifts in his eyes.
"You're family," he says simply. "Family doesn't give up."
I nod once.
Then I wheel out of the gym, my legs still burning, my arms still aching, and something that feels dangerously like hope burning in my chest.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Antonella
Three tests.
Three confirmations that my life just changed forever.
I sit on the edge of the bathtub in my bathroom, staring at the plastic sticks lined up on the counter like evidence at a crime scene. The fluorescent light hums overhead. Somewhere in the house, Lily is laughing at something. Normal sounds. Normal life.
Nothing about this moment is normal.
Kristen stands by the door. She hasn't said a word since the third test came back positive. Just watches me with those grey-blue eyes that see too much.
I appreciate the silence.
I don't know what I'd say if she asked me how I feel.
How do I feel?
I don't know.
My hand moves to my stomach. Flat. Unchanged.
Bruno's baby.
Our baby.
The thought sends a jolt through me. Not quite fear. Not quite joy. Something in between. Something I can't name.
At St. Catherine's, I spend hours with the children. Reading to them. Playing with them. Watching their faces light up when someone pays attention to them. Every time I leave, I think about how much I'd love to have kids someday.
Someday.
Not now.
Not three months into an arranged marriage to a man who spent the first weeks refusing to look at me.
I pick up one of the tests. The pink line is dark. Unmistakable. No room for doubt or denial.