Page 143 of My Husband’s New Fiancée

I nod again. Yes. That makes sense.

But logic doesn’t protect you from pain.

The fact that they shared that kind of intimacy is killing me.

Images of them flood my mind.

Fuck, it hurts.

Dante stares at me intensely, as if he can follow every direction my thoughts are taking. A tortured expression crosses his face.

“Stop,” he pleads softly. “Don’t do this to yourself. Don’t think about it. She never mattered. I regret every minute I spent with her.”

His hand catches mine, our fingers intertwining as though he’s trying to anchor me back to the present.

Little by little, the tension inside me loosens.

Then another message comes through, and my last shred of hope collapses.

Blood test results confirming the pregnancy.

I read them once. Twice. As if the words might somehow change.

“No.”

The word escapes me on its own.

My legs give out beneath me.

Dante catches me before I collapse.

I barely react to his embrace.

Bianca is pregnant. With Dante’s child.

She already stole two years of my life and now... this.

Is she going to steal the chance for me to make Dante a father for the first time too?

How am I supposed to survive this?

Dante sets the phone down and cups my face in both hands.

His eyes lock onto mine.

“Even if it’s true, it changes nothing between us. I love you, Valeria.”

His voice is low. Almost pleading. As though he can already feel me slipping away.

The man I love may be having a child with the woman who tried to kill me.

My chest tightens. My breathing fractures.

A child.

They’ll be bound together forever.

Something I’ll never be able to erase. Never replace.