Chapter 3

Francesca

Two weeks until the wedding.

The manor was drowning in decorations, and Alex had personally requested I accompany Lucy to her dress fitting. I didn't know what he was playing at. Probably just another way to twist the knife.

At the most exclusive bridal boutique in New York, Lucy stood on a platform in a custom Vera Wang, thousands of hand-sewn crystals catching the light. I knelt at her feet adjusting the train, my hands trembling from the low-grade fever that hadn't broken in days.

The dress had cost Alex two hundred grand. Every crystal stitched by hand. The skirt alone weighed over ten pounds.

He loved her the way he used to love me. The same heat. The same blind devotion.

"Jesus, Francesca—you trying to STRANGLE me or what?" Lucy's heel caught me square in the shoulder.

I was already running on empty. The kick sent me stumbling backward, head cracking into the display case behind me.

The fitting room door swung open.

"The hell is going on?"

Alex walked in. Lucy immediately folded into him, eyes filling with tears.

"Baby, she hurt me. What about our baby—what if something's wrong—"

Baby.

That word hit like a punch. Lucy was pregnant. Alex was going to be a father.

Alex looked down at me on the floor, jaw tight. His eyes caught on my wrists—bone-thin, trembling.

"Are you even eating? You look like a damn skeleton."

My heart did something stupid. Lucy cut it off before it could go anywhere.

"Babe, don't even. Trash like her can starve." She shot me a look over his shoulder, sharp as a blade. "She's probably faking it anyway. Total pity play."

She steered him toward the stairs. "Come on, I want to see the rings. You promised me that blue diamond, remember? The one for the wedding surprise."

Alex didn't look at me again. I listened to their voices drift up the staircase.

"Baby, who do you think the baby will look like?" Lucy's voice went soft and sweet. "I want him to have your eyes. Your strength."

"He'll have yours," Alex said, warm. "Beautiful and smart. I'll give him the best of everything. A real Benedetti."

I grabbed the wall and pulled myself up, then followed.

Halfway up the stairs, Lucy stopped.

She turned and looked back at me—a few steps below her—and smiled. Not a nice smile.

Alex had his back to us, phone to his ear.

"Tell Marco the shipment better arrive on schedule," he said, voice cold. "One day late and I want his head."

Lucy waited until Alex was deep in the call. Then she lowered her voice to barely a whisper.

"You see this?" She pressed a hand to her still-flat stomach. "It's Alex's. Growing right here." Her eyes stayed locked on mine. "Something you will NEVER get to have."

My throat closed.

"When the baby comes, Alex will forget you completely. He's going to be an amazing father. Give us everything." The smile sharpened. "And you? You'll die alone in some corner and nobody will even notice you're gone."

Die. She knew about my condition.

While I was still processing that, her hand shot out and grabbed my wrist.

"Go ahead and—"

She yanked hard.

We went down together, crashing and tumbling over the marble steps.

"NO—"

Steps. Railing. Floor.

Then silence.

"LUCY!" Alex's phone hit the ground. He came down the stairs two at a time, face drained white.

Lucy lay beside me, the white dress soaked red from the waist down, blood spreading fast across the marble.

"Alex—" Her voice was thin, broken. "It hurts—the baby—our baby—"

"Get a doctor! NOW!" He gathered her up, hands shaking. "Stay with me, Lucy. The baby's fine—you're both fine, okay? Just stay with me."

I pushed myself up onto one elbow. "Alex, I didn't push her—she grabbed me, she—"

"SHUT UP." He turned. His eyes were red. "You vicious piece of TRASH. Betraying me wasn't enough—now you're going after my CHILD?"

"I didn't—I swear—"

He was already across the floor. His hand closed around my throat and he lifted me clean off the ground.

"You know what that baby IS to me?" His voice came out raw, shredding. "This is the future of this family. My blood. And you—you treacherous BITCH—you went after him."

I couldn't breathe. Tears ran down my face and dripped onto his hand.

"Lucia FERRARO. How much more are you gonna destroy?"

He dropped me and drove his fist into my stomach.

I flew backward, hit the stairs, and slid down before landing hard on the marble floor. My head caught the brass base of the railing on the way down. Heat poured across my temple, spreading wide and dark across the white floor beneath me.

Alex's voice came from somewhere far away, knife-sharp into his phone:

"Best OB in the city. RIGHT NOW. Money doesn't matter—just GET HER HERE."

"That baby better be okay—or I will burn that entire hospital to the GROUND."

Then his shoe came down on my face. Slow. Deliberate.

"Get this bitch out of my sight. Throw her in the pit."