"I'm sorry, Giovanna. I was wrong. I wouldn't dare dream of marrying Tomasso anymore. I'll take the baby and go far away. Please, I'm begging you, just stop hurting us, okay?"
"What are you doing? Putting on another act?"
The pain in my abdomen was getting worse. A dark premonition crept through me, cold and certain, the way you feel the air change before a storm rolls in off the harbor. Terrified that something was actually happening to my baby, I moved toward the door to find a doctor, but it swung open before I could reach it.
A crowd stood in the doorway. Soldiers. Associates. The inner circle of the Rossetti household, still dressed in the dark suits they wore to every formal occasion, still carrying themselves with the quiet vigilance of men who lived inside a world where doorways were always dangerous. And at the front, Tomasso.