"You should stay home and focus on what you do best." His tone was the one he used to close negotiations, final and polished. "When the two families are joined, our territory expands across the entire Silver District. The advantages are enormous. This is business, Mia."
He stepped closer, pressing his lips to her forehead in a gesture meant to soothe, meant to dismiss. His fingers laced through hers. "Don't overthink it. You're going to be a mother. If you keep tormenting yourself with jealousy, how will you raise our child?"
Mia smiled. It was the thinnest, most brittle smile she had ever worn. She looked up at her husband of three years, this man who still did not know she had lost their baby because of his negligence. The words sat in her throat like swallowed glass.
"But wasn't it you," she said quietly, "who told your men, over drinks at the club, that since I'm an orphan with no family, I wouldn't know how to raise a child? And that Vanessa should help me?"
The color drained from Xavier Salvatore's face as though someone had opened a vein. His eyes went wide.