Chapter 1 - The Price of Love
Seven months pregnant, Emily Bellini placed her husband’s black credit card on the marble table.
Beside it, she laid the diamond bracelet he had given her for their first anniversary.
“These were gifts,” Aleandro said.
“Yes.” Her voice trembled. “And I treasured them because they came from you.”
She looked at the financial statements scattered between them.
“Tonight, you made me wonder whether you believed I treasured them for their price.”
Twenty minutes earlier, his sister had brought papers supposedly proving Emily had stolen almost three million dollars from the family trust.
Emily had expected her husband to ask questions.
Instead, he had asked whether she married him for his money.
Across the room, Isabella folded her hands.
“We only need to clear up some unusual transactions.”
“Then explain why you brought altered records into my home.”
“Enough,” Aleandro ordered.
Emily went silent.
He could silence dangerous men with that word. Now he had used it on his wife.
“You’re seven months pregnant,” he said. “You cannot simply leave.”
“Watch me.”
“You’re carrying my daughter.”
Tears slipped down her cheeks.
“Our daughter.”
He stepped toward her.
She stepped back.
For one last moment, she searched his face, waiting for something that would make her put down her handbag.
I believe you.
Instead, his eyes returned to the papers.
“I already made a decision I regret,” she whispered. “I believed you knew the difference between loving someone and owning them.”
At the entrance, his security chief hesitated.
“Sir?”
Aleandro stood beside the table, perfectly still.
“Let her leave.”
May you like
Cold Chicago rain swept across the driveway. Emily lowered herself behind the wheel of the modest car she had owned before their marriage. Her daughter moved beneath her ribs. She pressed a hand against her stomach, whispered, “It’s all right, sweetheart,” and drove toward the gates.
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