Chapter 13
VALENTINA
The clinic’s air turns suffocating when my dazed head translates Valeria’s wildly inaccurate accusation. “She’s the woman carrying our child.”
I’m overcome with shock. Then denial sets in.
Her words can’t be for me. I’m not pregnant.
I attended the clinic to sell my eggs, hoping I’d scrape together enough money to extend my mother’s life beyond the two to three months the medical professionals had given her, not to become the center of someone else’s tragedy.
I glance behind me, confident the once-desolate waiting room now houses another body.
Only the ghosts of karma remain.
When I return my focus front and center, the doctor gestures for me to enter the office next to the one I’m frozen in front of, clutching the bag I hurriedly packed as if it is a shield.
“We can talk in there.” His gaze bounces between Giovanni and Valeria, anticipating they’ll get the message and let him pass.
Giovanni doesn’t budge an inch. He plants himself beside me, folds his arms over his chest, and sets his jaw. His narrowed gaze expresses the words he doesn’t need to speak.
He isn’t going anywhere… and neither am I.
Valeria’s eyes are red-rimmed, yet she remains as obstinate as Giovanni. “If she’s carrying my child, I have every right to be here.”
I stare at her, bewildered. “I have no idea what you are talking about. I’m not pregnant.
I didn’t come here for IVF. I…” My words trail off as shame swamps me.
I honestly don’t know what makes me want to crawl under a pillow and die more.
Selling my eggs for profit or being confronted by Giovanni’s big fat lie again in less than twenty-four hours.
I face the doctor with a look that asks him to corroborate my statement. He hesitates, peers at me in sympathy, then murmurs, “I understand this is overwhelming, Ms. Raimondi, but if you will give me the chance to explain, perhaps you won’t be so bewildered.”
“The chance to explain what?” I abandon all pretense of doctor–patient confidentiality when he looks at Giovanni and Valeria with weary resignation. “Say what you need to say. I’ve got nothing to hide.” Except my shameful face.
It’s astonishing that out of all the people in the world, two of the most glamorous people will learn about my desperation.
Valeria is crying but still possesses an air of sophistication. And don’t get me started on Giovanni or I’ll expose his adulterous ways with more than my fists. I’ve never wanted to kiss the arrogance off someone’s face as intently as I do right now.
Why does he look so cocky? It makes no sense.
Giovanni’s eyes never leave mine, and Valeria’s stare is heavy with distress when the doctor clears his throat before he begins to speak.
“There was a mix-up. A junior associate confused your file with another patient’s.
Instead of retrieving your eggs for donation, he prepared you for an embryo transfer.
” The world spins following his next words.
“The embryos created from Mr. Caruso’s sperm and Ms. Raimondo’s eggs were implanted in you. ”
Despite not being able to see my reflection, I’m aware my face lacks color. My soul vanished along with the blood in my cheeks many minutes ago.
“No,” I whisper. “This can’t be right. I didn’t agree to this. This isn’t what I signed up for. I was to donate eggs, not have them put inside me.”
The doctor’s professional demeanor collapses with regret.
“I know, and I’m so sorry. The associate misread the schedule.
He saw your name and mistook it for Ms. Raimondo’s.
The similarity in names and the pressure must have become too much.
He didn’t double-check, and as such, he followed the protocol for an embryo transfer instead of an egg retrieval. ”
Valeria rocks on her heels as her entire body shakes. “So it’s true. My eggs and Giovanni’s sperm are inside her?”
When the doctor nods, face abundant with regret, I stumble into his office and sit on the first chair I see, my legs too weak to support me.
The remorse in Dr. Di Petro’s eyes is for Valeria, but the sympathy in his words is for me.
“The error was only discovered when we reviewed the post-procedure paperwork and realized the samples didn’t match the intended recipients.
By then, the transfer had already taken place. It was too late to change anything.”
I can’t move, speak, or comprehend. It feels like someone yanked the floor out from beneath me and then sat back to watch me fall.
After what seems like a lifetime but is barely seconds, I finally speak. “There’s a possibility the transfer will fail, right? I might not be pregnant?”
“There’s a possibility,” the doctor concurs, permitting me to breathe. “But you’re young, Valentina, and extremely fertile. The odds are in favor of conception.”
The gravity of the situation slowly emerges from the mud when I discuss it out loud. “I could be pregnant…”—I lock eyes with Giovanni, who is still as cool as a cucumber—“with your child?” A thin layer of sweat covers my skin when I turn my focus to Valeria. “And yours?”
Again, the doctor nods as his eyes plead for understanding.
“We could run some tests now to confirm, but it’s too early for certainty.
” He crouches down like eye contact will mend the mistakes his team made.
“I can’t apologize enough. This isn’t the usual standard of care we provide our patients.
I know it won’t make it any better, but I suspended the associate this morning, pending investigation. ”
It’s difficult for me to catch my breath. My thoughts are a tangle of panic and outrage. “How could this happen? I just wanted to help my mom. I needed money for her. That’s all. This wasn’t meant to happen. Do you not have checks and safeguards in place to ensure stuff like this doesn’t occur?”
“We do. There are multiple checks. Names and dates of birth are standard. But the associate—”
“Fucked up.” Giovanni jumps into the conversation, finally, as I brush a solemn tear from my cheek. “And I’m interested in discovering how he did that.”
Before the doctor can speak, Valeria’s confession stills the room. “It’s my fault. I used my grandmother’s maiden name for the paperwork. I didn’t want people to think our… arrangement was staged.”
“Even though that is precisely what this was. An arrangement.”
She acts as if Giovanni never spoke. Tears well in her eyes as she lowers them to my stomach. A healthy appetite has made it a little plump, but it’s far from looking pregnant. “But now it’s all a mess.”
The doctor tries to mediate, but his words are just noise. My head is spinning, and I’m angry. So fucking angry. Not solely at the clinic. I also blame myself for the desperation that led me here.
It’s also frightening being pushed into a role you’ve never truly considered.
Well, I have considered having children, but not like this. I always thought they’d come after the bells and whistles of a whirlwind relationship. A predicament like this never entered the equation.
“If the test comes back positive, I can have an abortion.” That was hard to say, but what other choice do I have?
Giovanni’s stern timbre drills through my panic. “No. That’s not happening.” His seemingly laidback composure is terrifying. He should be furious, but for some reason, he’s not. He’s in control, as if he’s already decided my fate for me.
The certainty in his eyes makes me want to run, and the urge doubles when Valeria’s sob reaches my ears.
“Please, don’t. My egg supply is already low.
This cycle could be my last chance to be a mother.
Please, Valentina, don’t kill my child.” Her pain is raw, and it slices through me with the brutality of a knife.
I know all too well the pain of clinging to hope with bleeding fingers, but I can’t be her savior. I can barely save myself.
I’m torn in two, conflicted between compassion and self-preservation.
My heart hurts for Valeria, but my head screams at me to run.
I need time to think without this additional burden breathing down my neck.
I hate that I’m not strong enough to face this with grace, but the tank has been empty for months. There’s nothing left to give.
My body reacts before my heart’s pleas can be heard. I bolt for the exit, eager to escape this nightmare. As I reach the door, a sharp jab pricks my neck. In less than a heartbeat, my vision goes hazy, and the world spins around me.
I assume Giovanni isn’t happy about my plan to flee him again, but a voice I’ve heard more in ecstasy than in an everyday setting proves me wrong. “What the fuck did you do?”
“That is my child,” replies Valeria as I fall forward too fast to be safe. “I refuse to let someone like her take him or her away from me.”
I’m caught by a powerful set of arms a second before Giovanni’s earthy and expensive cologne fills my senses. A comforting illusion of safety swamps me as everything fades to black. I shouldn’t want Giovanni’s comfort or protection, but I do. Badly.