Chapter 37
Gabriella
Before
Walking back into my home, I felt as though I were floating.
My fingers kept drifting back to my stomach, like I needed to check it was still real.
Like I hadn’t imagined it.
Like that sound hadn’t just filled an entire room and changed everything.
We’re going to be parents.
I smiled to myself, picturing his face when I’d told him I’d decided to go through with it tonight. No more hiding. No more sneaking around.
Tonight… I’d finally get to go home with him properly.
And because of that, I was looking at everything through a new, clear lens.
This would be the last time I came home.
The last night I slept in this house.
The last time I walked these halls as a Rider.
Tonight, Luke would come for me. Together, we would tell my dad, and all the other Riders that we were a couple, and we would leave.
As simple as that.
Luke’s club—our club!—would be waiting for us. We would have a celebratory party when we shared our news, and we’d wait for the inevitable fallout. But my dad wouldn’t strike tonight. He never acted without a plan. He’d take a few days to plot before he made his move.
And we’d be prepared. Luke would see to everything.
But as I walked further into the house, something felt… off.
Usually, there were bikers coming and going. My dad was usually barking commands, my mum was always around, drunkenly complaining.
Today, everything was still… silent. What few men remained in the corridors grew silent as I passed them, their faces turning to stone, their eyes following me as I made my way to the stairs.
A chill raced up my spine, and I hurried my steps, my hand on the banister.
“Gabby,” I heard my dad call from his office. “Can you come in here a moment?”
Every instinct inside me screamed at me to run. To turn around. To get out before it was too late.
But, idiot woman that I was, I ignored it, plastering a smile on my face as I turned around and headed to the office.
“Everything okay, Daddy…?” I asked, my voice trailing off as I took in the scene before me.
My dad was sitting on the desk, his legs crossed at the ankles, facing the door with a fake smile. Three of his enforcers were against the back wall, their guns already in their hands. His VP was muttering into a phone, and his Sergeant-at-arms struggled to subdue the girl kneeling on the floor.
The girl with the black eyes and split lip.
The girl with the broken nose and blood-shot eyes.
The girl who was my best friend.
Natalie…
“What’s going on here?” I asked, jumping as a prospect crept up behind me and slammed the door shut, locking me in the room.
My heart stopped. The air grew cold.
I looked at Natalie, my chest tightening as she gave the smallest shake of her head.
And then she mouthed two words.
I’m sorry.
My stomach dropped so sharply it almost took me with it.
“Dad? What’s going on?” I repeated, my voice quieter now, thinner, as I forced myself to drag my gaze away from her and back to my father.
He didn’t answer straight away. Instead, he pushed himself off the desk and adjusted his cut, like this were nothing more than a routine conversation. Like the men lining the walls, the guns already in their hands, and Natalie kneeling on the floor, didn’t exist.
“Where have you been today, sweetheart?” he asked pleasantly, his smile reminding me of a crocodile.
The question threw me just enough that my mind scrambled for something believable. Anything that sounded normal. I swallowed heavily and then replied.
“I went into town,” I said, forcing a shrug. “Met up with some friends. Did a bit of shopping. Same old, same old.”
My voice didn’t shake. I was almost proud of that.
My dad smiled wider, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“Is that right?”
A slow, creeping unease slid through me.
“Yeah. Why?” I forced a fake laugh that sounded hollow to even my ears. “Where else would I have been?”
He hummed, glancing briefly toward Natalie before looking back at me. “Well… Natalie here seems to think you were up to something different. Something far more beneficial to the club… If she’s to be believed, that is.”
“I’m confused,” I said. “If Natalie has important information, why has someone hit her? Why is she being forced to kneel on the floor?”
“Tell me about you and the Devils,” my dad said, ignoring my question.
“There’s nothing to say,” I said quickly, feeling my stomach twist. My only saving grace was that I didn’t have the scan pictures with me. We decided it was safer for Luke to have them, and keep them in his room at the Devil’s clubhouse.
My dad would never see them. He would never know. He might know other stuff—stuff I’d soon find out, no doubt—but he didn’t know about the thing that mattered the most.
“Natalie says differently. According to her, your best friend, she says you’ve been meeting up with them for years.”
“She’s lying,” I said quickly, stepping forward before I could second-guess myself. “She’s clearly been—”
“I’m not lying,” Natalie cut in, her voice rough and unsteady. “We’ve been working them. Both of us.”
The words didn’t make sense at first. I stared at her, my brows pulling together.
Betrayed. That’s all I could feel.
Sharp, hot, burning betrayal.
And yet, I knew it wasn’t her fault. One look at her and it was obvious she had been coerced.
“That’s not true—” I began.
“It was all a setup,” she continued, her eyes locking onto mine with a desperation that made my chest tighten. “Gabby is lying because she thinks you’ll be mad. We know we let it go on for too long, but this was always the plan. Getting close to them. Gaining their trust. Feeding information back.”
My heart began to pound, each beat louder than the last.
What are you doing?
“Natalie—”
“Funny…” my dad said slowly, eyeing us both with suspicion. “You say you were getting information, and yet neither of you has ever come to me with news of the Devils. Neither of you has ever aided us in any of our schemes to bring them down. So tell me why I should believe either of you?”
“It’s true, sir,” Natalie all but begged. “We can give you—”
“Show her,” my father said calmly, cutting her off.
The Sergeant-at-Arms tightened his hold on Natalie as the VP stepped forward, turning his phone so the screen faced me.
And everything inside me went cold.
Vienna stood in the middle of an empty lot, exactly where he’d said he’d be waiting for me later. For a second, it looked like he really was alone.
But then I saw them.
Our men.
Positioned around him, spaced out just enough that he wouldn’t immediately notice. Watching. Waiting. Ready to strike when the command was given.
“No…” The word slipped out before I could stop it, my body instinctively shifting forward.
A hand clamped around my arm, holding me in place.
“Oh, this is precious!” My father laughed. “He doesn’t know, does he? The poor bastard thinks all of this is real.”
My chest tightened, panic rising so fast it made me dizzy.
“It’s not real, is it, Princess?” he continued, almost conversationally, like he was discussing something as trivial as the weather.
And yet, we all knew the menace and threat lurking behind those words.
“You never willingly took up with a Devil. Did you? You never shared his bed, his hopes, and his dreams? You never betrayed your club, your family, me? None of that is true, is it, baby?” he said, walking closer and closer to me with every word.
My blood turned to ice.
The room fell silent, the weight of his words pressing in on me from all sides.
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.
Natalie’s voice echoed in my head.
We’ve been working them.
My gaze snapped back to her. Her eyes were wide, pleading, filled with something that looked a lot like fear.
Say it.
I had to trust her. She was in this room before me. She knew more than me. And it didn’t take a genius to fill in the gaps.
If I admitted my involvement with Luke, my father’s men would kill him right there and then.
A short, hollow laugh left me before I could stop it.
“Seriously?” I scoffed, dragging my attention back to my father as I forced my shoulders to relax. “This is what this is about?”
I leaned into it, because I had no other choice.
“She’s right,” I said, the words tasting like acid in my mouth.
“It was never real. I got close to him to get information. After what happened with his mother, he was the easiest target,” I said with a shrug.
“He’s the stray, Dad. Nothing more. He just so happens to also be the stray that’s clinging to the son of the president.
Getting information was easy when the target was someone so desperate,” I forced a chuckle, my words stabbing into my heart.
But they were just words, I told myself. Just words, and they meant nothing.
My father didn’t move. Didn’t react. He just watched me, weighing my words.
“Is that so?” he asked mildly.
I met his gaze and nodded. “Yeah.”
“Then prove it,” he said, his eyes drifting to my abdomen.
My stomach twisted violently, my hand instinctively pressing against it before I could stop myself.
No.
Not that.
There was no way he could know.
“I said prove it, girl!” my dad barked, making me and Natalie jump. “Come on! After all these years, you must have fucking something for me!”
I hesitated, just for a moment, and in that moment I felt everything I was about to destroy. Every line I was about to cross.
Then I spoke.
“I know Dante and Laura hate their match,” I said, forcing the words out steadily.
“They can barely stand being around each other. Laura has spoken to me about leaving. Running away in the dead of the night. We could offer her protection. The VP’s old lady?
” I forced a laugh. “Imagine how much that would have to hurt.”
My father stayed quiet, pondering my words, looking as though he didn’t believe a word of it.
“And Macbeth!” I blurted out.
“What about Macbeth?”
“Crash is phasing him out. He’s already decided that Dante will be president. Poor bastard has no idea.”
Each sentence felt like a betrayal, like I were carving pieces out of myself and handing them over.
But on that screen, Vienna still stood there.
Still waiting.
Still alive.
Silence followed, heavy and deliberate, as my father studied me. Then, slowly, he smiled.
“Well done, baby girl,” he murmured, stepping forward and cupping my face. I forced myself to stay still as he pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I knew you wouldn’t disappoint me.”
The praise felt worse than any punishment.
My stomach churned, my hand still resting protectively over it as if I could somehow shield what was inside me.
His gaze followed the movement.
“Oh, baby,” he sighed. “You’ve got yourself in a bit of trouble, haven’t you?”
“I… I don’t know—”
“It’s okay,” he said, kissing my forehead again. “We can get it taken care of. It’s a small price to pay to bring them down.”
“G-get it taken… taken care of?” I stammered.
“If it meant nothing…” he said softly.
Panic surged through me. “I—I can’t… I just heard its heartbeat today—”
The words slipped out before I could stop them, hanging in the air like a mistake I couldn’t take back.
The room went completely still.
My father’s expression didn’t change.
“If it meant nothing,” he repeated.
The phone was lifted again, the screen turning back toward me.
Vienna.
“Refuse,” my father said quietly, and this time there was nothing pleasant left in his voice, “and I’ll know you were lying. Refuse, and we’ll see how long he lasts.”
My vision blurred as I stared at the screen, my chest tightening painfully.
My baby.
That sound.
That heartbeat.
I just heard you.
My fingers curled against my stomach, my whole body trembling as I looked at him.
At the man I loved.
At the father of my child.
You’re going to hate me.
The thought settled heavily in my chest.
But you’ll be alive.
We could try again one day. We could. We could…
But I knew that was a lie. We would never get another chance. This was it. And I was about to destroy everything, just so he could live another day. Even if that meant he had to do so without me.
Without our baby.
This was inevitable. Nobody ever got it all, and we were deluding ourselves into thinking otherwise.
My lips parted, my voice barely holding together as I forced the word out.
“…Okay.”
And just like that, everything we’d built was gone.
In that moment, I felt something inside me break beyond repair.