Chapter 25 Natalie
NATALIE
Cum is sliding out of me and Sergio is looming over me. His gaze shifts to between my legs and he’s got me trapped so I can’t move, can’t cover myself. He sits up. Pushes my legs wide. Watches his stuff spill out of me. Watches until it’s finished before returning his gaze to mine.
“The test.”
He pauses, and I wait wordlessly for him to continue.
“Is that why you left?”
I cover my face, rub my eyes. “What are we doing? What kind of world am I going to bring a baby into?”
“We,” he says, his face like stone. “Not I. We.”
“But that’s the point.”
He lies down on his side. It’s like he knows what I mean. Thinks it too. “I shouldn’t have found out the way I did.”
“I just found out myself,” I say, but it’s not true. I’ve known. I’ve just been too afraid to face it.
He touches my face, turns it so I have to look at him. “I don’t like it when you lie to me.”
I don’t deny the lie.
“How long have you known?”
“I took the test today.”
“How long have you known.”
“Since that weekend at your father’s house.”
If he’s surprised, he doesn’t let on. “How far?”
“Maybe six weeks.” It’s quiet. “I thought it was a bug. It was your brother who said something that made me wonder if it wasn’t. That made me count.”
“My brother?”
“Dominic. He caught me in the hallway. Made some comment about a friend vomiting at the smell of fish and how it turned out she was pregnant.”
“He was fucking with you.” We fall silent again. Sergio’s watching me, his midnight eyes heated. “You can’t leave, Natalie. Whatever you’re thinking, get that out of your head.”
“Your father, what he said about Lucia DeMarco…”
“My father can say what he wants. Lucia isn’t for me. Period. She belongs to Salvatore and I don’t want to hear her name again. End of that discussion, understand?”
I nod.
“Where are your parents?” he asks.
“Arizona.”
“I busted the glass on the kitchen window.”
“You broke in. Of course, you did.” I feel my face darken. He’s a criminal. A mobster.
The image of him standing over the man with the gun comes again. I close my eyes against it. I don’t want to see him like that ever again. I should have listened to him when he told me there are things you can’t unsee because that I wish I’d never seen.
He touches my cheek. I open my eyes. “You know who I am. What I’m capable of.
You wanted to see and you did. You saw what I’ll do to protect what’s mine.
How far I’ll go when what’s mine is taken.
Hurt. You and the baby are mine, Natalie.
I will protect you, always. I love you and I can’t let you walk away, no matter what. No matter if it’s wrong. I won’t.”
“I don’t want to.”