Chapter 23 #2
"The dress fitting is tomorrow. Mrs. Rossi will come get you. Try to look presentable. I want my bride to be beautiful even if she is... reluctant."
The door closed. Locked.
I stood there for exactly ten seconds. Then I ran to the bathroom and threw up violently.
Everything I'd tried to keep down came up. My stomach heaving. Body rejecting the horror of what Salvatore had just said. What he'd promised to do.
On our wedding night.
Three days from now.
I was still kneeling on the bathroom floor, arms wrapped around the toilet, when I felt a hand on my back.
I startled. Jerked around. Ready to fight if it was Salvatore coming back.
Lia knelt beside me. Concern written all over her face.
"I bribed the guard again. Heard you throwing up. Aria, what's wrong? Should I get a doctor?"
"No. No doctors. I'm fine. It's just... stress. Everything that's happened. I've been feeling sick since..." I couldn't finish. Started dry heaving again.
Lia grabbed a washcloth. Wet it with cool water. Pressed it against my forehead while I tried to breathe through the nausea.
"How long have you been feeling like this?"
"Few days. Maybe a week? I don't know. Time is blurring together."
She was quiet for a moment. Then asked carefully, "Are you on your period right now?"
"What? Why would..." I trailed off. Thought about it. When was my last period?
Oh no.
Oh no no no.
I started counting backwards in my head. Trying to remember dates. My cycle had always been regular. Twenty-eight days like clockwork.
Except I was late. Very late. At least two weeks late.
And I'd been nauseous every morning. Exhausted. Emotional in ways that felt extreme even for my situation.
"I think..." The words wouldn't come. Too terrifying to say out loud. "Lia, I think I'm pregnant."
The bathroom went silent. Lia's hand stilled on my back.
"Are you sure?"
"No. I don't know. I haven't taken a test. But my period is late and I've been sick and..." I looked at her with panic rising. "If I am, it's Kai's. It has to be Kai's. Salvatore never touched me. Never got close enough. But if I'm pregnant and he finds out before the wedding..."
"He'll know." Lia finished the thought. "He'll know you're carrying Kai's baby and he'll either kill it or use it against Kai or both."
I started shaking. Full body tremors I couldn't control.
A baby. Kai's baby. Growing inside me right now while I was locked in a room about to be forced to marry his father.
The universe had a truly sick sense of humor.
"We need to get you out of here." Lia stood abruptly. Started pacing the bathroom. "Now. Tonight. Before Salvatore can figure it out. Before the wedding happens. Before any of this gets worse."
"How? The guards are everywhere. Your father has this place locked down. Even if we got past the guards, where would we go? He'd find us. He'd kill us both and probably Kai too."
"Then we get word to Kai. Tell him what's happening. Let him know he needs to move faster." She pulled out a phone from her pocket. "I can text Marco. He'll get the message to Kai."
"And say what? 'Hi, your girlfriend might be pregnant with your baby and is about to be forced to marry your father in seven days. Please hurry'?" Hysteria was creeping into my voice. "This is insane. This whole situation is completely insane."
"I know. But it's our reality." Lia started typing rapidly. "Marco will know what to do. He always does. And Kai... god, Kai is going to lose his mind when he finds out. But he'll also move heaven and earth to get to you faster."
She finished typing. Hit send. The message disappeared into the digital void.
Now all we could do was wait.
Lia helped me up off the bathroom floor. Got me to the sink where I rinsed my mouth out. Brushed my teeth to get rid of the taste of bile.
I looked at myself in the mirror. Pale. Dark circles under my eyes. Bruise blooming on my cheek. Hair a mess.
I looked like a disaster. Felt like one too.
And I might be pregnant.
With Kai's baby.
The thought should have terrified me. Should have sent me into another spiral of panic.
Instead, something warm bloomed in my chest. Something that felt dangerously close to hope.
A baby. A part of Kai that would be mine no matter what happened. Proof that what we had was real and meaningful and worth fighting for.
If I was actually pregnant. Big if. Needed to confirm before I let myself feel anything about it.
"I need a test. A pregnancy test. Can you get one?"
"I can try. There's a pharmacy in the city that won't ask questions.
I can send someone I trust to pick one up.
" Lia gripped my shoulders. "But Aria, even if you are pregnant, we're getting you out of this.
You're not marrying my father. You're not carrying Kai's baby while being forced into that monster's bed. We'll figure something out."
"How? How do we figure this out when we're both locked in rooms with guards outside? When Kai is wounded and exiled? When the wedding is in seven days and your father controls everything?"
"I don't know yet. But we will. Because the alternative isn't acceptable." She pulled me into a hug. "You're not alone in this. You have me. You have Kai fighting for you. You have Mrs. Rossi on your side. We're all working to save you. You just have to hold on a little longer."
I nodded against her shoulder. Tried to absorb her certainty. Her strength.
"What if we can't hold on long enough? What if time runs out?"
"Then we make our own opportunities. We fight.
We resist. We never give up." She pulled back, looked me in the eyes.
"You're stronger than you know, Aria. You've survived this long.
You can survive seven more days. And by the end of those seven days, either Kai will have saved you or we'll have figured out how to save ourselves. "
She left shortly after. Had to get back to her own room before the guards noticed she was gone too long.
I sat on my bed. Hands on my still-flat stomach. Wondering if there was actually a baby in there. A tiny cluster of cells that was half me and half Kai.
The idea should have terrified me.
Instead, it felt like a lifeline. A reason to keep fighting beyond just survival.
If I was pregnant, I wasn't just fighting for myself anymore. I was fighting for this baby. For Kai's child. For the future we'd talked about in that Italian restaurant that felt like a lifetime ago.
Three days until the wedding.
Three days to escape or be saved or figure out some third option I hadn't thought of yet.
Three days to find out if I was actually pregnant or if stress and fear were just playing tricks on my body.
Three days until everything either fell apart or came together.
I lay back on the bed. Closed my eyes. Tried to find some calm in the storm.
Kai was alive. He was fighting for me. He hadn't given up.
I couldn't give up either.
No matter how terrifying this got. No matter how hopeless it seemed.
I had to survive. Had to stay strong. Had to believe that love was enough to overcome even this nightmare.
Because if I gave up now, Salvatore won. And I refused to let that happen.
So I'd endure. I'd resist. I'd fight and I'd pray that Kai got here in time.
Before the wedding. Before Salvatore could make good on his threats. Before I lost everything that mattered.
Three days,I just had to survive Three more days.
How hard could that be?