Chapter 1 - The Woman He Chose
The first thing Giana Bellini felt was the heat of blood running beneath her dress.
The second was the cold.
Not the cold from the winter night outside the mansion.
The cold that came from seeing her husband look at another woman—and knowing, in that terrible instant, that he had already made his choice.
"Giana..."
Her husband’s voice was barely audible beneath the orchestra.
She stood beside the long dining table, one trembling hand pressed against the curve of her eight-month pregnant belly.
Her other hand covered the small wound beneath her ribs.
The gunshot hadn't killed her.
Not yet.
But the bullet had grazed her side badly enough that blood had soaked through the pale fabric of her dress.
Around her, two hundred wealthy guests had gone silent.
Crystal chandeliers glittered overhead.
Candles flickered across the tables.
And every pair of eyes in the grand ballroom was fixed on her.
Giana looked at Luca.
Her husband.
The man who had once promised her that nothing in this world would ever come between them.
He was sitting at the head table.
Beside him sat Vanessa.
The woman who had spent the last six months pretending to be his business associate.
The woman Giana had once defended when people whispered that she wanted Luca.
Now Vanessa was crying delicately into a silk handkerchief.
"I didn't mean for this to happen," Vanessa whispered.
Luca immediately reached for her.
That movement broke something inside Giana.
Not the gunshot.
Not the pain.
Something deeper.
Something that had survived every argument, every suspicious phone call, every night Luca came home after midnight.
"Luca," Giana whispered.
He looked at her.
For one second, their eyes met.
Giana searched his face for the man she had married.
She found fear.
But not fear for her.
Fear for Vanessa.
"Call an ambulance," someone shouted.
"No."
Luca stood.
Giana's heart lifted for half a second.
Then he walked toward Vanessa.
Not toward his bleeding wife.
Toward Vanessa.
"She's in shock," he told the security men. "Get Vanessa somewhere safe."
Giana stared at him.
The ballroom seemed to tilt.
"You're worried about her?"
Luca froze.
His jaw tightened.
"Giana, this isn't the time."
She almost laughed.
A strange, broken sound escaped her throat.
"I'm your wife."
"I know."
"I'm carrying your child."
His eyes flicked toward her swollen belly.
Then toward Vanessa.
That was when Giana understood.
He wasn't choosing Vanessa because he didn't love Giana anymore.
He was choosing Vanessa because there was something he desperately wanted to protect.
A secret.
A secret worth abandoning his pregnant wife for.
Vanessa suddenly grabbed Luca's sleeve.
"Luca, please."
Giana watched his expression change.
That was enough.
She slowly removed her hand from her wound.
Her fingers were covered in blood.
She looked at the red staining her palm.
Then she looked at her husband.
"You know what?" she whispered.
Luca stepped toward her.
"Giana—"
"No."
She backed away.
For the first time in eight months, she wasn't afraid of losing him.
She was afraid of staying.
"You've made your choice."
She turned toward the ballroom doors.
Someone tried to stop her.
Giana lifted one hand.
"Don't."
The room fell silent again.
She walked alone.
One step.
Then another.
Her legs shook.
Her baby moved violently beneath her ribs.
Giana placed a hand over her belly.
"I've got you," she whispered.
Behind her, Luca shouted her name.
She didn't turn around.
Outside, snow was beginning to fall.
And as Giana stepped into the freezing night, she made the decision that would change all their lives.
She would disappear.
Not for revenge.
Not for money.
Not even for herself.
For her unborn child.
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Because if Luca Bellini could choose another woman while his pregnant wife was bleeding in front of him...
Then Giana would make sure he never had the chance to choose their child's future again.
