Page 106 of Secret Baby for the Italian Mafia Don

He makes a careless dive for my mouth again, and I have to physically hold him back.

“Then I need you to listen to me, okay? Please listen.” I can barely speak through the terror, my vocal cords paralyzed with how reluctant I am to tell him. Thaddeus stills, attentive, his drunk expression oh-so happy and blissful. If there is a moment, this is that moment. I swallow my fear.

“I’m pregnant.”

Words like that should be harder to say. They should hurt on the way up, or weigh a thousand pounds. But they’re just words, and they leave my lips light as air. Thaddeus doesn’t comprehend. Not at first. His expression twists, full of uncertainty and good humor, trying to figure out the joke.

“I’m pregnant,” I repeat again, just as serious, forcing him to hear me.

“But…” He’s getting there, one neuron connecting at a time. “You and I, we haven’t…”

The tears well up behind my eyes as I nod, trying to walk him to the conclusion as gently as I can.

“Right. But it doesn’t matter, right? Because the sooner we have a baby, the better it is forus. For our standing. Salvatore and Marcel will be so happy, and—”

“You’re a virgin.”

The words are like a slap.

He gets off me, staring me down, the distance between us feeling vast and frigid like the Arctic tundra. All the warmth of thealcohol has drained out of his face, left it ruddy and unsure. “You told me you’re a virgin. Youcan’tbe pregnant.”

“When I told you that, it was still true.”For about an hour.

He pushes me off of him, and I scramble back to block the door so he can’t storm right off to Marcel and Salvatore, spilling my secret all over the house. I beg him to see reason.

“Thaddeus, think it through! This isperfectfor us. I got pregnant after we met. No one would think it’s not yours, and it hardly matters whose it is—”

“I knew Salvatore was pawning his trash off onto me! Iknewit, and I still fucking played along!”

Dreads chills my stomach. I try to talk to him again, try to close the distance, begging him to see me as the pretty, shallow future he wants, right here for the taking. All he stares at is my belly, his drunk disbelief sobering into a cold, crystal-clear fury.

“You fucking whore,” he snarls.

The backhanded slap sends me reeling. He grabs me by the front of my dress and drags me to him, snapping his hand across my face again before I can even get my senses straight. The second hit rekindles my instincts.

“Stop it!” I beg, as he gets his fist into my hair, trying to sling me around the bedroom as he yells. “Thaddeus, please!”

He holds me in his grip, the moment trembling, my face hurting and tears streaming, but even as he threatens me with anotherhit, my hands leave my face unguarded, arms instinctively wrapped around my belly.

“Listen to me,” he says, savage and drunk. “I’m not going to be made a fool of. Not me. I’m not raising someone else’s bastard while the whole fucking family mutters the truth behind my back—fuck that. You’re going to get rid of it, aren’t you?” he pressures.

I shake my head, and Thaddeus’s fist cracks against my cheek.

“You’re going to get rid of it, aren’t you?” he repeats, louder.

The world spins, becoming a flash of light and pain. I’m too dazed to beg. I’ve never been hit before, not like this, with a man’s malice and intent to harm, and it takes the whole world out from under me.

“No,” I seethe, and he hits me again. My knees give out.

“I swear to fucking God, Ava, you—you are not going to ruin this for me. I wanted to be a good husband. But if I have to break you in, so fucking be it.”

He tries to kick me in the stomach, but my arms catch the worst of the blow. That one act sparks a fury inside me, and suddenly I come up off the ground, pushing Thaddeus as hard as I can, with all my strength. He’s drunk and he stumbles, and I make a break for the door, slinging it open. I try to run, still reeling, but he comes up behind me and throws me into the wall, dragging me back.

His hand clamps around my mouth before I can scream as he drags me back into my bedroom. He slams the door, standingcrookedly between me and the exit and catching his breath. On the floor, I curl as tight as I can around my belly. I’m insane with fight or flight, all instincts now, sheer survival. He peels off his jacket and throws it aside, kneeling down with his fingers twisted into my hair.

“You could’ve done this the easy way,” he says.

There never was an easy way.

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