Page 78 of Of Lies and Shadows

And then she says it, quietly but firm. “No.”

The word lands like a slap.

My hands curl into fists before I can stop them. “No?”

She lifts her chin. “I can’t sign that.”

I feel the rejection slice clean through my chest. “I thought you loved them. Like they were yours.”

“I do.” Her voice wavers, and something in me grabs at that weakness, needing her to explain, to fix what she just broke. “Mine… or yours.”

I hear it before I understand it. And when I do, it lands like a punch to the gut.

“Oh, I see.” My voice is sharp. Cold. “But notours.”

She looks at me, and I know she hears the bitterness in my tone. I don’t care. I’m furious and ashamed at the same time because I thought this one thing was safe between us.

But no. Even this has conditions.

And the worst part? I don’t even know if I’m angry at her or at myself for expecting more.

I let the silence hang between us for a beat before I speak again. “Is it true what you told your father? That you can’t have children?”

She flinches almost imperceptibly. “Does it matter?” Her tone is calm. Flat. Dangerous. “You already made it very clear you wouldn’t give me children.”

“I remember.” I pause, dragging my eyes down the line of her body before I can stop myself. “But would you want me to?”

There’s a flicker in her expression too brief to name. She folds her arms across her chest like a shield.

“That’s not part of our agreement.”

I grit my teeth. Of course she hides behind the contract, the one she begged to be bound by. The one the angry version of myself thought was smart.

“That’s not what I’m asking,” I say through my teeth. “I’m asking if I fuck you raw every night for a year, will we make a child?”

Her expression doesn’t change, but the pulse at her throat jumps.

She thinks for a second too long. Then she shakes her head. “It’s very unlikely.”

That should ease something in me, except it doesn’t.

Because now all I can think about is the curve of her belly full with my child. The softness in her eyes when she looks at the twins but also aimed at someone we made.

My cock twitches at the thought, and I hate myself for it.

She’s standing right there, composed, unshaken, already pulling away emotionally like she always does, and I’m the one left feeling raw. Cornered.Wanting.

And somehow, I’m the one who made it this way.

I take a step toward her. Then another.

“Is that why he sold you to the enemy?” I ask, my voice low and rough.

“Sold me?” She lets out a dry laugh, brittle as cracked glass. “I don’t remember having a choice.”

“He sent you here like cannon fodder,” I press. “He knew what I’d do if I found out.”

“And I knew it too,” she says simply. “But I also knew women in any famiglia are disposable the moment we stop being useful.”

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