Chapter Five
1092 Words
Sienna sat in the car outside the clinic for a long time before going in.
She had chosen this particular clinic carefully. Small private clinic.Far enough from anywhere she was known. She paid in cash, gave a different name at the reception desk and sat in the waiting room with her sunglasses on until they called her.
She had been three weeks pregnant when she walked in.
The result they handed her said one week.
She looked at it for a moment. Then she folded it carefully, put it in her bag and walked back to her car.
One week. That was all she needed it to say. One week placed the pregnancy exactly where she needed it …close enough to that night at the hotel to be believable.
She sat in the car and practiced her face in the mirror.
This day wasn't about acting perfect or looking all expensive and polished.She needed something else today.. ..A woman who was scared.
She practiced until it looked real.
Then she drove to find Dante.
………
He was in his office when she arrived.
His assistant tried to tell her he was in a meeting. Sienna smiled at the woman and walked straight past her.
Dante looked up from his desk when the door opened. His expression did not change but his eyes sharpened immediately … the way they always did when something arrived unannounced.
"Sienna." His voice was flat.
She closed the door behind her.
She had rehearsed this moment twenty times in her car. She knew exactly what she was going to say and exactly how she was going to say it. She was ready.
And then she stood in front of him and looked at him and something about the way he was watching her ,made her throat tighten in a way she had not prepared for.
She reached into her bag and placed the result on the desk in front of him.
She said nothing.
Dante looked down at it.
The office was completely silent.
He did not move for a long moment. Just stared at the paper on his desk with an expression that gave absolutely nothing away. Then he leaned back in his chair slowly and looked up at her.
"Sit down." He said quietly.
She sat.
"How long have you known?"
"Two days." She said. Her voice came out softer than she intended. Almost convincing even to herself.
He looked at her for a long time. The kind of look that made most people want to fill the silence with words. Sienna had spent enough time around Dante to know better. She held his gaze and waited.
"That night at the hotel." He said finally.
"Yes." She said.
Another long silence.
Dante stood and walked to the window. He stood there with his back to her, hands in his pockets, looking out at the city below with the particular stillness of a man making a calculation.
Sienna watched him and held her breath.
"You are keeping it." He said. It was not a question.
"Yes." She said.
He turned from the window.
"Then we get married." He said simply. As if it were the most straightforward thing in the world. As if he had not just decided the entire trajectory of both their lives in thirty seconds of silence.
Sienna blinked. She had prepared for resistance. For questions. For Dante's cold precision picking her story apart piece by piece.
She had not prepared for this.
"Dante….."
"The condition is already in place Sienna." He said. "This solves it. We get married." He picked up his phone from the desk. "I will call Marco."
Marco arrived in fifteen minutes.
He walked through the office door and looked between Dante and Sienna with his open innocent face arranged into an expression of mild curiosity.
"What's going on?" He said.
"Sienna is pregnant." Dante said.
Marco's eyes went wide. His mouth opened slightly. He looked at Sienna , then back at Dante ,then back at Sienna.
"What?" He breathed.
"From that night." Dante said simply.
Marco pressed his hand to his mouth. Shook his head slowly.
"Dante. That's…" He exhaled. "That's incredible." He crossed the room and put his hand on Dante's shoulder. "Congratulations brother."
Dante looked at him.
Marco looked back with the wide open eyes of a man who had never been more surprised in his life.
The performance was flawless.
…….
Don Ricardo received the news that evening.
Dante told him directly, the way he told his father everything. He was sure his father would agree for so many positive reasons.
The old man was quiet for a long time after he heard it. He sat behind his desk and looked at his son and for once did not immediately reach for the right words.
Then something in his face settled.
"Sienna." He said quietly.
"Yes." Dante said.
Don Ricardo nodded slowly. "I know that girl. I have known her since she was a child running through this house." He paused. "She is a good choice Dante. A safe choice."
"I know."
"The family will be relieved."
"I know that too."
Don Ricardo stood and did something he rarely did. He crossed the room and placed his hand briefly on his son's shoulder.
"Your mother would have been happy." He said quietly.
Dante said nothing.
But he didn't move away either.
The news moved through the Moretti family quickly and quietly the way all important news did. By the next morning the right people knew. By the evening plans had already begun to take shape.
A wedding…… The condition finally met.
The throne was no longer waiting.
…………
Cara didn't notice it at first.
The tiredness she had put down to long shifts. The nausea she had put down to the canteen food at work. The way certain smells suddenly made her stomach turn she had put down to everything and anything except the one thing it actually was.
She bought the test on a Tuesday evening on her way home from work. She told herself it was just to rule it out. Just to be sure. Just so she could stop the thought from sitting in the back of her mind and go back to worrying about normal things.
She took it into the bathroom and closed the door.
She set the timer on her phone.
She sat on the edge of the bathtub and stared at the wall and thought about absolutely nothing.
The timer went off.
She picked up the test.
Two lines…….
- Writer
