Ermanno. There is no "plenty of chances" for us. Not anymore.
After Ermanno left, I sent someone to bring Katarina from the safehouse.
She arrived with one hand braced against the small of her back, walking at a leisurely pace. The soldier who'd driven her stood by the car until I nodded for him to go. When she reached me, she met my gaze without a flicker of fear.
"Gioia Galante. So you did recognize me yesterday."
I looked her over, head to toe.
A willowy frame, a face no bigger than the palm of a hand. A classic southern beauty.
I'd made inquiries in private. Three days after our wedding, Ermanno had been dispatched south to manage hurricane relief operations, the Family running aid contracts through the devastated parishes, half legitimate, half laundering front. That was where his entanglement with Katarina began.
He'd been caught in the floodwaters pulling survivors from a collapsed building. Delirious with fever, he mistook her for me. One reckless night, and he took her innocence.
Afterward, pitying her as an orphan with no one in the world, he brought her back to the city. Installed her in the safehouse. Spent every day at her side.
When I followed him there that day, I saw how exquisitely the place had been furnished. Every detail chosen with care. Ermanno must have loved her deeply.
A bitter ache spread through my chest.
Katarina noticed the look on my face. Satisfaction crept across hers.
"Gioia Galante. Everyone says Ermanno adores you. But the way I see it, you're the most pitiful woman alive."
"Your own husband slips poison into your medicine every single day, yet he and I are the ones expecting a child. Tell me, how does that make any sense?"
"You don't even know, do you? He comes to the safehouse every day. Every day. Have you ever seen the way he looks when he loses control in bed?"
"He's always telling me that women in the city are so dull. That I'm the only one who stirs something real in him. Every time, he pushes me so far I have to beg him to stop before he'll let me go..."
As she spoke, she loosened her clothes right in front of me, baring her body without shame.
Skin pale as silk, covered in bruises. Dark ones and faint ones, layered over each other. My throat tightened, and I looked away.