The words landed like a blade between my ribs. An heir. In the Russo Family, that word meant everything. It meant succession. It meant she was the real wife.
"I feel so bad for the woman down the hall. She came in two days ago battered and bruised. She even had a miscarriage and no one has visited her," the nurse said.
"Well, that's sad but Nadina is never going to be alone, not when she has us," Pietro's voice sounded.
The door opened slightly and I saw them, my husband, and my so-called brother-in-law as they hovered around my best friend and the new baby in her arms.
The resemblance was uncanny, it was indeed Giacomo's baby and suddenly everything clicked.
While I was kidnapped and shoved out of a moving car, bleeding to death and losing my baby, my husband was down the hall with another woman taking care of her and their new baby.
My heart squeezed painfully in my chest. I almost passed out as I stumbled to the restroom and threw up in the sink.
Tears ran down my cheeks as I held my flat stomach and cried my eyes out.
Four years of marriage was ruined in an instant. Four years of a blood-bound union, of standing beside him at Sunday dinners, of being introduced to every Capo and associate as the wife of Giacomo Russo. But how could I have missed it? All those months they had lied that Nadina traveled overseas on Family business; it was only because they were hiding her pregnancy.
Just then the door opened and I heard Nadina's mocking voice.
"Oh sweet Liliana, I've waited for nine months to rub it in your face," Nadina laughed.
I stared at her, my eyes filled with hurt, "How could you? I trusted you! You were my best friend!"
"Oh please," Nadina scoffed. Her fingertips drifted to the hollow of her throat. "I was only close to you so I could seduce Giacomo. Imagine my surprise when I found out you were also pregnant."
I turned away as bile rose in my throat, "Well, you have nothing to worry about anymore. The baby is gone."
"I know," Nadina giggled, "I sent the kidnappers!"
I turned to her as I felt blood rush to my ears and I stopped thinking at that moment, I lunged at her.
Nadina let out a high-pitched scream as she fell to the floor.
As if on cue, the door of the restroom was pushed open as Giacomo and Pietro stood in front of it.
They turned accusing eyes toward me.
"What have you done?!"