"The doctor said I'm carrying a boy. If I'm allowed into the household, once the child is born, he can be registered under your name. He'll call you Mother."
"I want nothing for myself. But as a mother, I have to fight for my child."
"The heir's wife has never borne a child, so naturally she wouldn't understand a mother's heart."
I watched the tears stream down her face, but there it was, that faint glint of triumph in her eyes. How quaint. These little tricks.
My thumb found the underside of my wedding band and pressed. One slow turn.
"If you truly wanted nothing, why make such a spectacle of stopping my car in the middle of the street?"
"If you wanted a title, you could have come to the compound and discussed it properly. There are ways. So why drag this out for the whole neighborhood to see?"
"You're using that child in your belly as leverage to force me into letting you through those gates. Isn't that right?"
The woman called Gianna shook her head frantically, both hands cradling her belly. "No, my lady, Gianna knows nothing of such things. It was the heir who looked after Gianna all along."
"Before he left the city, the heir promised he would give Gianna a proper place when he returned. But the date has passed and he hasn't come back. My time is nearly here, and I'm terrified."
"I beg the heir's wife to be generous. Give this child a birthright."
"The baby I carry is the heir's firstborn son. He cannot be left outside the Moretti household."
"Unless my lady, unable to bear children herself, refuses to let any other woman give the heir a son. Do you mean to let the Moretti line end?"
Her words set the crowd of onlookers buzzing. Beyond the compound gates, I could see two more soldiers watching from the guardhouse, hands at their sides, waiting.
"Well, it's true. The heir's been married for years and there's still no child. That wife of his, not so much as a whisper of a pregnancy."
"You can't just let the Moretti name die out."
"I heard the heir's wife hasn't even arranged another woman for him. Jealous type, if you ask me."
"A woman ought to know her place. With jealousy like that, how can she run a household like theirs? Look at this poor girl, she's about ready to give birth."
Gianna dabbed at her tears, stealing a glance toward the armored sedan from the corner of her eye.