I ended up barely sleeping the next two nights, for Rosa kept me up with her endless demands.

First, she insisted that her water be exactly 104 degrees Fahrenheit, then she complained that the pillow was too hard. She even complained that the room was too stuffy.

If I ignored her, she'd make an even bigger fuss.

Around three in the morning, I finally managed to fall into a decent sleep while she was out of the room. That peace didn't last as the bedroom door crashed open.

Giovanni stormed in, grabbed a fistful of my hair, and yanked me upright.

"Rebecca! Was it you?" he screamed, eyes bloodshot. "How could you be so vicious?"

I hit the floor hard, still groggy. "What?"

"Don't play dumb!" He hauled me up by the collar and shook me. "My parents had Rosa taken away! They said that despite the lack of blood ties, they couldn't allow the scandal to continue. They want the baby gone!"

He shook me harder. "It had to be you! Who else would have told them? You promised to let her keep it, but you couldn't stand her behind my back. That child is yours, too. How can you be so jealous?"

The rough shaking made my aching head feel like it was going to split open.

"I didn't do it…"

I gritted my teeth as tears sprang to my eyes.

"You didn't?"

For a moment, something in his anger faltered as he saw me crying. It was almost as if he realized he had gone too far.

Just then, his phone rang.

He glanced at the screen, then immediately took the call. His voice sounded urgent. "Dad? How's Rosa? You can't…"

Whatever came through the line made his expression darken further.

He shoved the phone into his pocket and grabbed my arm. "Come with me. You're going to tell them that you agreed to let Rosa have the child as our firstborn!"

"Let go!"

I tried to pull back, but I was unsteady on my feet. He dragged me out of the room.

"You don't get a choice in this."

His strength was frightening. I stumbled repeatedly as my knees and elbows slammed into the sharp edges of the stairs, making them burn with pain.

Giovanni didn't so much as glance back. His entire world at that moment was Rosa.

The car tore through the streets, speeding past red lights. Every sudden brake and jolt slammed me against the cold window, each impact sending spikes of pain through my already throbbing head.

The car screeched to a halt in front of his parents' estate. Even before we reached the door, I heard Rosa's frantic screams from inside the house.

"No! Let me go! Gio, help me!"

Giovanni dragged me inside and threw me at his parents' feet. My knees hit the floor with a sharp crack.

"Giovanni!" his mother cried out in shock. "That's your wife!"

"Say it!" he barked, his voice trembling but relentless. "Tell them that you agreed to let Rosa keep the child and you'll accept him as the heir!"

I lay on the floor, ears ringing. My body felt as though it had splintered apart. I couldn't even see his parents' expressions clearly anymore.

I didn't bother arguing and simply nodded.

Giovanni let out a sigh of relief. The rise and fall of his chest slowed. Only then did he see, to notice how battered I looked.

A hint of guilt crossed his face, and he moved to help me up. "Rebecca, I lost my cool earlier…"

Just then, Rosa's piercing scream came from the next room.

"Rosa!"

Giovanni immediately left me and bolted inside the room.

"What happened? Did they force you to take any medicine?" he demanded.

Rosa's voice trembled. "No… I didn't… But my stomach hurts so much. I only drank the coffee Rebecca made for me last night…"

She didn't finish her sentence, but the accusation was clear enough.

"Rebecca!" he roared, reappearing in the doorway before grabbing me again. "Wasn't it enough to tip off my parents? Did you have to poison her, too?"

I weakly shook my head. I was too weak even to speak. "It wasn't me."

"It wasn't you?" he repeated, pointing a finger toward the room where Rosa lay moaning in pain.

"She's in agony! Who else would want to harm her and the baby but you?"

He didn't hear a word of my denial. He even ignored the uneasy looks his parents exchanged.

"You need to learn your place!" he snarled.

He then dragged me down the hall toward the dark, cold confessional room.

"Stay in there and think about what you've done!"

The heavy door slammed shut behind me with a sharp clang, the lock sliding into place with a merciless click.

"Giovanni!" his father's stern voice rang out.

"She nearly killed Rosa and the baby!" Giovanni's angry reply faded as he stalked away. "She needs to reflect on her actions. Rosa's my sister, and this is my child!"

The cold seeped into my bones.

My throat burned with thirst, my stomach cramped in protest, and my headache felt like a hundred needles stabbing into my skull.

I didn't know how much time had passed, but when I was close to passing out, I finally heard footsteps outside the door.

Giovanni appeared in the doorway and stared at me in silence as I huddled in the corner.

Giovanni silently held a glass of water to my lips. "Rebecca, why can't you just behave?"

He sighed and frowned at me the way a parent might look at a stubborn child.

"How long has it been?" I asked in a hoarse voice.

"Three days," he answered, his voice heavy with exhaustion.

I did the math in my head. There was just one more day until Angelo would be here.

Relief loosened every last thread of tension in my body, and my vision went black.

…

When I came to, the hard wooden floor in the servant's room had been replaced by a soft mattress. Giovanni was sitting at the bedside with a glass of water in his hand. He let out a breath of relief when he noticed my eyes open.

"This was just a lesson," he said gently, holding the glass to my lips. "As long as you don't try to hurt Rosa again, I won't leave you."

I let out a bitter smile and tried to push myself up with shaky arms. "I told you I didn't hurt her."

I braced myself against the mattress to get up, but the moment my feet hit the floor, I was hit by a wave of dizziness and crumpled to the ground.

Giovanni didn't help me up. He snorted coldly and slammed the glass of water down on the nightstand. "You still haven't learned your lesson. I've brought Rosa back with my parents' approval. To keep you from trying anything else, I've injected you with a muscle relaxant.

"It lasts for 24 hours," he said as he stared at my pale face. "I'll administer the injection to you myself every day until Rosa delivers the baby safely."

If he really meant to keep me drugged for the next 8 months, I would probably be crippled by the end of it.

My whole body trembled with rage at the thought.

Giovanni noticed my distress, and he paused for a moment before realizing something. "You haven't eaten in days. Your blood sugar's crashing."

He lifted me into the bed, then rummaged through the medicine box for glucose tablets.

Just then, Rosa's voice sounded from the doorway. "Gio… My stomach hurts…"

Giovanni stopped what he was doing and hurried to the door to steady her. "Where does it hurt?"

She leaned into his chest and glanced in my direction. "Maybe it's a reaction to that coffee from the other night. Becca looks so weak. You should take care of her first."

"You're being ridiculous!" Giovanni barked as he guided her away. "The baby's still at risk. You come first. She just needs some sugar, and she'll be fine."

With that, he summoned a housekeeper and escorted Rosa out of the room.

I was force-fed nearly half a cup of glucose water before sleep dragged me under again.

I didn't know how long I'd been out before someone shook me awake.

Giovanni stood at the bedside. He looked strangely uneasy. "You've slept enough. Rosa's been throwing up everything she eats. She says the only thing she can keep down is your cake."

She was only a month pregnant, yet she was already experiencing morning sickness.

I gave a weak, mocking smile. "Aren't you afraid I'd poison her again?"

His expression darkened instantly, and his hand shot up.

I flinched and turned my face away, bracing for impact. But the pain didn't come.

Instead, his palm lightly ruffled my hair as it came down on my head.

"Don't say things like that," he murmured with a flinch of annoyance in his voice. "I know you're not that kind of woman."

I jerked away from his touch.

He stubbornly caught my hand. "I was too harsh before. After calming down these past three days, I finally see that you did all those things because you love me."

"First of all, I didn't do anything to Rosa. I just don't love you anymore!" I spat.

He shook his head and spoke to me as if he were humoring a child. "If you didn't love me, why would you get jealous of Rosa carrying my child?"

I snorted at his delusions.

Giovanni went on. "After Rosa has the baby, we'll have our wedding properly this time. We'll adopt the child as ours. I know you won't mistreat your own child. Now stop sulking and make that cake. Don't starve our baby."

I was too exhausted to argue. I just wanted to make it through the day.

"I can't stand up," I said honestly. "I can't bake it."

His gentle expression gave way to disappointment. "You're unbelievable."

He grabbed my arm and hauled me to the kitchen. "Don't test my patience. I don't want to send you back to the confessional."

I forced myself to stay upright despite the dizziness and trembling. I somehow managed to make the cake and handed it off to the housekeeper to deliver it to Rosa.

Back in the room, I finally let out a shaky breath and began mentally listing what I needed to take with me when I left. My papers, my mom's necklace…

Just then, a high-pitched shriek split the air.

Before I could react, the bedroom door burst open. Giovanni's face twisted in rage as he dragged me to Rosa's room.

"You've broken my trust again!" he snapped.

Blood soaked the sheets beneath Rosa. She raised a trembling hand and pointed at me. Her eyes were wide with terror and accusation as she said, "The cake… she poisoned it."

Before she could finish, her head lolled to the side, and she went limp.

I stared in shock, struggling against Giovanni's tightening grip.

"Giovanni, calm down! I have no reason to poison her!"

"Shut up!" Giovanni roared. "You murdered our child with your own hands!"

I felt my patience snap, and the words tore out of me. "Stop calling it our child! That was the cursed fruit of your affair with your stepsister!"

He released me and stumbled back. His expression was a tangled mess of shock, disappointment, and unfathomable pain.

"So that's why you've been trying to hurt Rosa all this time?"

I tried to deny his words, but he wouldn't listen. He motioned to two housekeepers, who forced me to kneel.

"Believing you was the most foolish thing I ever did. Stay here until Rosa wakes up and forgives you."

I sank onto the cold floor and watched him walk away. My knees quickly went dead beneath me.

Rosa finally stirred awake after a few hours.

The two of us were left in the room. Her face was pale, yet a gleam of triumph shone in her eyes. There was no sign of a woman grieving for her lost child at all.

"They all say Gio dotes on you and trusts you completely, but that clearly isn't true. Otherwise, why would he always suspect you first whenever something happens?"

I lowered my gaze and stayed silent.

Thinking she had crushed me, her smile widened. "Here's the truth. I took the abortion pills myself. The drug from that night was too strong. The doctor said the baby would've been deformed anyway.

"As for how my parents found out," she said, arching an eyebrow. "I told them, of course. If I didn't stir up a scandal back home, I wouldn't have been able to get those pills. How else could I use that doomed child to get rid of you then?"

I lifted my head. "Aren't you afraid I'll tell Giovanni the truth?"

"Tell him? You really think he'd believe you after all the times you've hurt me?"

Rosa laughed, almost doubling over.

"Besides," she continued, wiping the tears her laughter brought to her eyes. "I won't give you the chance. You 'killed' our child, and yet he still won't even think of breaking off the engagement. That means I have to take matters into my own hands."

She clapped her hands. "Come in!"

The door flew open, and two burly men entered.

"Throw this wretch out of the house while Gio's not around."

"Let go of me!"

I thrashed with what little strength I had left, but my weakened body couldn't put up a fight.

They dragged me across the floors and tossed me out into the mud beyond the gates. Rain pelted down in sheets, blinding me as it streamed over my face.

Damn it. Was I going to freeze to death out here before Angelo arrived?

I lay sprawled in the mud, gasping for air. I fumbled in my pocket until my fingers closed around the phone.

The screen lit up, showing it was midnight.

Headlights cut through the curtain of rain. A black armored car stopped in front of me. The door opened, and a pair of polished leather shoes stepped into the waterlogged earth.

A tall figure slowly stepped toward me beneath the shelter of a black umbrella. I could only make out his jawline and a pair of tightly pressed lips.

"Rebecca Costa?"

…

Giovanni had wrecked everything in the room before he finally calmed down. The thought of his child being gone because of me made his chest ache.

I never wanted children, but he was the Don. He needed an heir.

He wondered when I had turned into a monster.

"What am I supposed to do with you, Rebecca?" he muttered, staring at the smiling picture of me on his phone's lock screen.

A few hours later, he sighed. "She has kneeled enough. Bring her back to her room."

The child was gone, and punishing me further wouldn't bring it back.

"She's suffered enough," he told himself. "I'll make it up to Rosa, then Rebecca and I can start over."

He strode out of the house, bought Rosa a few gifts, and even stopped at a jewelry store to pick out a new ring.

He returned home by noon. He was already picturing how my eyes would light up when he showed me the wedding magazines he had brought.

"Rebecca!" he called as he pushed open the bedroom door.

He was met with an empty room.

Dread hit him, and he stormed into Rosa's room, shouting, "Rosa! Where's Rebecca? Did you see her?"