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They were starting to hurt and I had noticed some swelling around my ankles. That was new. I figured the airplane trip might have had something to do with that.
That’s how Dario found me, one foot across my lap, staring down with a pensive look on my face.
“Are you all right?”
His voice caught me off guard. When had he arrived?
“Did you just get here? I didn’t hear your car pull up.”
He ignored my question and came to sit next to me. He stared at my foot and commented, “How long have your ankles been swollen like that?”
I shrugged, “Not long.”
“You need to get that checked out.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing. Don’t your feet swell after a long flight?”
“No,” he said shortly. “Get dressed, we’re going.”
I was tired of being ordered around. “You can’t just tell me what to do like I’m a child.”
Again, he ignored me. “I’ll meet you in the foyer in five.”
I stood up. “No.”
He turned around slowly and tilted a brow. “What do you mean, no?”
“You can’t order me around like this, Dario. The cameras, the orders, the guys following my every move…especially that Ivan—I just can’t deal with this. It’s too much.”
“Everything that you mentioned is part of me trying to protect you.”
“I don’t need your protection.” I was lying, but I felt trapped.
“You do.”
He turned away again, dismissing me. Something about that made me angry.
“You can’t just hide me away forever?—”
When he turned back to me, his eyes were angry. “I don’t need to hide you forever, just for six more months. Isn’t that about right, Mya?”
The ringing in my ears sounded like a freight train. He couldn’t know. How did he know?
His eyes left mine and rested on my stomach. It was then that I realized I’d placed my hands over it in a protective gesture.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
But when his eyes met mine, I knew that wasn’t true.
“You’re pregnant.”
My mind went blank. I couldn’t keep up with the emotions that flooded my brain.Fear, panic, defeat, and sadness.
I’d failed. He knew.
I didn’t know how but he knew, and from the look in his eyes, I knew my chances of escaping were now nonexistent.
The normal life that I wanted for myself and my child had vanished at this moment. It was a dream that would never be realized.