Page 49 of Savage Proposal

I reached out and touched her face, soft and uncaring of the splatters of blood. “Of course.”

It wasn’t until she had fled that I remembered that Isabella had come to my office unprompted. I would need to check on her, but that could wait until we got Damian to bed. “Come on,cugino,” I said to Elio. “Let’s get him to his room.”

“I’m fine?—”

“Don’t start,” Elio said, cutting him off. “I can get you something for the pain, if you need it.”

We didn’t keep anything that would help Damian right now in the house, but Elio wasn’t wrong. I could have any pain medication that he wanted here within the hour. “I don’t want it,” Damian said, shaking his head.

Eliotsked. “Don’t be stupid. The pain is only going to get worse if you don’t take something.”

“Tylenol.” I knew that Damian didn’t want to bring the temptation of a narcotic into the house, and while I appreciated him looking out for Elio, I knew that he needed something stronger than an over-the-counter pain reliever.

As I was helping Damian limp from the office, I said, “Get him something with codeine in it. Have Amalia bring them up.”

“Sure thing, boss.”

CHAPTER 30

Isabella

The second I stepped out into the hallway, my throat squeezed shut. My whole body started to shake, and it was pure luck that I was able to make it to the nearest bathroom before I was emptying my stomach into the toilet.

When there was nothing left, I gagged as my stomach continued to spasm painfully. Someone knocked on the door; I could do nothing but press my forehead against the cool porcelain and groan. “Isabella?” It was Amalia. “Are you okay?”

I tried to tell her that I was fine, but my stomach clenched again, and I whimpered. A moment later, the door flung open. “Oh,bella,” she tutted. I heard the sink running, and then Amalia placed a cool, damp washcloth against the back of my neck. “Are you sick? You didn’t come—” She gasped when I sat up. “Are you bleeding?”

I glanced down and gagged again. “It’s not mine,” I mumbled.

Fear flashed over her face. “Elio?”

I shook my head. “Damian. He should be okay, but I had to do stitches.”

Amalia took the washcloth from my neck and dabbed it at my face, wiping at the blood. “You did good, then,” she cooed. “We need to get you cleaned up.”

But when she tried to help me stand, I wretched again, twisting so that I was bent over the toilet. Bile burned my throat, but once the cramp was over, I felt a bit better. I was able to stand upright. “Sorry,” I said.

Amalia’s eyes were gleaming. “How far along are you?”

“What?” She raised her eyebrow, challenging me, and it took me another second to understand what she meant. “I took a test this morning. I was going to tell Lorenzo when—” The torn flesh of Damian’s shoulder came to mind, vivid and red, and I shuddered.

I had never had such a strong response to blood before. But there was something about being tacky with someone else’s blood that sent me back to lying on my bathroom floor, shivering as my own pooled around me.

Panic gripped me by the throat again, and I struggled to pull in a big enough breath. Amalia wrapped her arm around my waist to steady me. “It’s okay,” she said, rubbing my back. “You’re going to be fine.”

I shook my head over and over; it was like I couldn’t stop. “I can’t stay here,” I murmured and pressed a hand to my belly. “This baby.”My baby. It wasn’t fair to bring any child into this kind of life. I knew that before, but it was even more stark and apparent now.

Amalia kept shushing me softly, as if I were a spooked horse she was trying to soothe. “You know that’s not going to change,”she said, never one to sugarcoat, even while she was comforting someone. “Lorenzo would?—”

“Are you pregnant, Isabella?”

I shut my eyes tight and let out a breath. “Yes,” I murmured without looking at him. “I took a test this morning. That’s what I was coming to tell you.”

“Were you talking about leaving just now?” he asked. His voice was deadly calm. I did my best to force myself to open my eyes and look at him. Lorenzo wasn’t in a rage, not like when I went into Sienna’s study, but I could see murder in his eyes. He had gone past the hot anger and had reached that cold place in his head that I knew existed. How else could someone survive a life like this?

I swallowed hard. “Yes, but?—”

Lorenzo’s fist went through the wall; Amalia swung me back with a yelp, putting herself between he and I. “Amalia, get out.”

---