Page 36 of Unresolved

Gemma

Iresisted clappinga hand over my mouth.For fucks sake!What had I been thinking?Now I had to brazen my way out of the verbal mess I’d created.“You met my mother, she is my family.”

I couldn’t tell him the truth.Not now.Perhaps not ever.It would mean exposing my true identity, one that would then expose my mother’s deception.I couldn’t live with myself if she was harmed—or worse—because I hadn’t kept my mouth shut.

She’d hidden me from my father because she’d known he would have used me to his advantage.Marrying off daughters to rival mafia families was common practice.Daughters were used in the worst way, made to submit to men who were all too often little better than animals.

“Gemma, I’m not asking you again.”

He wasn’t going to back down, not unless I gave him the ultimate diversion.Another secret that would undoubtedly shake him to his core and make him hate me forever.

So be it.

Hating me might end his fixation with me.

If only I could find a way to end my fixation on him.

I blinked up at him, then whispered, “My stretchmarks...they weren’t from weight loss, not really.”I swallowed hard, my mouth and throat going sawdust-dry.“I-I was pregnant.”

He inhaled sharply, his nostrils flaring and his face draining of all color.“You have a child?”

I shook my head.“Ihada child.He was stillborn.”I struggled to breathe as the memories crystallized in my head, startling and horrifically painful.“He was your son, Evander.”

He shook his head.“That’s...impossible.You had an implant.”

“Which obviously wasn’t one hundred percent effective.”

He took a backward step, then another.His eyes grew cold, stony.I gasped when he reached for the non-existent gun he usually wore on his holster beneath his suit.Something broke inside of me at the realization he might have shot me if he’d had his weapon on him.

“You took my baby away from me,” he ground out.

“No, I never...it wasn’t like that, I—“

“Stop!”he roared.He shook his head, then reached into one of the shopping bags he brought inside.Withdrawing the sanitary packets, he pushed them into my hands.“Put these on.”

I clutched them against my chest, grief ripping at my insides, but there were no words that could soothe the chasm opening up between us, nothing I could say that would bridge it and make things right.I bit my bottom lip until I tasted blood, then said, “You’re not the only one who lost a son.”

“Just tell me one thing,” he rasped.“Did you ever plan telling me?”

I opened my mouth, but no words came out.Nothing I said would excuse what happened, nothing but the truth would do, and I couldn’t reveal that.I shook my head, slowly, forcibly.

“That’s what I thought,” he snarled.He grabbed my forearm and directed me toward the bathroom.“Take care of your immediate needs.”

I was numb, retreating into self-protect mode when he took off my towel, then pushed opened the bathroom door for me to step inside.I was on the toilet when he came back and handed me panties, then stood inside the door, waiting for me to finish.

I choked back sudden tears.I wouldn’t cry, not now.I’d done all my crying a long time ago.I’d cried and cried until I’d wrung out every drop of moisture from my body, leaving me dried up and desiccated inside.

Little wonder I hadn’t connected with another man since my loss.Not only hadn’t anyone measure up to Evander, my emotions had been wrung out of me as effectively as my tears.

It wasn’t until I stood that I realized he held the handcuffs in one hand.

I looked up at him.It was like looking at a stranger.Whatever he’d felt for me was no more.He was all mafia now, a man without a conscience, without an ounce of love or compassion.

“On the bed,” he commanded.

I didn’t have the strength to argue.I was wretchedly tired and weak.Even worse, a part of me decided I deserved his ire and whatever retribution he dished out.An even bigger part of me was relieved I’d finally unloaded the truth, even if Evander hated me now.

I walked woodenly into the bedroom, then sat on the bed, shivering a little in just my panties.I lay down and lifted my arm for the cuff he snapped around my wrist, attaching its other end to the bedhead.

---