Page 71 of Brutal Crown
“She planned this.”
“She’s a snake!”
“Just like her father. Filthy traitor.”
“A whore!”
“Kill her just like her father!”
I grit my teeth painfully before rising to my feet. That makes the crowd even angrier.
“She doesn’t know her place.”
“She should be killed!”
“How dare she?”
I place a protective hand over my belly as the small crowd comes nearer, closing in around me. I keep my head high, not looking at anyone in particular.
“Who is the father?” Olga asks over the whispers.
“Speak, whore,” Zia Clara spits.
I resist the urge to laugh in her face. She has been out for me ever since I came under this roof. It got worse when Francesco saved me from one of her bullying attempts.
I stare directly into her eyes until she gets uncomfortable.
“She needs to be taught a lesson!” She looks at the others around her. “It’s obvious she still has her pride.”
Olga opens her mouth to say something else, and that is when Dante walks in.
Everyone gives way as he comes in. Dante heads to the front of the living room and takes a seat like the king he is. He holds something in a silk handkerchief like it’s tainted, unfolding it just enough for me to see.
The test.
My chest caves in. I look up, barely able to breathe.
“You came here with nothing,” he says in a cold voice, “and now you think you can stay and stain this family with a bastard child?”
I glare at him with all the hate I can muster, the only act of defiance I have left.
“She won’t even say who the father is,” Zia Clara says beside him.
“Of course she can’t. It’s shameful,” another aunt speaks.
“Or maybe she doesn’t know and thinks she can pin it on one of the masters after seduction plans worked,” someone says in the crowd.
Laughter breaks out. It’s mocking, loud, and humiliating. My legs are wobbling a little, but I keep my head high. I will not cower.
“Tell us who it is, and maybe your punishment won’t be so bad,” one of the aunts with a birdlike voice says.
“It’s obvious that the whore doesn’t know who it is,” Zia Clara speaks again. “Is it Francesco or Marco?”
“I saw her with Elio once,” a voice from the crowd speaks up.
I shut my eyes tightly.
Broken gasps, laughter, and more whispers fill the air.
