“I love you,” he whispers against my lips.
“I love you too,” I murmur back, smiling up at him. He’ll never hurt me again, and that means the world to me. He’ll love me and care for me. And I’ll do the same for him.
We’re a match made in heaven.
But only because we found each other again. Because we knew to never let go a second time.
He grins back at me, his hips rocking against me as we start to make love again. This time as a couple.
This time knowing our baby will be the product of our love.
Not some cruel favor we did for someone else.
I’m excited to watch her grow and know that she’s ours. Ours alone. And I know Giorgio is too.
He’ll be a good father to her, just like I know he’ll be a good husband.
The two of us are broken apart no more. We’re one again. And this time we’ll never let ourselves be parted.
He leans down and kisses me as he moves above me, my nails digging into his back.
And then we’re one as he fills me with his seed. The seed that will grow our baby. Our little girl.
Chapter 5: Shattered Truths
I heard the shouting before I even reached the main house. Giorgio's voice—normally so controlled—echoed through the marble hallways, bouncing off the cold surfaces like bullets. I froze at the servants' entrance, my hand trembling on the doorknob.
"How long did you think you could hide this from me, Magdalene?" Giorgio's voice cracked with fury.
My stomach twisted. I knew I shouldn't be listening, but my feet refused to move. The baby inside me fluttered, as if sensing my distress. I pressed a hand against my still-flat abdomen, trying to soothe both of us.
"It was one time, Giorgio. One mistake." Magdalene's voice was softer but firm.
"One mistake?" He laughed, a hollow sound that made me flinch. "You're carrying another man's child while engaged to me. That's not a mistake that's a betrayal."
I leaned against the wall, my head spinning. Magdalene was pregnant? And not with Giorgio's child? The revelation stunned me into stillness.
"Who is he?" Giorgio demanded.
Silence stretched between them before Magdalene finally answered. "It doesn't matter."
"It damn well matters to me!" Something crashed—glass shattering against a wall. I jumped, instinctively protecting my belly. "Tell me his name."
"Antonio Castellanos."
The name meant nothing to me, but Giorgio's sharp intake of breath suggested otherwise.
"My business rival? You slept with Antonio?" His voice lowered to something dangerous. "Was it just to hurt me, or has this been going on all along?"
"It was after one of your disappearances," Magdalene replied coldly. "When you vanished for three weeks without a word. What was I supposed to think?"
I knew where he'd been those three weeks. With me. In the small cottage on the edge of his property where he'd been hiding me since claiming me as his Omega. The realization made me dizzy with guilt.
"Get out," Giorgio said suddenly, his voice deadly calm. "Pack your things and leave by morning."
"Giorgio, be reasonable—"
"I said get out!" he roared.
Footsteps approached the door where I stood frozen. I barely had time to duck into an alcove before Magdalene stormed past, her face streaked with tears, her hand protectively cupping her stomach in a gesture I recognized all too well.
I waited until she disappeared down the hallway before slipping into the study. Giorgio stood with his back to me, staring out the window, his shoulders rigid with tension.
"Giorgio?" I called softly.
He didn't turn around. "You heard."
It wasn't a question. He always seemed to sense when I was near a connection between Alpha and Omega that transcended normal perception.
"I'm sorry," I whispered, not knowing what else to say.
He turned then, his dark eyes finding mine across the room. The anguish I saw there made my heart clench.
"Don't be," he said. "It seems the universe has a twisted sense of timing."
I took a hesitant step toward him. "What do you mean?"
Giorgio ran a hand through his dark hair, disheveled the usually perfect strands. "Magdalene is pregnant with another man's child at the same time that you..." He trailed off, his gaze dropping to my abdomen.
My hand instinctively moved to cover my stomach. Our secret only a few weeks old, confirmed by the doctor just days ago.
"I never loved her," Giorgio said quietly. "It was always a business arrangement. But I would have honored it, Allie. I would have done my duty."
I nodded, swallowing past the lump in my throat. "I know."
"And now..." He crossed the room to me in three long strides, taking my hands in his. "Now everything has changed."
"Has it?" I asked, searching his face. "You're still engaged to her, Giorgio. The fact that she's pregnant with someone else's child doesn't change who we are what I am to your family."
"A servant," he said bitterly, echoing the words his mother had spat at me months ago when she'd discovered us.
"Yes." I pulled my hands away. "The Omega servant who tends to the gardens and warms your bed when you tire of society's expectations."
Giorgio flinched as if I'd struck him.
"That's not fair, Allie," Giorgio said, his voice softening. "You're so much more than that to me. You have to know that."
I turned away from him, unable to bear the intensity in his eyes. The grandfather clock in the corner ticked away the silence between us, each second reminding me of how precarious our situation remained.