While You Stayed With Her,I Lost Everything

"Oh, and just now he told me that once our baby arrives, he's signing every holding in his name over to the child. So you won't walk away with a thing."

"As for you, you're nothing but a toy to amuse my husband while I'm too far along to bother. I should really be thanking you."

On the other end of the line, I heard Gianna's furious, ragged breathing, the sound of a woman who'd built her standing on borrowed Family cash and just felt the floor tilt.

"Don't get cocky. I'll make sure Lorenzo severs the union with you."

And she certainly didn't disappoint me.

Half an hour later, she sent over a video of her and Lorenzo in bed together. With a taunting voice message attached.

"Adriana, what is there to be so smug about? All I had to do was shed a few tears and Lorenzo agreed to give me a baby."

"So we didn't bother with protection today. Once I'm pregnant, you and that little bastard in your belly can wait to be thrown out on the street."

I didn't reply again. After all, with a fool, every extra word is wasted breath. I pressed my thumb against the bare inside of my ring finger, against the place a ring used to sit, and held it there until the impulse passed.

Two days later, Lorenzo footed the bill himself and threw a party at one of the Family's hotels to celebrate the second anniversary of Gianna's grooming parlor, the little laundering front she liked to call her own.

Among the guests were friends the two of them shared, his close associates from the inner circle, and the loyal patrons who kept Gianna's kennel in cash.

Before the doors even opened, Gianna had announced to everyone that today I would be offering her a public apology, carried live across every channel of the network, into every territory that mattered.

Once the timing was confirmed, Lorenzo gave a nod to the man at the control panel, signaling that they could begin. The room straightened at the gesture. In this world a nod from a made man was an order, and orders were obeyed without a word.

The moment the screen lit up, my face appeared.

"Good evening, everyone. At my husband's request, I'd like to solemnly offer Miss Gianna Russo an apology today."

Gianna's eyes gleamed with the smug triumph of a winner. Across the room she let out a soft, practiced laugh and tucked her hair behind one ear, the laugh arriving a half-second too fast.

The next second, I let one corner of my mouth curl.

"I'm sorry that when I received the video of you in bed with my husband, I couldn't hold it back and threw up out of disgust, and so failed to respect your dignity as the other woman."

"By way of compensation, I'll do exactly as you both wished, and along with all my friends in the network, send the two of you a nice wave of free exposure. Across every territory. To every ear that listens."

"Now, everyone, please enjoy their performance, and let us all bear witness to this grand and filthy affair."