Anger and impatience flickered across Dante's eyes

He looked at me and said in a flat voice, "Divorce? Out of the question."

"Even if I no longer love you, you're still the most important person in my life. I won't divorce you."

Then he held my eves and laid down each word like a stone, "Carmela Russo, I have never wronged you."

"If I owe anyone, it's Lorelei. I couldn't give her a name. I made her spend the best years of her life beside me with nothing to show for it."

"I was prepared to leave you some dignity, but you had to push and twist this into something ugly."

Then he turned his back on me, dropped to one knee, and produced an enormous diamond ring.

The look he gave Lorelei was tender enough to turn a stomach. "Lorelei, I met you too late."

"I can't give you an official title in this lifetime, but I can give you the biggest wedding the world has ever seen. I can let everyone know that the woman I love most is you."

Lorelei pressed a hand over her mouth, her eyes going red.

But she still turned her face away with an injured expression. "I can't accept it. Because I love you, I was willing to throw away my pride and stay your mistress."'

"But I'm not willing to let the entire world know l'm your mistress. Unless…”

She looked over at me. "Unless Donna stands as our witness and announces it in front of everyone. Says that the unloved one is the real mistress."

"That she's the mistress in this relationship."

I looked back into the malice in her eyes without changing my expression.

When I still didn't speak, Dante's voice turned to ice.

"Carmela, don't forget your parents' ashes are in a cemetery I paid for. You wouldn't want them ending up like that house, would you?"

It felt like someone had carved a fistful of meat out of my chest

Even breathing started to taste like blood.

I gave a slow nod. "Fine. I'll go."

Lorelei smiled through her tears and threw herself into Dante's arms.

He took her off to choose a wedding dress and book the hotel

Just before they left, he paused.

For once, his voice was almost gentle as he gave me an explanation. "Carmela Russo, it's only a wedding. It won't shake your standing as Donna.”

I answered evenly, "All right."'

He studied me for a long moment

In the end, a smile tugged at his mouth. "You don't have to look after Lorelei for now. Stay at the hospital and recover."'

"Once the baby's born, the three of us can take the child on a trip together. Consider it my way of making it up to you."

I gave the same answer, "All right."

Only then was he satisfied enough to leave.

On the day of the wedding, Dante clearly didn't trust me to behave.

He had bodyguards bring me to the dressing room early and stand watch.

Lorelei pouted and complained that her gown was too heavy for her to put her own shoes on.

“Donna, please help me."

Dante frowned and reflexively turned his head toward me.

I dropped my eyes, lowered myself to a crouch, lifted the hem of her dress and slipped the shoes onto her feet.

A complicated expression crossed Dante's face, like he wanted to say something.

But Lorelei nudged him and smiled. "Don, I'm thirsty. Go bring me a glass of orange juice."

Dante smiled, rubbed her hair, and stepped out.

The door had barely closed behind him before Lorelei kicked me viciously in the chest.

She looked down at me with naked contempt. "Carmela, you didn't seriously believe I was just some gold digger latching onto a rich man, did you?”

"I doubt you ever realized that Dante and I have been together for nearly ten years."

I stared up at her, stunned.

Her smile turned cruel. "He said I was too young. He said I shouldn"t have to suffer alongside him. So he dated me and married you."

"He was so terrified of doing me wrong that the first real money he ever made-the cash he claimed had been seized by debt collectors-actually went into designer bags for me."

"And every time I felt slighted, he had those same men go to your house and put on a little debt-collection performance, so he could spend the money on more presents for me."

"All told, that was 1.8 million. Oh, and a single cheap bracelet. I tossed it."'

My whole body began shaking:

That money was what I had broken my back to earn so Dante could pay off his debts.

At my lowest, I had collapsed right there on the factory floor.

I had nearly been pulled into one of the machines.

When Dante found out, he had wrapped his arms around me and trembled harder than I had been trembling.

He had told me, again and again, that it was his fault.

And I had actually patted him on the back and smiled and told him I didn't blame him.

What a joke I'd been. 

It had all been theater. 

He had been lying to me from the very start.