Lorelei kept on, "You got pregnant later, remember?"

"I was so furious I refused to let him touch me, so he set up a little scene with one of his business partners and had you forced to drink until you miscarried."

"You have no idea-while you were on the operating table fighting for your life, he was on the phone with me, begging me not to stay angry with him."

Her words landed like a club to my skull.

My vision went black for a beat.

Lorelei's face suddenly contorted with resentment. "Even though he loved me that deeply, he still wouldn't divorce you and marry me."

"The only reason you had any leverage at all is that Dante is a softhearted sentimental man. You had the advantage of having been the woman who suffered with him when he was nobody."

Then she laughed. "Tell me, if Dante found out you raised a hand against the baby in my belly, do you think he'd still care about that thin slice of history between you?"

Every hair on my body stood on end as I whirled toward the door.

Behind me, Lorelei grabbed a champagne bottle and slammed it hard against her own stomach.

Then she screamed, "Don! Save mel"

The dressing room door burst open under Dante's kick.

He caught my wrist and threw me to the floor.

His eyes were red as he took in Lorelei collapsed on the ground, blood blooming beneath her skirt.

"It wasn't me-"

My defense died in my throat under the crush of his hand.

He glared down at me and roared, "Carmela Russo! You couldn't even spare a child? You disgust me."

"You made Lorelei lose her baby, so don't blame me for what I'm about to do to your dead parents."

Through tears of pain and terror, I heard him give the order without a moment's hesitation.

"Dig up Carmela Russo's parents. Grind their ashes and pour them down a sewer."

"No!" I screamed myself hoarse. "Dante, you've lost your mind! There are cameras in the dressing room! Pull the footage! I didn't do this!"

Lorelei pushed herself shakily to her feet.

Then she turned and bolted toward the window. "If the baby is gone, what's the point of living? I might as well diel Donna, frame me however you want!"

Dante's expression changed in an instant.

He shoved me aside and lunged after Lorelei, catching her in his arms.

Then he turned back toward me, his face hard and frozen. "You've burned through whatever I had left for you."'

"You hurt the woman I love and my child. I'm not letting you walk away from that."

He glanced at the men behind him and said icily, "Send her to prison. Make sure the people inside take very good care of her."

"I don't want her to have a single decent day in there."

Dante ran every red light on the way to the hospital.

He carried Lorelei into the ER himself. "Save my woman and my child If that baby lives, this hospital gets ten million."'

The doctor on duty jolted in shock

He stared at Dante, openly stunned. "Don?"

Then he glanced again, at Dante, and at Lorelei lying pale and fragile on the bed.

His confusion only deepened. "Your child? Don, you have azoospermia. You can't father children. Where would a child have come from?"

Dante's face darkened on the spot.

He spun back to face the doctor, fury crammed into every syllable.

"What did you just say? Azoospermia? Are you trying to die? What kind of garbage are you spouting?"

The doctor went pale and rushed to explain, "Don, I'm not making any of this up. That was the result of your premarital exam years ago."'

"Didn't Donna ever tell you? You do have azoospermia. You weren't able to have children."

At the mention of me, Dante stilled for a heartbeat.

Then he laughed, livid. "Carmela Russo? How much did she pay you to put on this little performance?"

The doctor looked stunned. "Don, I-"

Dante cut him off, his voice colder than ice. "What is this? An attempt to drive a wedge between Lorelei and me?"

"Or to smear Lorelei and convince me the baby she's carrying isn't mine?"

A scornful laugh escaped him. "Go tell Carmela Russo I'm not buying it. Her stunts are so juvenile they nauseate me."

"If I had azoospermia, then what was the child she carried? You expect me to believe it came from some other man?"

The doctor's face changed.

He still tried to push the words out, "Don, but-"

"Enough!" Dante had lost the last of his patience. "There is exactly one thing I want from this hospital right now: save the baby."

"If anything happens to that child, this entire hospital will pay for it."

The doctor's expression turned grim, but all he could do was bow his head.

"...Yes, Don."

Emergency treatment resumed at once.

And right then, Dante's phone rang.

He glanced down at the screen and saw it was his assistant

He answered.

"What is it?"

On the other end, the assistant sounded openly panicked.

"Don, you need to come back to the wedding venue right now. Something terrible has happened.”