Chapter 5
Sophia did not leave the estate. That surprised everyone.
By breakfast the next morning, the household staff had already sensed the change. No one said anything. But they noticed Sophia’s clothes had been moved from the master bedroom. Her toiletries disappeared from Luca’s bathroom. The prenatal vitamins that had always sat beside his coffee machine were gone.
Nothing dramatic had happened. That was what made it unbearable. Sophia had simply removed herself from their shared life, one object at a time.
Luca stood in the doorway of the breakfast room, watching her spread jam across a piece of toast. “You moved rooms?”
“Yes.”
“I noticed.”
“I’m sure you did.”
He entered slowly. He had not slept much — Sophia could tell from the faint darkness beneath his eyes and the way his normally perfect shirt collar sat slightly crooked. Three days earlier, she would have fixed it. Her fingers actually twitched. She hated that.
“Are you planning to leave?” he asked.
“Eventually.”
His jaw tightened. “What does ‘eventually’ mean?”
“It means when my doctor says traveling and moving won’t create unnecessary risk for the baby.”
“Our baby.”
Sophia looked at him. “I haven’t forgotten who her father is.”
The words were calm. Luca almost looked as though she had slapped him. Good. Then Sophia immediately disliked herself for feeling satisfaction. She was not trying to punish him. She was trying to understand who she had become inside a marriage whose foundation she no longer trusted.
“I can arrange another property,” Luca said. “If you want space, there are houses in Westchester, Connecticut.”
“No, Luca. I don’t want you arranging my next life.”
That silenced him. She took a breath. “I’ll decide where I go.”
He leaned back. Every instinct in him visibly resisted those words. He was a man who arranged everything. Security, cars, doctors, schedules, problems, people. Sophia suddenly understood that Luca did not merely control danger. He controlled uncertainty — because uncertainty frightened him. And perhaps she had mistaken some of that control for devotion because it had always arrived wrapped in tenderness.
“I want to attend your appointments,” he said.
“You can.”
He seemed surprised.
“I’m not keeping you from your daughter, Luca. But our marriage is separate from your relationship with her.”
He looked toward the window. “You’ve already decided we’re finished.”
“No. I’ve decided I can’t make that decision while I don’t know what’s true.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything.”
“I told you.”
“No.” For the first time, her voice sharpened. “You told me the part you were forced to tell me because I overheard you.”
She felt her daughter shift beneath her ribs. “I want to know when you first saw me. Why you followed me. Why you chose to speak to me. When protecting me became dating me. When dating me became proposing to me.” She held his gaze. “And then I want to know whether there was ever one moment in any of that when you forgot about the promise.”
He did not answer.
Silence had become Luca’s cruelest weapon without him intending it. Sophia pushed her chair back.
“I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow at ten. Meet me there if you want.”
May you like
She stood. Luca rose immediately, his hand moving toward her elbow. Sophia stepped around him before he could touch her. The movement was small. But Luca’s hand remained suspended for a second before slowly falling to his side.
Sophia walked away.
