Chapter 2

Dominic came home the next morning. He entered the bedroom, walked toward me, and lowered his voice. "Isabella, I am sorry. There really was trouble at the docks last night. I had to deal with it, and I did not mean to miss the dinner."

I looked at him and said, "Helena's baby is fourteen weeks along." His hand stopped before it reached my face. He asked what I was talking about, so I repeated the question. "She is fourteen weeks pregnant, isn't she?" The room went quiet, and his expression tightened. He knew I had learned the truth.

"I planned to tell you myself," he said. I asked whether he had planned to tell me after the baby was born or after everyone else knew. Dominic frowned and said he had not known how to tell me.

I asked when Helena had stopped being his finance director and started sleeping with him. Irritation crossed his face before he forced his voice back under control. "That is not the point. I know I made a mistake, but it does not mean I stopped loving you."

He sat beside me and used the calm, careful tone that had made people call him the Gentleman Don. "We have shared twelve years. You stood beside me when I was only an heir, and you helped me become the man I am now. You know how much I love you." His guilt was real, and his love was real too. He also believed neither one required him to give Helena up.

"I made the kind of mistake most men make," he continued. "Men in my position always have women around them. It did not change who I love. You understand that, don't you?" I asked whether he expected me to accept it.

"I expect you to understand that Helena is pregnant. The child did nothing wrong, and I cannot abandon her." He spoke with complete confidence. He believed he had found a fair solution because he had no plan to leave his wife.

I asked whether he would end the relationship with Helena. Dominic did not answer, and his silence told me enough. He reached for my hand and said, "I never planned to leave you. You are my wife. Helena was a mistake."

"The woman is not the only problem," I told him. "You betrayed me." Dominic said he knew and promised to make it up to me. That promise ended the last part of me that still wanted to believe him. He thought twelve years of marriage could be repaired with gifts and apologies.

When I said I wanted a divorce, Dominic stared at me. Then he moved closer and cupped my face with both hands. "Look at me. You are hurt, and I understand why. You are my wife and the only woman I have ever planned a life with. I can end this with Helena. I will fix it, but we are not getting divorced." His voice shook, and for a moment he sounded sincere enough to reach the part of me that still remembered the man I had married.

Then his phone vibrated, and Helena's name appeared on the screen. Dominic's expression changed at once. He picked up his coat and walked toward the door. "I am sorry. This is important. Wait for me, and we will finish this when I get back."

Twelve years earlier, I had heard those words as a promise. That morning, I heard an order he expected me to follow. I watched the door close and understood his mistake. Dominic knew he could hurt me. He simply believed I would stay.