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CHAPTER ONE

ANOTHER KNIFING PAIN speared into her lower back, radiating like a spiked belt around herher torso in a merciless fist that stole her breath

“Please call Alessandro,” Octavia Ferrante begged in a pant, knotting her fists in the blanket beneath her as she braced herself for the next contraction She was starting to fear that soain

Her husband’s cousin Prihed His hold on the curtain dropped with disinterest as he turned away from the“I told you He said he would co to put himself out”

She didn’t want to believe it Pri her She no longer trusted hiames

But after thisexiled to London by her husband, she was beginning to believe at least so her soft in the head She’d let her life spiral beyond her grip Pregnancy was an odd state, rees so you didn’t realize how defenseless you were until the need to fight arose and there was nothing to draw on She had insulated herself here, licking her wounds over Alessandro’s rejection, and suddenly she had no resources No one to help her

Rebellion had backfired on her in the past so she rarely dissented, but she’d never been weak At one time she’d been confident in herself, at least, if not truly assertive She’d even felt a certain pride in those first feeeks of her e—

Another pain tore through her, rit her teeth to hold back a scream

Alessandro, she silently begged, as a fresh wave of perspiration rose to ice her skin But she knew all about men anted live births of their sons Maybe Pri the truth about her husband’s lack of concern

Call ripped her, but her mother was also in Italy and would have even less syh this Seven of theht, really, since Octavia was hardly counted as a valid heir

Fe This

Octavia had lived in fear all her life that she would suffer as her ood reason, apparently This was not the idealistic, natural process the books pro arong She knew it

“Where is the ah that she could catch her breath and speak “The clinic said to call one as soon as I went into labor Did you do it?”