Chapter 2 - The Lie of Mercy
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That memory of his hands on her skin had been the only thing keeping Chloe warm over the last seven weeks. It had also been the thing that tortured her the most.
The breakup had been surgically cruel.
Arthur had arrived at the diner on a rainy Thursday. He didn’t sit in booth seven. He didn’t order coffee. He stood by the door, wearing a tailored black suit that made him look like a stranger, like the mob boss the city newspapers always claimed he was.
“I’m getting married,” Arthur had told her, his voice devoid of all the warmth she had come to know. “To Vivien Croft. The wedding is in seven weeks.”
Chloe had dropped a stack of menus. They scattered across the linoleum floor, but neither of them moved to pick them up.
“You’re joking,” she had whispered, searching his cold, gray eyes for any sign of the man who had kissed her the night before.
“It’s business, Chloe. The Romano family needs the Croft territory to end a turf war. Vivien is the price of peace.”
“And what was I?” she had asked, her voice cracking.
“A distraction.”
He had turned and walked out, leaving a thick envelope of cash on the counter that she later threw directly into the dumpster. He didn't look back. If he had, he might have noticed the way her hand instinctively hovered over her stomach. He might have seen the terrifying, devastating truth she had been planning to tell him that very night.
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She was pregnant.
Arthur had broken her heart to save her from the crossfire of his world, never knowing that she was carrying the heir to the empire he was sacrificing his own happiness to protect. Seven weeks of silence, seven weeks of growing life, leading to the moment she threw herself through the cathedral doors.
