Part 2He Lost Me at Mistress

I turned away from his hand.

He didn't care. He just slung an arm around my shoulders.

"Trust me. Stay with me, and I'll take care of you. You'll live well."

Then he checked the time.

"A jewelry store downtown just got in a new collection of diamond rings. I'm picking out the biggest one so I can propose to Wanda."

He was buying my sister an engagement ring.

Right after asking me to be his secret mistress.

Nausea rushed up my throat. My stomach twisted hard.

But Dante didn't have time for me.

"I'm leaving. Take a cab home. And don't start drama."

A second later, his car vanished down the street.

I stood alone on the sidewalk, clutching the crumpled pregnancy test.

* * *

Even after dark, his words kept looping in my head.

'You're only worth something when you're by my side.'

Was that true?

I looked down.

Who said my worth depended on him?

A few days ago, my mentor had offered me a spot on a major research project overseas.

I'd said no after finding out I was pregnant.

Now, I didn't hesitate.

I grabbed my phone and texted fast.

[Dr. Bellandi, I've made my decision. I want to join the research project.]

His reply came almost instantly.

[Wonderful. We leave tomorrow. I'll handle everything.]

For the first time, the tightness in my chest eased.

But when I touched my still-flat stomach, the ache only got worse.

After tomorrow...

Dante, we'll never see each other again.

* * *

In the cab, I rolled down the window.

Cold air rushed in, and I shivered.

My birth mother was an escort at a nightclub who schemed her way into my father's bed.

She wanted money.

Instead, she got pregnant with me.

My father paid her to end the pregnancy. She pretended to agree, then left the country and had me anyway.

Years later, she came back with a paternity test, made me call him Dad, and demanded he claim me.

The Ambrosi family shattered overnight.

They cared about their name more than anything. To keep the scandal quiet, they paid my mother a fortune to disappear for good.

Before she left, she dumped me with them.

I was a burden.

From then on, I was the person nobody wanted.

My father barely cared I existed.

My stepmother hated me.

My half sister, Wanda, treated me like her sworn enemy.

Of course, we ended up in the same schools from elementary through high school.

Her favorite hobby was outing me as the illegitimate daughter every chance she got.

In middle school, she announced my whole family history at an assembly.

On our first day of high school, she trapped me by my desk after class and made sure everyone knew I was the Ambrosi family's unwanted secret.

Soon, the whole school knew.

The Ambrosis had a daughter they wished didn't exist.

For the first sixteen years of my life, insults, isolation, and bullying were normal.

I learned to stay quiet.

Take it.

Never fight back.

I met Dante halfway through junior year.

One day, Wanda blocked me in the hallway with a few girls and dumped a whole bucket of water over my head.

Ice-cold water soaked through my uniform in seconds, clinging to my skin as I shook from the cold.