She Made Way for His Lover, but He Wants a Do-Over

Silvia never thought she'd cross paths with Lucia while she was fleeing.

"Silvia! Help me!"

Lucia's conspicuous appearance drew masked attackers.

Silvia reacted without thinking, stepping in to protect the woman Dante held closest. She was forced into a fight before she dropped when a gun butt struck the back of her head.

She woke up in a freezer. Her wrists were bound behind her. The surgical gown she wore offered no protection against the -4°F.

Her teeth rattled. Frost gathered along her lashes. Pain bloomed in her lower abdomen, steady and alarming, a warning from the life inside her.

Lucia sat next to her in a heavy down jacket, cradling a cup of hot coffee for warmth.

"You… planned this?"

Lucia turned to her. "I did. And what about it? Dante pressured you into the test, but he was wavering. I couldn't let a risk sit there. How long do you think that bastard can survive inside you?"

Silvia breathed out a cloud of white. "You're insane! That's his child!"

Lucia let out a soft laugh, her gaze sharp and poisonous. "If you're dead or the baby's gone, who's going to care whose it was? Your enemies did this. What does that have to do with me? I'm a victim, too."

With a bang, a shaped charge blew a hole in the freezer door, and the air filled with the stink of explosives.

"Don Valenti, their firepower's overwhelming. They've got a sniper suppressing us. We can only cover you long enough to go in and extract one person! If we delay, the police will arrive, and they'll kill the hostages!"

Dante charged in with his gun raised. He wore a ballistic vest, his presence hard and lethal. As soon as he saw what was inside, the master tactician lost his composure. Alarm crossed his face.

Lucia had taken off her down jacket. She coughed and crawled toward the exit, feigning weakness. "Dante, save me!"

"Don't be scared! I'm here."

Dante picked her up and headed out, soothing her as he moved.

Silvia lay there with her eyes half closed, her lips blue with cold, completely ignored.

Something stirred in Dante, and he turned back. "Sil—"

A soldato rushed up. "They've thrown incendiaries! The ventilation system's about to explode. Don Valenti, move! We can only carry one. We have to take one now!"

Firelight turned the freezer doors red as heat met the cold head-on. Life or death came down to Dante's call.

"Take Lucia first."

As he crossed the threshold, Dante looked back and called out, "Silvia! You've been trained for extreme cold survival. You once lay in the snow for three days and nights! Hold on for ten minutes.

"Reinforcements are coming!"

Then, he went, leaving Silvia behind in the dead end.

She braced herself against the steel shelving and gave a quiet, hollow laugh.

She'd gone through polar training for him. To be fit to protect him, she'd stayed prone on the Glacera ice fields for three full days and nearly lost two toes to frostbite.

But had Dante forgotten? She wasn't the younger version of herself in peak condition anymore. She was a pregnant woman, still weak from jumping off a building to survive.

A sudden warmth spread beneath Silvia, jolting her awake from her thoughts.

"My baby!"

She'd never known fear in the face of knives or fire. But the loss of that fragile life terrified her beyond anything else.

"Don't go! Please… Don't leave your mom!"

Silvia felt something separating from her body. Blood streamed down her thighs and froze quickly, staining the floor red.

This was the child she'd protected with her life!

The baby hadn't died during the hospital test. It hadn't died from the fall. It was dying because of its biological father's rational decision!

Silvia curled in on herself, trying to warm her belly, but nothing stopped the life from slipping away.

"Dante… You win."

She had no tears left. Frost clung to her cheeks.

In that moment, the Silvia who'd loved Dante for 20 years was gone, along with the child she'd never get to meet.