I sat in the study, happily eating the lunch the housekeeper had brought me.
Sebastian frowned as he watched me. “Stealing from me wasn’t enough? Now you’re using our child to squeeze more money out of me? What kind of mother does that?”
I swallowed the last bite of my sandwich and looked hopefully at the housekeeper. “Is there any more?”
“Sofia Hayes! Stop playing dumb!” Sebastian slammed his hand on the table. “Where the hell is all the money I gave you?”
“Keep your voice down. I’m eating.”
The housekeeper gave me a sympathetic look and handed me another container of food. I immediately dug in.
Sebastian’s patience was running out. He stopped arguing and turned to his trusted consigliere, the white-haired Giuseppe Laurent. “Get the family lawyers here. She had her chance at the convent and refused to take it. Now she’ll face the consequences.”
Giuseppe nodded. “Understood, Mr. Moretti.”
“You’re really going to have your lawyers send me to prison?” I asked, swallowing the last bite of pasta.
Sebastian turned back to me, frowning. I pushed myself to my feet and met his eyes. “Go ahead, Sebastian! Have them ask for the maximum sentence. Make sure I spend the rest of my life in there! I never want to get out!”
“What the hell are you talking about?” His frown deepened.
I gave a bitter laugh. “You heard me. Lock me up for life! At least in prison, no one would steal my food money. Even the pennies I’d earn working there would cover ramen from the commissary every month. I’m done being your wife! I’d rather be a prisoner than spend another day with you!”
“I cut your food allowance because you kept wasting money on useless luxuries!” he snapped, looking at me as if I’d lost my mind.
I let out a humorless laugh. “Luxuries? You really think I can afford luxuries? I’m not Camilla. I don’t get a three-million-dollar necklace from you, or designer gowns to wear to business dinners on your arm!”
“Everyone thinks you’re the perfect couple, don’t they? Meanwhile, I gain a little pregnancy weight, and suddenly I’m too embarrassing to be seen in public!”
Sebastian went still. He turned fully toward me, staring in disbelief. “Why would you think that?”
“Isn’t that what you wanted?” My voice shook, and tears filled my eyes. “You put a scale in the house and made me weigh myself every day. I had to log my weight, and every pound I gained meant another cut to my food allowance.”
“First it went from four dollars to two. Then from two to one! You buy Camilla a three-million-dollar necklace without blinking, but I take a hundred dollars so I can get enough to eat, and you want to send me to prison!”
Giuseppe stared at me in shock. “Camilla? No, Mr. Moretti never—”
“Wait.” Sebastian raised a hand to stop him, then came over and bent down to look me in the face. “Keep talking.”