The performance was flawless. The timing, the angle, the way she positioned herself so that Simone could see her distress but not the absence of any actual contact. She hadn't been pushed hard enough to fall. She'd chosen to fall. And she'd chosen to fall holding her belly.
Simone crossed the distance in two strides. He dropped to one knee beside Silvana, his hands on her shoulders, his face white with a fear I had never once seen him show for me.
Then he looked up at me. And the look on his face was something I would carry for a long time.
"Fuck. If anything happens to her, I swear, Grazia, you'll regret this."
Cold sweat broke out across my skin. I felt pain coursing through me while my husband knelt on the floor of a hospital corridor, cradling the woman who carried his child, and looked at me like I was the threat. Like I was the one who had broken something sacred.
The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead. A nurse passed at the end of the corridor, glanced at the scene, and kept walking. In this city, you learned not to get involved when a Valente was in the room.