The Double Life of My Pregnant Ex-Wife (Carmen and Marco) novel Chapter 39

The study door closed with a soft click as Arianna stepped inside. Marco stood with his back to her, staring out the window at the gray skies above the Venetti estate. The air between them was heavy, like the calm before a storm. Arianna moved gracefully toward the desk, her heels clicking faintly against the marble floor.

“You wanted to see me?” she asked, her voice soft and smooth as silk.

Marco didn’t respond right away. His broad shoulders were rigid, his hands shoved into his pockets. After a long pause, he turned, his sharp eyes fixing on Arianna as if trying to peel away every layer she wore. “What do you know about Carmen and Montini?”

Arianna tilted her head slightly, her expression carefully schooled into one of mild surprise. “Sergio Montini? That’s who she’s been spending time with lately, isn’t it?”

Marco didn’t move, didn’t blink. “You haven’t answered my question.”

Arianna sighed softly, as if burdened by a truth she didn’t want to share. “Marco,” she said gently, stepping closer to him. “I didn’t want to be the one to say this. But you deserve to know.”

“Know what?” Marco’s voice was sharp, though his tone was laced with wariness.

Arianna placed a delicate hand on the edge of the desk, watching him carefully. “Carmen’s been consolidating power behind your back. Her alliance with Montini—it isn’t innocent. He’s always been ambitious, and Carmen… well, she’s been working with him to rally your disillusioned men. It’s exactly what it looks like. She’s building something of her own.”

Marco’s jaw tightened, though he said nothing.

“You’ve felt it, haven’t you?” Arianna continued, her voice coaxing, almost gentle. “The distance between you. The way she challenges you—undermines you—in front of your men. Her alliances with Montini and others aren’t about helping you, Marco. They’re about taking what’s yours.”

“She wouldn’t do that,” Marco muttered, though the words lacked the conviction he wanted them to hold.

Arianna stepped closer, her tone softening even further. “Are you so sure? Carmen has always been clever, hasn’t she? And dangerous, when she needs to be. She’s not the same woman who stood beside you all those years ago. You can feel it, can’t you? She’s planning something, Marco. Something that doesn’t include you.”

Marco turned away, his chest rising and falling with barely restrained anger. He wanted to throw Arianna’s words back in her face, to call them lies, but a part of him—the part already worn down by weeks of doubt—couldn’t shake the possibility that she was right. Carmen had been consolidating power. He knew that. And Montini had been loyal to her, not him.

The pieces fell together too easily, too perfectly.

Arianna watched him carefully, her lips curling into the faintest smile when he didn’t respond. “You’ve given her too much trust,” she said quietly. “You can’t let your feelings cloud your judgment. You’ve worked too hard to lose everything now.”

Marco turned back toward her, his eyes dark. “Leave.”

Arianna hesitated, feigning concern. “Marco—”

“I said leave.”

She dipped her head in a slight nod, though her expression held a flicker of satisfaction as she turned and left the room.

The door closed softly behind her, but Marco remained frozen where he stood. The room felt colder, emptier somehow. Carmen’s face filled his mind—the fierce defiance in her eyes, the fire in her voice when she accused him of not believing in her.

What if she’s lying?

The question gnawed at him like a cancer, and Marco couldn’t shake it.

________________

Luca crouched in the shadows outside Arianna’s estate, the night pressing in around him like a heavy cloak. The mansion loomed before him, every window lit as though the house were alive and burning from within. Arianna’s guards were everywhere—posted at every entrance, pacing the perimeter with guns in hand—but Luca had spent too many years moving in the dark to be stopped now.

He slipped through a side gate, ducking behind hedges as he made his way toward the rear of the house. His breath came shallow and quiet, his heart pounding as he scanned the property. This was a risk—a huge risk—but he’d spent weeks watching Marco unravel under Arianna’s thumb, and he couldn’t stand by anymore. If Carmen was going to have any chance of pulling Marco back from the edge, Luca had to prove the truth.