Rose Blooming in the Dark

1.

Julian Moretti vanished for three months during the bloodbath that wiped out the Santoro family.

Everyone assumed the heir had ended up in some landfill. Until my contact found him on a ranch in Montana so remote it didn't even have cell service.

A woman named Scarlett had taken him in. He couldn't even remember his own social security number at the time, so she told him they were married.

They lived some pastoral fantasy in that isolated valley until our people dragged him back to New York.

The day his memory returned, Julian sat in the estate study, staring at the photos his men had brought backDthat rundown ranch, the kind of furniture you'd find in a Walmart clearance aisle, and the woman in the flannel plaid shirt.

He stared at the photos for a long time. Then he picked up his Macallan and set the glass down on top of them. The woman's smiling face disappeared beneath the crystal base.

He never mentioned Montana again.

"Cut her a check," he said, without even lifting his eyes from his drink. "Make sure she never shows her face in front of me again."

I did as ordered. Scarlett took the two hundred thousand. Didn't say a single word.

I thought that was the end of it.

Until three months later, when one of our men slipped and said her name during a report.

Julian set down his glass and stood up, perfectly calm. He didn't raise his voice. Didn't lose his temper.

He poured a glass of whiskey for the man who'd served him for seven years. Clapped him on the shoulder.

The next day, that man was gone.

The only thing left on his office carpet was a Moretti family signet ring, pressed into the dark red fibers.

Julian wiped his fingers with a handkerchief, his voice colder than Lake Michigan in January. "That woman's name will never be spoken in this house again."

After that, no one dared mention Scarlett.

Everyone believed Julian had buried that filthy chapter of his past in a concrete foundation.

Until I got word on a Thursday afternoonDScarlett was getting married. To the son of another rancher.

Julian was in the conference room reviewing quarterly earnings when the message came through. He glanced at his phone screen, and every drop of color drained from his face. He didn't say a word. He shoved back his chair, grabbed his coat, and walked out.

He took six men with him. Stormed straight into that sad excuse for a country engagement party, the kind of thing ripped straight off Pinterest.

I heard from people who were there that when Julian walked into that old barn wearing an eight-thousand-dollar custom suit, the whispers in the room died like someone had grabbed them by the throat.

He didn't offer a single explanation. In front of everyone, he shoved ScarlettDstill in her white dressDinto the car and drove all the way back to New York.

He didn't even warn anyone.

Not until he stood in the main hall with that woman beside him and announced, in the same tone you'd use to order coffee, that she would be living in the estate. As his partner.

I was standing behind the second-floor railing at that moment, holding my whiskey. I almost laughed out loud.

Lucia rushed over with a napkin to wipe the spill from my hand.

I looked down at the woman who'd walked in behind Julian.

She was beautiful. But nothing like those Herms-toting heiresses from Manhattan private schools.

She had a feral alertness to her, the kind you see in wild animals. Those eyes swept the room, and the calculation in them was impossible to miss.

No wonder Julian's mouth said disgust while his body said something else entirely.

Except. Just last week, he'd gotten the daughter of a major partner from Italy into his bed and set her up in a penthouse on the Upper East Side.

If some ranch girl with zero connections now climbed over that young lady's head, there would be trouble.

I walked down the stairs with my glass, a perfectly calibrated smile on my face. "Julian, Scarlett just arrived. She'll need time to adjust to how things work here. Why not start her off in the city apartment? Give her something official to hold onto."

I caught something flicker through Scarlett's eyes.

She buried it fast.

"And then we introduce her properly at the Christmas gala at year's end. What do you think?"

This arrangement would keep her quarantined from the center of power. Away from prying eyes and ears.

Scarlett turned to look at me after I finished speaking.

Then she pulled a move I'd seen countless times before. She started crying. For Julian.

"I know I'm just a country girl with no family name," she said, her voice trembling with perfect precision. "I don't belong in your world. Meeting you is already the luckiest thing that's ever happened to me."

"I've never wanted anything more. I just want to stay quietly by your side."

"But since Genevieve hates me so much she has to push me away... you might as well let me go. Maybe my fianc hasn't gone far yetD"

"What the hell is he," Julian's voice dropped to ice. That famed composure, that self-control everyone knew him for, shattered the moment he saw her tears. "You've been mine for a long time now."

"You made vows to me in that church. Do you think I'm the kind of man who lets people break their vows?"

He pulled her into his arms and lowered his voice, but kept it at a volume just loud enough for me to hear. "You're not going anywhere. Don't ever say that again."

Scarlett curled against his chest. A faint, almost imperceptible smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

But she swallowed it fast. Replaced it with a look of pure distress. She shrank behind Julian and made her voice small enough for everyone to hear. "But... Genevieve doesn't seem to like me very much."

One sentence. That was all it took to turn Julian's fire on me.

Julian's dark glare swung toward me immediately.

"Genevieve. I always thought you were a woman with boundaries."

"So that's what this is. A person's worth is determined by where they came from. You disappoint me."

"Scarlett saved my life. Her place at my side is not open for anyone to questionD"

"Then why don't you submit a formal petition to the family council." I cut him off, my voice as calm as placing an order at Starbucks. "Dissolve our marriage. Give Scarlett the position of lady of the house."

Julian froze.

Every bodyguard and maid within earshot stopped breathing.

Scarlett kept up her quiet sobbing. "Julian, don't be angry. It's all my fault. I shouldn't have come here."

She placed her hand on her flat stomach. Her voice dropped to a whisper, like she was afraid of disturbing something. "Just let me go. I'll take the baby with me."

The word "baby" hit Julian's remaining sanity like a .45 caliber round.

His eyes went wide. "You're pregnant?"

Scarlett nodded, her face flushed. "Almost three months."

Julian scooped her up and strode for the door. "Get a doctor. Now. Full examination."

"And have someone prepare the lake-view suite in the west wing. She's staying there."

A whole entourage followed him out.

Lucia helped me up from the floor. Her voice was low and thick with indignation. "Madam, are you really going to just watch while that ranch girlD"

I raised a hand to stop her.

I looked up. Watched them go.

Scarlett's silhouette disappeared at the top of the stairs.

That girl was no innocent. Her fragility was a porcelain shell. Beneath it was a hunger that wanted to swallow everything.

StillD

This was good news for me.

2.

Right after dinner, Julian's trusted man Frankie came to summon me to the lake-view suite. Scarlett wanted to apologize to me in person.

"No need." I lifted my teacup. "Let her focus on Julian."

This routine was ancient. I had no interest in playing along.

Frankie's face tightened with discomfort. "Madam, it's the boss's order. You know I can't disobey."

Lucia tried to step in and refuse for me. I pressed her wrist down.

Apparently this Scarlett was even less patient than I'd imagined.

Fine. Let's play.

Frankie and I had barely reached the suite door when I heard Julian's voice inside. That doting tone was something I'd never once heard in three years of marriage to him. "Stop crying. You're about to be a mother. How are you still acting like a child?"

"You only care about this baby." Scarlett's voice dripped with coy reproach. "Fine. I'll leave as soon as I've had him. Your heart's only in the child anyway. You don't care about me at all."

Julian didn't get angry. This man once destroyed an entire kitchen because the chef overcooked his steak by one minute. And he didn't get angry.

I heard him pull her into his arms. "You're not going anywhere. You and the babyDyou're both mine."

A maid announced my arrival.

Scarlett caught sight of me at that moment. The softness on her face vanished in an instant. Replaced by something precise. A smiling, calculating assessment.

Her eyes traveled from my shoes to the pearls at my ears. The look of someone appraising clearance inventory.

Then she smiled.

It was a smile I'd seen a thousand times in the hallways of Manhattan private schools. Sweet enough to rot your teeth. Poisonous enough to kill.

"Mrs. Moretti," she said, putting weight on the title like she was savoring an expired joke. "You must be here to congratulate me. Julian says I don't need to do anything. Just rest and take care of the baby."

She tilted her head and continued in that tone of sharing a secret. "You know, Julian says I make him feel like a real man. Not a business partner. He says being with you feels like sitting in a board meeting. With me, he finally feels like a living, breathing man."

She finished and looked up at Julian, eyes bright. "Darling, when our son is born, don't you think this estate could use some redecorating? Some of these rooms feel too much like a law firm."

Julian was scrolling through his phone off to the side. He grunted an absent "Mm."

I stood in the doorway. Didn't move. Lucia's fingers tightened around my sleeve.

Scarlett's smile widened.

She stood and walked up to me. Lowered her voice until only the two of us could hear. "Mrs. Moretti, honestly. If I were you, spending every day guarding a man who has no use for you, I'd have taken the money and left a long time ago. Don't you feel embarrassed? He doesn't want you. He hasn't wanted you for a long time. He just doesn't know how to fire an employee who happens to be his wife."

She stepped back. Her voice returned to that sugary public volume. "Oh my god, I didn't mean it like thatDplease don't misunderstandD"

Before she could finish, she tripped over the sofa leg. Stumbled backward two steps. Her glass of sparkling water splashed all over her dress.

Julian finally looked up.

He saw Scarlett standing drenched in front of me. Eyes red-rimmed. He saw me facing her with no expression at all.

"Genevieve." His voice dropped. "Did you touch her?"

I looked at him.

"No."

"She's standing in front of you, soaked. And you're telling me you did nothing?"

"Check the hallway cameras."

Julian stood. He pulled Scarlett behind him, walked up to me, and looked down. That appraising stare. Like he was evaluating a malfunctioning asset.

"I've noticed something interesting," he said slowly. "Ever since Scarlett moved in, wherever you show up, something happens to her. She just wants to get along with you. She's carrying my child. She swallowed her pride to come apologize to you. And this is how you humiliate her?"

Scarlett peeked out from behind him. Eyes red. Voice small as a wounded child's. "Julian, don't blame her. It really wasn't her fault. I lost my footing. Maybe... maybe the baby kicked."

The vein at Julian's temple jumped.

"Now." He pointed at the door. His voice went cold. "You're going to the glass conservatory. You'll stay there until Scarlett says she's fine."

3.

I looked at him.

"Julian." I used his name. No title. "Do you hear yourself right now?"

He went completely still.

"From the moment I walked into this house, did I say one word or make one move against Scarlett? She's been putting on a show from the start. Even if she wanted to throw herself off a bridge, what does that have to do with me? What grounds do you have to pin this on me?"

"You've lost even the most basic ability to tell what's real?"

Julian's face flushed dark red, like he'd downed a bottle of bourbon. "Even if you did nothing, Scarlett acted that way because you were here. You're not shaking this off."

"You'll go whether you want to or not. If anything happens to Scarlett or that child, I won't forgive you."

He shouted at the guards. "What are you standing there for. Take her."

"I'd like to see anyone try."

My voice wasn't loud. But every guard stopped dead.

They didn't dare touch me for one simple reasonDmy name was DeLuca.

And no random bodyguard put their hands on a DeLuca.

Julian noticed their hesitation. His expression darkened. "What, you want to defy my direct order?"

This was a direct command from the family heir. Everyone knew the price of disobedience.

The guards lowered their heads. Gripped my arms.

Lucia lunged forward. Her voice shook. "Mr. Moretti! Please, calm down! Madam didn't mean any harm! Please, for all the years she's given this family, everything she's doneD"

Julian didn't glance at Lucia. He just stared at me. Waiting for me to beg.

I didn't.

Two guards dragged me to the glass conservatory behind the estate.

It had belonged to Julian's mother. After her death, the place was abandoned. On a late autumn night, it was cold as a refrigerated shipping container.

The iron door slammed shut behind me.

Lucia threw herself against the glass door, pounding on it. "Mr. Moretti! Madam's conditionDshe really shouldn't beDMadam is actually alreadyD"

"Lucia." I cut her off sharply.

Through the frost-coated glass, I watched Julian on the distant steps, his arm around Scarlett.

He didn't look back.

He took that woman and walked away.

Lucia's tears froze into streaks of ice on her face. "Madam, why didn't you tell him you're pregnant too? Staying in a place like this all nightDhow could the baby possibly survive?"

I sat down on the stone floor and wrapped my cashmere coat tighter around myself.

"Lucia," My voice was calm. "No matter what happens tonight, you will not tell Julian I'm pregnant."

Lucia froze.

Moonlight streamed through the glass dome above.

I watched my own breath mist in the air and realized this child might do me a great favorDhelp me escape this cage.

Lucia bit her lip. Finally nodded.

Cold.

I hadn't been this cold in years.

Life near Central Park had made me forget the winters I'd survived as a child in Montreal.

An hour passed.

My body started shaking violently. Consciousness swung between clarity and fog.

Lucia ran frantically toward the main house to find a doctor. Scarlett's maid stopped her. "Wake the young lady and disturb her pregnancy, and you won't have enough lives to pay for it."

She tried to bring me a blanket. The maid sneered. "The master ordered the madam to stay there for six full hours. Who the hell are you to defy his orders?"

When I collapsed onto the stone floor, I could vaguely hear Lucia crying.

She rushed to the main house door and pounded on it without caring anymore.

Julian pulled the door open, ready to unleash his fury. Then he saw, through the window at the end of the hallway, the figure crumpled on the ground in the conservatory.

He paused.

Scarlett's voice came from behind him, dripping with casual contempt. "She's really committed to the sympathy act. Passing out after just an hour in the conservatory?"

"Maybe she's just waiting for you to play hero, darling. Don't fall for it. You know how some women use these tricks to get attention."

Julian's expression shifted.

The door slammed shut in Lucia's face.

"Anyone who disturbs me and Scarlett again will be thrown out of the estate."

Lucia and I spent the entire night in that icebox.

When the door finally opened the next morning, I couldn't make a sound anymore.

The family doctor rushed over. It was already too late.

The child inside me was gone.

4.

Julian appeared in my room within ten minutes of getting the news.

He stood in the doorway, that familiar look of reproach on his face. "Genevieve, how could you be so careless? You didn't even know you were pregnant."

He'd forgotten about last night.

Forgotten who locked me in the conservatory. Forgotten his orders.

I didn't speak. Just looked at him.

Maybe my stare made him uncomfortable. His tone softened. "It's okay. You're still young. We'll have moreD"

The door swung open.

It was the maid from the lake-view suite.

"Mr. Moretti, Scarlett says her stomach hurts. She needs you immediately."

Julian didn't hesitate. He didn't look at me. He turned and left. Faster than he'd come.

The moment his silhouette disappeared, something clicked into place. Scarlett was his excuse to escape this house. And I was the furniture.

Furniture can be replaced. But an excuseDlose that, and he'd have to face everything he'd single-handedly wrecked.

That was why he panicked. He was panicking more than anyone.

Lucia slumped beside my bed, sobbing so hard her whole body shook. "Madam, your child is gone and the master can't even stay with you a little longer. He was the one who insisted on marrying you. And now he treats you like this for that woman."

"If only you'd married Mr. Sterling back thenD"

I pressed her hand.

"Lucia." My voice was soft. "This child being gone might be a good thing."

Her eyes went wide.

"As Moretti blood, his life would never belong to him. The moment he came out of me, his ending would already be written."

I paused. "And without this child, I can finally get free."

Lucia stared at me for a long time.

Then she saw my eyes. This girl who'd been with me for three years finally understood something.

Her voice trembled. "Madam... last night... you did it on purpose?"

I didn't deny it.