Aurelia POV
The knock on the door was soft, almost deceptive.
I peered through the peephole to find Kaleigh standing in the hallway.
She was alone, clutching a Tupperware container like a shield. She was draped in a white cashmere coat that likely cost more than this entire tenement building.
I cracked the door open, leaving the security chain taut between us.
"What do you want?"
"I brought soup," Kaleigh said, presenting the container with a tight, practiced smile. "Minestrone. Jacob's favorite. I thought the baby might need some nutrients. You look... gaunt."
Her smile didn't reach her eyes. Her eyes were a flat, predatory void-like a shark sensing blood in the water.
"Go to hell."
"Oh, come on, Aurelia. Let's talk. Sister to sister."
I undid the chain and swung the door wide. Not to let her in, but because I was finished hiding behind cheap locks that wouldn't stop them anyway.
Kaleigh stepped into the cramped hallway, wrinkling her nose as the scent of stale cooking oil and damp carpet hit her.
"God, how can you live here?" she asked, her voice dripping with disdain. "It smells like poverty."
"It smells like freedom," I countered.
She laughed, a harsh, brittle sound. "It smells like a rat's nest. Look, Jacob is worried. He wants the boy to have a real family. A mother who knows how to navigate our world. You... you were always too soft. Too civilian."
"And you're hard enough?" I asked.
"I was born in this life. I am a Capo's daughter." She placed a hand on her stomach, a mocking, possessive gesture. "I know what it takes to raise a King."
"But you can't make one," I said quietly.
Kaleigh's smile vanished instantly. Her face twisted, the mask slipping to reveal something ugly and raw beneath.
"My body is broken," she hissed, stepping closer. "But yours works fine. That's all you are, Aurelia. You're a surrogate. A rental."
She pried the lid off the soup. Steam curled into the cold air between us.
"Jacob and I... we are soulmates," she said, her voice trembling with a manic intensity. "We belong together. This baby... he's the final piece. Once you pop him out, you can go. We'll pay you. We'll give you your little architecture firm back. Just give us the boy."
"He's not a piece of furniture you can buy," I said, my voice shaking with a mixture of rage and terror.
"He is whatever the Don says he is!" Kaleigh screamed. She stepped forward, the hot soup sloshing dangerously against the rim. "You are nothing! You are a nobody! You should be grateful we let you carry him!"
Something inside me snapped. It was the cable holding back a lifetime of bullying, of silence, of being the "good girl" who always followed the rules.
I didn't think. I reacted.
I slapped the container out of her hand.
But I didn't slap it down. I struck up.
The scalding red liquid exploded upward, coating Kaleigh's pristine white cashmere. It splashed onto her neck. It seared her chin.
She shrieked-a high, piercing sound of shock and agony.
She stumbled back, clawing frantically at her neck, her expensive coat ruined, her skin turning an angry, blistered red.
"You crazy bitch!" she screamed. "You burned me!"
"Get out!" I roared. I grabbed a vase from the entry table-cheap glass-and smashed it on the floor between us, sending shards skittering across the linoleum. "Get out before I kill you!"
Kaleigh looked at me. For the first time, she looked genuinely afraid. She saw the iron in my eyes. She saw that the canary was dead, and something with claws had taken its place.
She turned and fled, her heels beating a staccato rhythm of panic down the hallway.
I slammed the door and threw the bolt. I leaned against the wood, sliding down until I hit the floor.
My hands were shaking. Not from fear. From adrenaline.
They would come for me now. Not with lawyers. Not with text messages. They would come with guns. Kaleigh would demand blood for the burn. Jacob would demand the heir.
I looked down at my stomach.
"They won't take you," I whispered to Leo.
I couldn't win in court. I couldn't win in a street fight.
There was only one way to escape a Don.
You have to die.
I stood up, my resolve hardening into ice. I walked to the kitchen and turned the dial on the gas stove.
Hissing filled the silence.
I didn't light it. Not yet.
I stared at the lighter in my hand, my thumb hovering over the wheel.
I needed a body. I needed a fire.
I needed Aurelia Moretti to cease to exist so that Leo's mother could be born.
