Chapter 4

After a while, I finally felt some strength return.

I pressed my palms against the ground, took a deep breath, and pulled myself up slowly.

Where I had just been lying, a pool of bright red blood stained the grass. It belonged to my child, and Austin's. The moment I hit the ground, I knew I couldn't save him.

Tears blurred my vision, and through the haze, I noticed movement. Behind the neighbors gathered outside the gate, someone was watching the mansion, sneaking glances toward the house.

It was members of the rival family still lurking nearby, probably making sure their target hadn't survived the fire.

I couldn't walk out there. If I did, both Austin and the rival family would come after me. As the Donna of the Marchetti family, leaving wouldn't be enough to escape the shadow that title cast over my life.

Unless I died.

Cleanly, completely. A fresh start, far from all of it.

My eyes landed on the storage shed in the backyard. I remembered there was a large animal skeleton stored inside, remains from one of Austin's hunting trips that had been kept after the kill was processed.

Fighting through the pain, I dragged the skeleton over to where I had fallen. I pulled off my jacket, already burned through with holes from falling embers, and draped it over the bones.

I looked up. The fire hadn't slowed down at all.

It would reach this corner of the yard soon enough and consume it completely. Once the flames finally burned out, the charred remains would be too degraded to identify, and everyone would naturally assume they belonged to me.

Once I had finished, I pressed a hand to my bleeding stomach and used the shadow of the wall to slip through a hidden gap I knew about, out into the open.

Behind the mansion was a small, well-kept patch of woods. I stumbled to the edge of the trees and finally let out a breath.

I had made it. I had actually escaped.

I pulled out my phone and dialed the number I'd kept memorized in my heart for years.

"Ian, help me..."

In the distance, I could faintly hear tires grinding against asphalt.

Whether it was the Marchetti family or the rival family, I honestly couldn't bring myself to care anymore.

A black sedan screeched to a stop on the road near the mansion. Austin's Underboss, Marco Sinclair, stood staring at the flames shooting into the sky, his face drained of color. His hands shook as he called Austin over and over.

It wasn't until the third call that Austin finally picked up, sounding irritated. "Whatever it is, it can wait until I'm back."

"Don Marchetti, there's no time! The fire's already taken out the entire mansion... The Donna... She didn't make it out."

On the other end of the line, the noisy chaos went completely silent.