Chapter 5

I walked twenty blocks before my legs gave out. No taxi would stop for a bleeding woman at 4 AM. I found a cab near the docks and gave him the address of the Red Hook safe house—the brownstone where Alessandro had first taught me to shoot, where he had once called me his heart.

The place reeked of him. Cuban tobacco and gun oil. I collapsed against the door, sliding to the floorboards. The sounds wouldn't stop—the wet laughter, the slap of his gun, Vittoria's voice purring true heir.

I crawled to the bathroom and heaved into the toilet. Nothing came up. I hadn't eaten since the night before, too busy being his ghost. The twins twisted in my womb, demanding I survive. I forced down cold pasta from the refrigerator, tears streaming into the marinara, eating with my hands like a starving animal.

I pulled the burner phone from the drawer—the one he didn't know I had. I dialed the number.

"I need out," I whispered. "Blood Oath annulment. Full extraction."

"Forty-eight hours," the voice answered. "Keep your head down."

The next afternoon, the lock clicked. Alessandro strode through the door, his coat dusted with snow, carrying white lilies—Vittoria's favorite. He stopped when he saw me at the kitchen table, a cup of espresso growing cold.

"You're here," he said, carefully neutral. Then: "Your face... does it hurt?"

I didn't answer.

He approached slowly, fingers hovering near my cheek, then dropping to my shoulder. Warm. Possessive. The same hand that had struck me now trembled with something like remorse.

"Last night... you shamed me before the Family. The elders recorded your outburst. Do you understand what you've done?"

I looked up. He seemed genuinely perplexed—how could she not understand this is business?

"Tomorrow," he continued, thumb stroking my collarbone, "you will apologize to Vittoria. At breakfast. You will kneel, and you will accept her as your superior, and then you will prepare the Caponata. The way I like it. You'll serve it to her personally."

He tilted my chin up. "Do this, and I'll forget the chalice. We'll go back to how things were, Bella. Just you and me, and the twins when they come. I'll keep you safe."

I stared at him. He truly believed this was mercy. That forcing me to cook for my rival was a favor.

"I apologize," I said, flat. "I forgot my place."

He stilled. Then his face broke into a smile—dazzling, relieved, blind. "There she is. My good girl."

He kissed my forehead. I didn't flinch. I had already died inside.

I stood and walked to the kitchen. I took out the eggplant, the celery, the Sicilian olives. This was the Caponata I had learned in Palermo, back when he took a bullet to the stomach and I worked three days without sleep to perfect the recipe—to make something that wouldn't hurt him.

Now, I chopped with mechanical precision, my fingers moving while my mind floated above, watching the widow prepare her husband's last meal.

He watched from the doorway. "You're limping."

"It's nothing."

He stepped behind me, arms encircling my waist, chin on my shoulder. The intimacy of it—the audacity—made my stomach revolt.

"You work too hard," he murmured, hand splaying over my stomach, covering his children. "Tomorrow night, after the dinner... I'll make it up to you. I'll take you to the cabin. Just us."

I nodded. The cabin where he taught me to shoot. Where he first took me, blood and gunpowder and whispered vows.

We sat at the small table. The Caponata steamed between us. He ate with appetite, eyes closing.

"Perfect," he said. "No one makes it like you."

I placed the gift on the table. A leather-bound ledger—the Siberian Pipeline accounts, every transaction I'd memorized over three years. My life's work. My dowry.

His eyes lit up. He unwrapped it, breath catching at the detailed spreadsheets.

"Elena..." He stood, pulling me into his arms. He kissed me—not on the cheek, but on the mouth, deep and desperate. "You're irreplaceable. My ghost. My right hand."

He tucked the ledger under his arm. "I'll study this tonight."

He went upstairs, whistling. I followed silently. The bedroom door was ajar. I pressed against the frame, invisible.

The shower started. Then his voice, low, speaking into his phone.

"Didn't I tell you not to worry, lyubimaya? Yes, she's compliant. She even gave me a gift—useless numbers, but she thinks it's gold. Tomorrow, you'll come here. She'll cook for you, serve you. Then I'll send her out to check the docks, and we'll have the place to ourselves. She'll never know. She's too busy being grateful I didn't throw her out."

I stepped back. Downstairs, the Caponata sat half-eaten, cooling. The lilies stood in their vase, their perfume nauseating.

I walked to the foyer. The ledger was a decoy—the real books were in a safety deposit box in Queens.

I left the key on the table. I left the ghost.

Behind me, the shower ran, and Alessandro sang an old Sicilian love song, planning a future that would never arrive.