Chapter 2

Right at that critical moment, hurried footsteps came from the other end of the hallway.

"Don Fontana!" It was a Soldato, his voice panicked. "Bad news! A rival family is causing trouble at our docks, and several of our men have been injured."

The sound of the door being broken down stopped abruptly.

Lorenzo let out a scoff. "They sure know how to pick a time to cause trouble. Get the car ready. I'm going to go take a look."

As the footsteps receded into the distance, that suffocating sense of oppression vanished along with them.

I collapsed onto the bed, gasping heavily for air. I'd survived, if only for now.

I forced myself to look up at pale-faced Martina, who was standing to the side. Although she'd chosen not to betray me, she still kept her distance from the three eggs.

"Martina, thank you for buying me time just now," I said in a low voice.

She could've shouted the truth through the door, but she didn't.

Martina finally spoke, her expression unusually complicated. "I've lived long enough to have seen all kinds of strange things, but I've never seen anything like this before."

My heart clenched with the fear that she might still want to turn me in.

Martina sighed and began packing her delivery tools into a box.

"I'll pretend I didn't see anything today. But you can't hide this forever. Don Fontana will find out sooner or later. And when that day comes, whether it's a blessing or a curse is up to fate to decide."

The door closed softly, and the room fell silent once more.

Only then did I truly let out a sigh of relief.

But the moment I looked down, I felt my nerves snap taut again.

They seemed to sense that the danger had passed. They swayed gently, and fine cracks began to appear on their crimson eggshells.

All three eggs cracked open simultaneously.

Three small heads poked out from within, and behind each one were tiny, damp wings.

I was stunned.

What were these? Birds?

But what kind of bird had horns on its head?

The three little creatures stumbled out of their shells, craning their necks and crying out at me.

I didn't have time to think. I grabbed a plushie and stuffed it under my shirt to make it look like I was still pregnant.

No one could ever find out about their existence.

…

In the days that followed, I hid the three little ones under the bed and made them a nest out of old clothes.

However, they grew far too quickly.

In just a few weeks, they went from fitting in the palm of one hand to running all over the place. Their wings also spread out, and they fluttered around the room.

What really made my skin crawl was that they could actually talk!

"Mommy, I'm hungry."

Vorn, the eldest, flew onto my shoulder and nuzzled against my face.

I was so frightened that I clamped my hand over his mouth.

"Keep your voice down. You're a bird—you can't speak human language."

Vex, the middle one, wasn't happy about it. His tail shot straight up with a swish.

"We're not birds! We're red dragons!"

"How can you call yourselves dragons when you're so tiny?" I poked him with a finger, sending him tumbling. "If I say you're a bird, then you're a bird. Got it? And most importantly, you can't talk to anyone except me. If you do, they'll burn both you and me alive."

Vyre, the youngest, knew best how to charm people.

"That's because we haven't grown up yet. Once we do, we'll protect you, Mommy."

My heart swelled with both joy and sadness at their words.

Although I had no idea why I'd given birth to these little ones, it no longer mattered. The moment someone became the Donna of the Fontana family, I'd take them and leave this godforsaken place.

However, nothing ever went according to plan.

After dinner one evening, I returned to my room and found the birds gone.

My mind went blank. Without bothering to put on a coat, I bolted out the door, calling for them as I searched high and low.

Finally, I heard tiny noises coming from the underground garage.

The window of Lorenzo's private car was half open, and the three birds were scratching away at the seats with great enthusiasm.

"It feels so good to scratch on this."

"Take the cushion apart—it smells like our kind."

"There's a fun little steering wheel here."

My vision went dark, and I nearly fainted on the spot.

This was Lorenzo's most frequently used car for formal occasions. Usually, not even Pietro dared to touch it. And now it was covered in the birds' saliva and claw marks!

I lunged forward and scooped them up.

Before I could figure out what to do, footsteps suddenly sounded behind me. They were neither hurried nor slow, yet each step struck fear in me.

"Alessia."

I froze and slowly turned around.

Lorenzo was standing at the doorway, and beside him was Silvia Santoro.

Silvia's father, Paolo Santoro, was the Consigliere of the Fontana family. Thus, she'd always believed she was destined to marry Lorenzo.

She was always throwing her weight around with the other candidates. Once, she even lured a pregnant woman into the snowy mountains in secret, leaving her to freeze until she lost the baby.

Silvia's gaze fell on the car behind me, and her expression instantly turned venomous and excited.

"Oh my God, don't you know that's Lorenzo's favorite car? Sneaking around near it is bad enough, but ruining it like this? Can your measly little life even pay for that?"

Lorenzo just stood there quietly, watching me with a faint, unreadable smile.

That deadly, suffocating pressure enveloped me once again.

My breath caught in my chest. I quickly bowed and apologized, "Don Fontana, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"

I bent over too far, and the plushie I'd stuffed under my clothes fell straight to the ground.

I'd often used that plushie to play with the three chubby birds, who were currently hiding in the trunk. On reflex, they flew out and picked up the plushie. Then, they proudly brought it back to me as if they'd done something heroic.

The air froze instantly.

I looked at the leather fragments still in their claws, then down at my now-flat belly.

We were done for.

Silvia was stunned for a moment before bursting into exaggerated laughter.

"So, you were never pregnant at all! Not only did you fake a pregnancy, but you also kept those birds that wrecked Lorenzo's car?" Her voice rose to a screech. "Soldati, throw this woman and those hideous birds off the cliff!"

Two Soldati immediately stepped forward and pinned my arms behind my back.

I barely struggled before I felt the cold muzzle of a gun pressed against the back of my head. After that, I didn't dare move a muscle.

"Wait," Lorenzo suddenly said.

Everyone froze.

Lorenzo locked his gaze onto the three birds, who were baring their teeth and claws at him.

Vex still remembered what I'd said, and he let out a fierce chirp at him.

I was a little touched. Even at death's door, they still remembered to listen to me and pretend to be ordinary birds.

However, Lorenzo's expression at that moment was impossible to read. He looked shocked yet also like he was trying to confirm something.

Just when everyone thought I was surely doomed, Lorenzo actually waved his hand and told the Soldati to release me.

Then, he picked up the three birds and pried open their mouths to look at their teeth and gums.

"Everything looks fine. Who taught you to chirp like that? It sounds awful."

With that, he tossed them into my arms and left with the Soldati.

Silvia stood frozen in place, utterly dumbfounded.