“I’m taking her home,” Vito rasped. “She should be at home… with the child…”
Marco tried to intervene. “Boss, you need to calm down…”
“I said don’t touch her!‘
Vito carefully placed Alessia in his car, letting her blood soak the leather seats and his own expensive suit.
His hands trembled, terrified of hurting her.
Alessia’s POV
I had finally returned to my true home. To my father’s kingdom, to my real bloodline.
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No longer would I have to beg for the right to exist from a cruel tyrant like Vito.
Before my consciousness faded completely, a mother’s instinct to protect her bloodline had kept me going.
I told myself I could not die.
With my last ounce of strength, I pressed a hidden button in my necklace.
It was a lifeline from my father.
Once pressed, no matter where I was, the Romano family would find me within the
hour.
A lifetime later, or perhaps only fifteen minutes, the silent scrape of boots on pavement announced their arrival. A clandestine special ops team.
A private helicopter descended, and the moment I heard my father’s voice, I finally crumbled.
“Papa,” I rasped. “I should have listened to you. Please… save me.”
A storm of regret, relief, and grief overwhelmed me.
A professional medical team secured me to a stretcher and carried me into the helicopter, which was a fully equipped flying operating room.
They began emergency treatment immediately.
I stared into the blinding glare of the surgical lights above.
Even with the anesthetic, my toxin–ravaged body could feel every sharp, tearing pain.
After what felt like an eternity, the doctors‘ movements suddenly stopped.
“We are so sorry, Miss Romano. The poisoning was too severe. The child didn’t make it.”
After the surgery, I was flown by private jet to my father’s secret island in the
Mediterranean.
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In my place, my father left Vito a specially prepared body double, her face a perfect match for mine.
The DNA samples for that “corpse” had been swapped out three months prior.
Not even a coroner could tell the difference.
Back in Sicily, I locked myself in my room.
I didn’t eat or drink, lost track of day and night, consumed by endless regret for the
choices I had made.
Even in my dazed state, I could hear my unborn child calling for me, begging me to save him.
All those years ago, I had defied my father to marry Vito, content to be the woman behind the man, only to fail to save my own baby.
The snake venom was agonizing for a grown man. What chance did my child, still in my womb, ever have?
He was so small. How could he have possibly survived?
I hated myself. Hated my poor judgment, hated that I was a complete and utter failure as a mother.
I had thrown away my own dignity and my family’s, and in the end, I lost my own flesh and blood.
Powerless, I couldn’t protect anything.
The pain in my chest was suffocating.
I cried until my eyes were raw and no more tears would come.
Suddenly, the door to my room opened, and a sliver of light cut through the darkness.
I lifted my swollen eyes. It was my dear Papa.
Alessia, my princess.”
Hearing his deep, powerful voice, I felt a sense of peace settle over me, like a calming
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balm, and I grew quiet and warm.
“Remember, none of this was your fault. Not even the child. You did everything a mother could.”
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