Where Stray Falcons Come to Die

The year Nico Gallo loved me most.

He was in a car explosion that crippled his legs and blew off a finger, but he gave me the only chance of survival.

“I have nothing left but my life.”

The entire Chicago underworld envied me, for Nico Gallo loved me enough to die for me.

Until Ava, the mistress he had hidden for eight years, showed up at my door, her face full of curiosity.

“Nico’s and my little baby is growing in your belly.”

On the stack of surrogacy agreements, her and Nico’s names were written in black and white.

“Nico says I’m just a kid, not grown up enough to have a baby myself.”

Her tone was innocent, her face beautiful, but her mind was like that of an eight-year-old child, and every other word out of her mouth was “Nico.”

Nico had raised her well, so well that she was untouched by the world’s grime.

Watching her, I stood on the staircase of the Falcone family’s villa and let go.

I gave up the five-month-old fetus in my womb.

In the operating room, I felt the sharp, tearing pain of the abortion. From the adjacent ward, Ava’s shrill screams echoed.

“Nico, I’m scared! Where are you!”

Two hours later, Nico rushed to me, his hands covered in blood. I gave him two choices.

“Kill me.”

“Or get out of my family.”

————————

1

“Isabella, you’re a goddamn lunatic!”

Nico kicked the scalpel on the floor.

A group of people flooded into the hospital room. I glanced over them; they were all his Soldato, not a single member of the Falcone family among them.

I had prepared the scalpel myself. I couldn't move much now, but slitting a throat would only take a few seconds.

Nico frantically wiped the blood from his hands, on the verge of a complete breakdown.

“She’s hemorrhaging. They had to perform a hysterectomy.”

“She’s twenty-six this year. She saved me during a gang war when she was eighteen, suffered a head injury, and became… like this, with the mind of an eight-year-old.”

“Isabella Falcone, how dare you!”

How dare I harm her.

His roar made my heart tremble. I remembered the sweet way Ava spoke of him, the feel of her hand on my belly, cold like a snake.

“So am I.”

After Nico was gasping for breath and finally restrained by the Falcone family members who had arrived, I sat up straight.

“Nico, now I’m just like her.”

“We have to be fair.”

A muscle twitched in Nico’s jaw. He stared at me, his face devoid of expression.

“What the hell do you want?”

“It was all my fault. You should have come after me. What right did you have to touch her?”

What did I want?

The swell of my belly was now a pool of blood in an operating room. The moment I got that report, I had my answer.

My gaze fell upon his crippled legs, and I smiled.

“Nico, you’re nothing but a dog raised by my Falcone family.”

“And so is she. I can do whatever I want with her. I don’t need a reason.”

Nico moved. He spun around and punched one of his own men in the face.

Thwack!

“How were you watching her? You let her see Isabella!”

Thwack!

“I told you to protect her, to keep her hidden from the Falcone family!”

Thwack!

“Ava doesn’t understand anything…”

He didn’t stop until the man was a crumpled heap on the floor. Then Nico wiped the blood spattered on his face.

“Isabella, I won’t kill you, and I won’t end our marriage. The Falcone family needs me, and so do you.”

Slap!

Nico’s head snapped to the side, a clear handprint blooming on his cheek. He hated anyone touching his face. Even during that explosion, when they dragged him from the car, he had subconsciously protected his face.

He had said that if his face were ruined, he’d be even less worthy of standing by this Principessa’s side.

“I don’t need you, Nico.”

“You can’t swallow the Falcone family. Give up.”

Ten years of love.

A total joke.

Nico left without a backward glance. Maria, who had rushed in, looked at me, tears streaming down her face.

“Miss Isabella, everything is done as you commanded. The family is ready. Back then, for his sake, you went against all the family elders.”

“Do you regret it?”

What was there to regret?

It was over. For me and for Nico.