Where Stray Falcons Come to Die

“I don’t.”

I shook my head and closed my eyes.

Before Nico arrived, I had already received a report from the Falcone family’s intelligence network.

Our family’s intel was better than any private investigator out there.

Even if Nico tried his best to hide it, he couldn’t hide anything from the eyes of the Falcone family. It’s just that before, I never wanted to check.

I just… trusted him.

“Nico, who will our baby look like?”

“I’m the mommy, and you’re the daddy. We’ll get married and be together forever, right?”

“Do you really love only me?”

Ava lived in a safe house on the outskirts of the city, the yard filled with roses. The days Nico wasn't with me, he was with her.

In the surveillance footage, Ava chattered on and on, and Nico just watched her quietly, nodding, smiling, his eyes filled with a happiness he couldn't conceal.

That was all the Falcone family sent me.

“Nico publicly claims to be the son-in-law who married into our family. Everything he does is for the Falcone family.”

“But he’s been going to the hospital frequently lately…”

When he wasn’t staring blankly at those surrogacy agreements, he was at the hospital or with Ava.

This baby with Nico hadn’t come easily. For him, I had gone through IVF.

When I was getting the shots, Nico would watch the needle marks on my stomach with red-rimmed eyes, burying his face in my palm.

“It’s all my fault. Why can’t I be the one to suffer for you?”

There wasn’t a single patch of smooth skin on my belly, but I didn’t feel the pain. I just found it a little funny and patted his head.

“Don’t let your men see you like this. I’m a doctor myself. I know my own body.”

“How many times have I saved you? How many people have I saved? This is nothing.”

After being with him for ten years, I had defied the family elders, given up my inheritance rights, and chosen to become an underground doctor.

I healed his legs, even though the scars would never fade.

I never imagined that even this child wasn't mine.

How ridiculous. I took off my ring and threw it in the trash, thinking of the tattoo I saw in the file, the one Nico had secretly gotten for Ava.

An identical falcon on her left shoulder, the glory of the Falcone family.

The layered feathers looked so precious in his photo, infinitely more precious than this plain band on my hand.

I had seen that photo.

Nico had shown it to me once. He was wrapped around me, smelling of blood, but he only glanced at it before looking away.

“Wow, that tattoo is so tacky.”

“Doesn’t compare to our rings.”

Thinking back now, right after he said that, he went to the balcony to make a call, his expression gentle, his voice soft. I don't know who he was talking to.

It wasn't that the falcon was ugly. It was that he felt I didn't deserve it.

Ava woke up. In a wheelchair, she pushed open the door to my room.

Looking at my flat stomach, she clutched the doll in her hands and sobbed hysterically.

“Nico, our baby is gone!”

“We can’t be a mommy and daddy anymore. I miss our little Nico.”

Nico gently pulled her into his arms, cooing for her not to look at me, his eyes filled with heartache and remorse.

“It’s all my fault. It’s all her fault. Don’t cry, Ava. I’ll make it up to you.”

“Don’t cry. When you cry, my heart hurts.”

They had named the child Little Nico. He would have been a healthy boy.

I turned my head to the side of the bed and dry-heaved.

I wanted to vomit, but my stomach was on fire, and nothing came up.

“Get these two pieces of filth out of my sight.”

Nico’s head snapped up to look at me.

“Isabella, do you even have a heart? Ava doesn’t understand anything. How many more times do you have to hurt her before you’re satisfied!”