CHAPTER 2

Chapter 2

"This can't be happening," Emilia muttered to herself, staring at the little plastic stick between her shaking hands.

This all but left her head spinning, and she kind of slumped against the bathroom wall for support. The second line was confirmation as clear as day that she was not expecting at all. With her heart pounding in her chest, she shut her eyes tightly and willed herself to wake up from this nightmare. And however many times she opened her eyes, reality, she was forced to admit, persisted.

"Pregnant," she whispered, the word all too foreign on her lips. She didn't even know who was speaking anymore. "How could I let this happen?"

All of it came back now, flooding into her head, intoxicating anonymity, the gaze of fire under the mask, a racing heartbeat against their kiss, and an utter feeling of being another person altogether. Never had she felt that free, even for just one night. Now she felt more like her liberation was some faraway dream smashed by undeniable truths in her hands.

A million thoughts had crossed her mind, each more seriously problematic than the last. How would her family take it? How would they react? Above all, would they even believe that she did not know the man's real identity?

She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering in the warm room. She was Emilia De Luca, daughter of one of this city's most feared mafia bosses. The De Luca family didn't do vulnerability and they most certainly didn't make mistakes. And here she was, carrying the child of a man she couldn't even contact if she wanted to.

She muttered to herself, her mind racing way ahead of the storm brewing inside her skull: "I'll take care of it myself." Nobody's going to know.

---

She spent the rest of the day in a trance, keeping to her bed because of a headache that should keep everyone from interrogating her. But no headache could wipe out the other question ringing in her head-now that tiny little life, an embryo, was anchored deep in her womb.

Part of her went on and on about how frightened she was with the idea of having a baby, but another part of her, which she went out of the way to keep buried deep, went off to wonder about it all. Her hand instinctively dropped on her abdomen, and closing her eyes, she let reality seep in finally.

Just then, her phone buzzed on the bed, jolting her back into the present. She glanced down at the screen: Her father, Matteo De Luca.

Her heart somersaulted as she hesitated for a moment before answering. What could he want this time?

"Emilia." Her father's voice was firm and commanding as ever. "Family meeting. Downstairs. Now."

The new wave of nausea churned in her stomach. A family meeting? About what this time?

"I … I don't feel very well, Papa," she tried to sound convincingly fragile. "Perhaps I could sit this one out?"

A pause on the other end, silence weighted by her father's displeasure. "You know I don't like repeating myself. Be downstairs in five minutes."

The line died, and Emilia caught a lurching breath, telling herself sternly, This is not the time to look weak. A mere whisper of vulnerability would have her family pouncing for answers.

She went into the gaudy sitting room, and her father was already presiding at the end of the table-imperious as ever. Her brothers, Marvin, her eldest brother and Elliot, her second brother, sat on either side, faces stern, jaws clenched. The weight of tension filled the room.

She sat still, not to let her hands shake like leaves in her lap. "Papa," she greeted, trying to make her voice steady.

Her father nodded curtly, taking her presence into acknowledgment as he dove head-first into the matter at hand. "Word just came that the Romano family is making a play against our territory." Dislike oozed from every word, and Emilia's blood ran cold at every utterance of their competitor's name.

The Romani had always been that sore festering over here in their own country; anything the Romani might threaten was something taken very seriously indeed. As the full weight of her father's words at last began to sink in properly, her stomach clenched, them?

Marvin spoke now, his voice tight with irritation. "They are getting too bold, encroaching on our trade routes, fermenting rebellion in all the places we settle. They are testing us, Papa."

Her father's eyes had hardened now on Emilia, a piercing accusation. "We can't afford weak links in this chain, Emilia. If the Romani believe they can take advantage, then they will. I require each member of this family to be ever vigilant and prepared to mobilize at a moment's notice."

And his words, painfully constructed, chilled her. It was a warning, oblique perhaps, but one for which she had been all too long attuned. Weakness in the De Luca family was a crime. She sat up straight; her eyes meeting his: "I understand, Papa. I will be careful."

Only her father nodded, and the discussion switched to surmises of the brothers about the type of counters that the Romani could make. Emilia said nothing. All she could think about was how long she could keep her secret.

Her father dismissed her brothers, ending the conference; thus only the two of them now occupied the room. Her heart kicked off into a savage rhythm. She had been so convinced this morning's events had gotten underway, but he unsettled her with that stare.

"Emilia," he said, low. "You've been distant lately."

She tried a weak smile. "I've just been a little off color, Papa. Nothing for you to worry over."

"That so?" His eyes were piercing. His eyes seemed to bore into her as if sniffing out the merest hint of a lie. She clutched her breath trying to relax and appear unconcerned, hoping he wouldn't sniff anything out of place.

He sat back in his chair, more or less as if, only now, he'd finally yielded to the answer she'd given him. "Very well. But let this be a lesson to you, Emilia: within our family, there is no room for secrets. Everything you do-everything you are, speaks to us. That's the only way we can support and protect you."

“Yes, Father.  I understand.” She nodded.

“Now, I have an important task for you,” he said, his eyes boring into hers. “It is high time you show your capability to the De Luca family.”

Emilia swallowed hard before nodding her head as her heart beat fast against her chest.

“There's going to be negotiation with the Romano family. It's not just going to be a negotiation, we need to find out every detail on our enemies, no secrets, no loose ends,” he continued. “I'm going to be entrusting this task to you, Emilia. Don't fail me.”