The Don Traded My Life for Her Baby

On the third anniversary of our son's death, I stood outside the cemetery chapel, holding a bunch of white daisies. From inside, I heard the voice of Giovanna Valeri, my mother-in-law and the former Donna of the Valeri family. "Sooner or later, you'll have to accept that the boy is gone. "But Aria's baby is a Valeri by blood. The family must recognize him as one of our own." I froze outside the door. I'd found Aria abandoned by the roadside when I was a child and taken her home. I couldn't bear the thought of her freezing or starving, so I took her in and raised her like my own sister. And now she was pregnant with my husband's baby. Inside, there was a long silence. Then Niccolo spoke, his voice low. "Tomorrow, I'll call the elders together and make it official. Aria's baby will be recognized as a Valeri. "Don't... tell Elena about this yet." The browning petals were cold to the touch, reminding me of Leo's lifeless body in my arms three years ago. That day, my husband, Niccolo Valeri, had looked at me with red eyes and made me a promise. Our son would not die for nothing. Leo would always be his only child. Three years. That was all it took for him to break his promise. And I was the one person he wanted to keep in the dark. Chapter 1 The conversation behind the door went on. They were discussing how to break the news to the elders, how they might react, and what surname the baby would take. But not one word of it was about me. Like they were sure I'd just go along with it. I didn't open the door. Instead, I turned and went back to the main house. In the living room, a maid was carefully helping Aria down the stairs. "The Don ordered us to make you fresh broth three times a day, for the baby..." I almost laughed. Everyone in the house had been openly fussing over Aria's pregnancy behind my back. Everyone knew except me. When Aria saw me at the foot of the stairs, she hurried to pull away from the maid. "Donna, what are you doing here?" I should have been the one asking her that. I walked up to her slowly, staring at her stomach. "How far along are you?" Aria's eyes widened and filled with tears. "Donna, what are you talking about? I don't understand..." She was still pretending. I went to the cabinet, pulled out a half-finished bottle of whiskey, and held it under her nose. "If you're not pregnant, prove it. Drink." Aria bit down hard on her lip. Footsteps rushed up behind me, and a hand clamped down on my shoulder. "Elena, what are you doing?" I turned slowly and looked at Niccolo. "Waiting for an explanation." He pressed his lips together. Finally, he said, "So you know?" I opened my mouth, but before I could say anything, Aria grabbed my wrist. She was trembling. "Donna, I know I owe you my life. I never should have betrayed you. "But that night really was an accident... "It was at the party a little over a month ago... We both drank way too much..." Teary-eyed, she touched her stomach, her lips trembling. "Then I found out I was pregnant. But this baby is innocent. Please..." A month ago. While I was busy arranging Leo's memorial Mass, the girl I'd raised like a sister was sleeping with my husband. Niccolo clenched his jaw and pulled Aria behind him. "You weren't the only one responsible for what happened that night. Stop blaming yourself." Then he turned to me and lowered his voice. "Elena, if you need to scream at someone or throw a punch, take it out on me. "But what's done is done. There's a baby now, and I have to take responsibility for both of them." Responsibility. He'd been saying that word since he was 18, when he first started chasing after me. He'd promised to look after me for the rest of my life. To make me the happiest wife and mother in the world. And now he'd gotten another woman pregnant, and he was standing in front of her like a shield. Then Niccolo glanced at the daisies in my arms and faltered. "Is today... the anniversary of Leo's death? "I'm sorry... I wasn't going to tell you yet." Seeing the regret on his face, I quietly cut him off. "And then what? Keep lying to me until the baby's born, so I can watch the three of you play happy family?" Niccolo stopped short, and his face changed. "Elena, I never wanted it to come to this. I was just afraid you couldn't handle it. "But don't worry. No matter what, you'll still be recognized as the baby's mother. Nobody can take your place." I gave a bitter laugh. Am I supposed to thank him for being so generous? Before I could answer, Aria suddenly clutched her stomach in pain. "Don, my stomach..." Niccolo froze, then frowned. "Quick, get the car! We're going to the hospital!" He called over his shoulder, "I'll explain later." Then he scooped Aria up and hurried out the door. I looked down at the bottle in my hand and drained it. The whiskey burned its way down my throat, but my mind had never been clearer. Leo, it's time for us to go. Chapter 2 Leo was our first child, Niccolo's and mine. Our only one. He'd been sick since the day he was born. When the doctor said the words "narrowed airway," Niccolo went white as a sheet. That same day, he put all family business on hold, shut himself in the kitchen with nutrition books, and cooked every one of Leo's meals himself. Leo lived to see his third birthday. Every day, he grabbed his crayons and scribbled white daisies. There were crayon daisies everywhere: on the walls, on the table, even on the hem of my dress. I thought I'd get to watch him grow up. Until the day an enemy hurled a Molotov cocktail into our house. Niccolo threw himself over Leo and me and yelled, "Get out, both of you!" He grabbed the gun from his man and ran back into the fire. Leo was screaming. I held him tight and ran for my life. I didn't know how long I ran. Then I looked down, and he wasn't crying anymore. His face and body had turned a bluish purple. His lips were dark, and his little hands hung limp. I froze. The doctor's words echoed in my head like a curse. Narrowed airway. Leo didn't survive the fire. After he died, part of me stayed trapped in that fire. I didn't want to get pregnant again. It felt like a betrayal of Leo. Niccolo never pushed me. He said he'd wait until I was ready. Only now did I realize he'd stopped wanting to wait long ago. The sound of the door opening pulled me back to the present. Niccolo came in with a bowl of soup and said carefully, "Elena, the maid told me you haven't eaten all day." He held a spoonful up to my lips. "Come on, have a little soup. I promise you'll never have to deal with any of this again. "I'll send Aria away." I pushed the spoon away. "Just send her away?" His hand stopped in midair. "Elena, I know you want me to get rid of the baby. "But Aria's innocent. So is the baby. That's my own flesh and blood. I can't be that cruel." My nails dug into my palms. Innocent. There was no way Aria was innocent. She was the orphan I'd found on the side of the road. I'd raised her for 18 years. Nobody knew better than she did what Niccolo and Leo meant to me. And she still crawled into his bed. I looked Niccolo straight in the eye. "Tell me. Three years ago today, what did you promise me?" He flinched and looked away. "That's all in the past, Elena. We both have to learn to move on." Move on. I almost laughed out loud. "You expect me to just move on from Leo's death?" Niccolo's impatience finally showed. He set the bowl down hard. "Elena, you're not the only one who's been suffering these past three years! "I lost my son too. And my mother and the elders have been breathing down my neck about an heir day and night. "Why can't you try to see it from my side for once?" I looked at him. I'd watched my child die in my arms. Then his own father went behind my back and got another woman pregnant. And now he was telling me I should see it from his side. We stared each other down for a few seconds. Then Niccolo sighed. "Don't worry. My family just needs an heir. "Once the baby's born, I'll have Aria hand him over to you to raise. "Nothing will change. Everything will be just like before." With those words, he made the decision for both of us. But I couldn't pretend everything was normal after what he'd done. I looked up at him. "Then let me go." Niccolo didn't seem surprised. He looked at me wearily, as if he'd seen it coming. "Elena, don't threaten me with that. We both know you're not going anywhere. "Since Leo died, you've barely been able to take care of yourself. How would you survive without me? "Enough. Stop making a scene. The family meeting is still on for tomorrow, and you're coming." With that, he walked straight out of the room. A single tear dropped onto the white sheets. Niccolo once promised that I'd never have to worry about a thing as long as I was with him. He'd take care of everything for the rest of my life. I believed him. Now he was using that very promise as an excuse to treat me like I was helpless. I took out my phone and dialed a number. "In three days, erase every record of me. I don't want anyone to find me." There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Okay. Three days." Chapter 3 The next day was the family meeting. Early that morning, Niccolo's men brought me to the meeting room and sat me down at the head of the table. Both sides of the long table were full. Everyone looked at me, some with pity, others with contempt. I gripped the arms of my chair and said nothing. The door opened. Giovanna walked in, leading Aria by the hand. Aria was wearing a black dress, with the Valeri snake brooch pinned over her heart. That brooch was the Donna's emblem. Giovanna looked around the room, then pointed at me. "Aria, today is your day. Sit beside Niccolo and announce the news with him." Every eye in the room snapped to my face. I didn't move. Aria stood there looking lost, twisting the hem of her dress. She turned to Giovanna. "Donna... maybe we should just forget it. "Elena took me in and raised me like a sister. If she's not happy about this, I can leave." She turned as if to go. Niccolo shot to his feet. With everyone watching, he walked over and caught her by the wrist. "You're the mother of this baby. This meeting is about you. "As long as I'm here, nobody's going to embarrass you. Come sit down." He led her over and looked down at me. "Elena, let Aria have your seat today. Just this once." For two days, he'd expected me to give in to his every demand. I'd had enough. I curled my fingers into fists. "The fact that I'm even here today is already a huge compromise. "Don't expect anything more from me." Niccolo's face hardened. "We already agreed on this yesterday. And you're still going to make a scene?" I held his gaze. "You agreed. I didn't. "I never said I'd accept her baby. "Leo will always be my only child. His father may have forgotten him, but his mother never will." Niccolo froze. Giovanna slammed her palm on the table. "Elena, how long are you going to keep acting like a spoiled child? "You failed to protect that boy three years ago, and you nearly left this family without an heir! "If Niccolo hadn't kept stopping me, you'd have been thrown out long ago. Why can't you ever be grateful for what you have?" I turned to Giovanna and gave her a thin smile. "If being grateful means accepting my husband having a baby with another woman, then I guess I'll never be grateful enough." Now Niccolo's face darkened. "Elena, you've lost your mind." He lifted a hand, and two of his men stepped up on either side of me. "Take the Donna back to her room. She can come out when she's thought this through." I shook off their hands and stared at him. "You're locking me up?" "I'm not locking you up. But you're the Donna, and this behavior is beneath you. "And since you clearly don't want to be the Donna, fine. Aria can take over your duties for the next few days. "I'm not asking your permission this time." Aria bit her lip and looked back and forth between us, her voice thick with tears. "Don, you can't fight with Elena like this because of me... "Just send me away. I'll have the baby quietly and then I'll be gone, okay?" Niccolo tensed and pulled her into his arms. "You're pregnant. Where exactly do you think you're going? "Don't be scared. I'm here. You're not leaving my sight, not even for a second." I watched them cling to each other and remembered what Niccolo had promised me yesterday. He'd said that as soon as the baby was born, he'd send her away. But the stubborn look in his eyes and the way he held her told me everything I needed to know. And it made one thing perfectly clear. He'd lied to me again. Whatever tiny bit of hope I'd still been holding on to shattered. Chapter 4 They sent me back to the house. As I walked in, one of his men said to me, "Mrs. Valeri, the Don wants you to hand over the family ledgers. From now on, the Donna will keep them." Mrs. Valeri. I'd barely walked out of that meeting, and already they'd stopped calling me Donna. I shoved the ledgers into his hands. "Tell Niccolo to leave me out of family business from now on. His new wife can handle it." Once he was gone, I started clearing out my things. I scraped Leo's drawings off the walls, one by one. Last of all, I poured Leo's ashes into a small cloth bag and tucked it inside my coat. It wasn't until I zipped it shut that I realized six years of my life had fit into one suitcase. I wheeled it out the front door. The night wind slipped through my collar. The wheels rattled over the gravel. Clack, clack. As if they were counting down the last seconds of those six years. Then I heard footsteps behind me. Before I could turn around, something slammed into the back of my head. And then everything went black. ... When I came to, there was a gag in my mouth, and I was tied up in an abandoned warehouse. My hands were tied behind the chair, the rough rope digging into my wrists. I blinked a few times and caught sight of Aria tied to the chair next to me. She was gagged too. Half her hair had come loose and was plastered to her sweaty face. That was when I realized we'd been kidnapped, just as I was about to leave. Crash! Someone kicked the steel door open, and Niccolo burst through. He was breathing hard, his eyes fixed on me. "Elena!" I looked up at him, and my clenched fingers loosened a little. Then something scraped across the concrete floor, and a few men emerged from the back of the warehouse. The man in front was tall and skinny, twirling a lighter between his fingers. "Easy, Don Valeri. What's the rush?" Niccolo spoke through gritted teeth. "Luca. So you're not dead after all. I came alone like you said, so you'd better stick to the deal!" Luca Santoro laughed, showing a row of yellow teeth. "Of course it's me. You didn't manage to kill me three years ago. Bet you never saw this day coming, huh?" He pulled two switchblades from the back of his waistband and flicked them open. He held one against my throat and the other against Aria's. "Look at these two. One's your wife, and the other one's carrying your kid. "Wouldn't it be fun to watch them both die right in front of you?" Niccolo's breathing turned ragged. "Let them go!" Luca pressed the knife harder against my throat. Blood trickled down my neck. "Luca, you're insane!" Niccolo lunged forward a step. Luca waved a hand, and one of his men hauled Aria up out of her chair. "Let's start with the side piece. Do it." The man's big hand clamped around Aria's throat. She kicked and thrashed. "Niccolo... our baby!" Niccolo flinched. "Wait!" The man ignored him. The veins stood out on the back of his hand, and Aria's face turned purple. "Take Elena instead..." Niccolo clenched his jaw and slowly pointed at me. My heart skipped a beat. "Luca, let her go. Take Elena instead. I'll pay whatever price you demand. "If you refuse, the whole Valeri family will make sure you don't live through the night." Luca glanced at me and gave a harsh laugh. He lowered the knife from my throat and signaled to his men. Aria crumpled to the floor, then scrambled toward Niccolo on her hands and knees. Niccolo bent down and scooped her up. Then he turned to me, his voice low and strained. "Elena, she's carrying my child. You have to understand. "I'll be right back for you." He left me with that and never looked back. I watched him disappear through the rusted steel doorway. I stared at the closed door. Even with my life hanging in the balance, I couldn't help letting out a bitter laugh. I laughed as tears began falling to the floor. I laughed at myself. Just a moment ago, I'd still had a little hope. Two men grabbed me under the arms and dragged me deeper into the warehouse. One of my shoes came off. The gravel tore up the bottom of my foot. A steel door swung shut behind us with a dull thud. It was dark in there. I closed my eyes.