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.
“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!”
Hurt her?
When Nico disposed of traitors, he didn't even blink. The bloodier the scene, the more excited he became.
“Nico, you’re acting strange.”
In the past, we had gone to “negotiations” together. A gun was pointed at my head, and Nico detonated the bomb without hesitation.
If I had moved my head 0.01 seconds slower, that bullet would have gone through my head, not my shoulder.
“Isabella.”
“If you die, I won’t live alone.”
“I’ll tie your body to mine and jump into Lake Michigan. No one will ever separate us.”
He took out my kidnappers in a few moves and we escaped, the car rocketing to 110 mph, his heartbeat louder than the wind, his eyes wild with madness.
The only thing I had never seen was him like this, his eyes only for Ava, so careful, so full of pain.
That day, we stumbled back to the Falcone estate, covered in blood. As we collapsed on the steps, he took a long, deep breath and stared at me with burning intensity.
“We both made it. When you’re better, we’ll get married.”
“Isabella Falcone, marry me.”
Now…
Nico struggled to contain his anger, holding Ava and sighing at me.
“Isabella, I’m moving Ava to another hospital.”
“This is the Falcone family’s hospital. You will go with her. You’re a doctor, Ava needs you to take care of her.”
“You hurt her. You have to compensate her somehow.”
I fumbled for the object in my hand and smiled.
“Alright.”
Nico froze, not expecting me to agree so readily.
“You and Ava will move into the Rose Courtyard. I’ll have people protect you. You don’t need to worry about family business.”
“Ava, she…”
With Maria’s help, I got into a wheelchair and moved toward them, step by step. When I was close enough, the scalpel in my hand was at Ava’s artery.
“Say one more word, and I’ll sever it.”
“Let’s see. Is your gun faster, or is my blade?”
Ava was terrified, tears streaming like broken pearls, staring blankly at Nico.
“Nico… Nico…”
Even the sharp blade didn’t seem to capture her attention. She only looked at Nico.
Just like me, at eighteen…
The first time Nico proposed, I didn’t say yes.
Not until our enemies came for us. A car explosion, and my mother—the former Godmother of the Falcone family—died on the spot.
The sky was ablaze that day. Nico, barely holding on, came to find me. His finger was blown off, his legs were mangled, and he used every last ounce of strength to pull me from the burning wreckage.
“Crawl out of here. You definitely won’t die.”
“If I don’t die this time, will you marry me?”
“It’s the only good thing about me. I’m hard to kill.”
“I’ll take that bet.”
I didn't understand why he was so determined to marry me, but it was his only wish, so I agreed.
If he lived, I would marry him.
And now.
Nico drew his gun and pointed it at me, the cold muzzle pressed against my forehead.
“Isabella Falcone, I regret it.”
“I married a psycho like you just to climb the ladder. You’d even harm your own child and an innocent person.”
“This is the last time. I won’t indulge you anymore.”
The scalpel was knocked to the floor. When he heard Ava’s weak cries to go home, his expression softened instantly.
“Ava, don’t be afraid. I’m taking you home.”
“Let’s go. We’re going home.”
