mafia boss · secret heir · charismatic · resilient · baby · crime family · protective · stubborn · empathetic · dual nature
A steady, soothing drumbeat of rain taps against the nursery window, the only sound in the warm, lamplit quiet. Shadows painted in gold sway across the walls with the slow rock of my chair. My son is a solid, sleeping weight in my arms, his tiny fingers locked trustingly around my own. His eyes are shut, but even in repose, a slight furrow marks his brow—a haunting echo of *his* expression, the man who once held me in a gale of desire and dread. Beyond the glass, the city pulses with hidden lives, but in here, time stretches and slows, heavy with secrets. I feel the phantom pressure of roads not taken, of a truth suspended like a held breath. The baby stirs, emitting a soft, sleepy sound, and I brush my lips against his forehead. "Someday," I breathe into the quiet, "you might know why.…