Chapter 8 - The Ultimatum
I didn't flinch. I stepped forward, putting myself physically between David and the table where Chloe was happily dumping puzzle pieces onto the rug.
"You can threaten me all you want, David," I whispered fiercely, my voice shaking with a mixture of terror and white-hot adrenaline. "You can have your enforcers follow me, you can blow up my duplex, you can lock me in a basement. But you will not take my daughter."
David stared at me, his stormy blue eyes boring into mine with an intensity that could melt steel. For a long, terrifying minute, neither of us breathed. The only sound in the penthouse was the soft click-clack of puzzle pieces hitting wood as Chloe hummed a little tune to herself.
Then, slowly, David shook his head.
"Take her?" David repeated, his voice dangerously low. "Natasha, did you listen to a single word I said on the phone?"
"You said she belongs where she is safe, where she's protected by an army," I shot back bitterly. "That's mob code for lock her in a gilded cage and raise her as a cartel princess."
"No," David said, pulling himself up slightly against the pillows, wincing as his abdominal stitches strained. He pointed a scarred finger toward the corner where Chloe sat. "That is my flesh and blood out there. The only piece of humanity I have left in this brutal, godforsaken city. Do you think I want her growing up dodging car bombs and attending syndicate sit-downs? Do you think I want her hands stained with the kind of blood I've spilled to keep my family alive?"
I blinked, taken aback by the raw, jagged edge of pain in his voice. "Then why—"
"Because she isn't safe in Madison either," David interrupted, his voice dropping into a harsh, pragmatic reality. "You thought you were invisible in a college town? The moment Marcus ran that genetic profile through the federal registry, it pinged three different federal watchlists that my people pay millions of dollars to monitor. If I found out she existed today, my rivals could have found out tomorrow."
My breath caught in my throat. The room spun slightly. "What... what are you saying?"
"I am saying," David said, leaning forward resting his forearms on his knees, "that the moment you walked into St. Catherine Memorial, the clock started ticking. My enemies already know a child with Carter blood was brought into this hospital during my emergency surgery. They don't know her name yet, and they don't know where she lives—thanks to Dr. Winters locking down the intake files—but it's only a matter of time before someone starts asking questions."
"Then we'll move again," I said frantically. "We'll go to Canada. We'll go to Europe. We'll disappear so thoroughly nobody will ever find us."
"You can run to the end of the earth, Natasha, and my enemies will still hunt you down just to see if you hold leverage over me," David said, his voice absolute, unyielding, and terrifyingly certain. "You cannot outrun a war when you are carrying the king's blood."
"Then what do you propose?" I asked, my voice breaking, the last of my defenses crumbling into dust. "What do you want from me, David? Just tell me your terms so I know how you plan to destroy us."
David stared at me for a long moment, the harsh, ruthless mafia boss fading away for a fraction of a second, leaving behind the brilliant, intense man I had fallen in love with a decade ago before the underworld consumed him.
"I don't want to destroy you, Natasha," he said quietly. "I want to end the war."
"How?"
"You and Chloe are moving back to Chicago," David said, his tone leaving zero room for negotiation. "You will live in the Beacon Estate on the North Shore—fully staffed, fully fortified, surrounded by private security detail that couldn't be breached by a military strike. You will have unlimited funds, a legitimate identity, and absolute protection."
"And you?" I asked, my heart hammering. "Where do you fit into this fairytale?"
"I stay in the shadows where I belong," David said, his eyes darkening. "I will be the ghost that keeps the wolves away from your door. I won't demand that you play mob wife. I won't demand that you love me. But my daughter will have my name, my protection, and her mother by her side, safe within the fortress I built for her."
I looked across the room at Chloe. She had successfully connected four puzzle pieces together and was clapping her hands softly to herself, completely oblivious to the fact that her entire existence had just been renegotiated in a high-stakes chess match between her mother and a mafia king.
"And if I refuse?" I asked softly.
May you like
David’s face hardened back into stone.
"You can't," he said simply. "Because the moment you walk out of these doors, my enforcers will escort you and my daughter straight to the North Shore whether you like it or not. The only choice you have, Natasha, is whether you walk in as my honored guest... or as a prisoner of war."
