Chapter 3 - TWO HEARTBEATS IN THE DARK
Three months later, the bitter Chicago winter had begun to thaw, giving way to a wet, miserable spring. Bella stood in the cramped bathroom of her tiny, drafty apartment, gripping the edges of the porcelain sink until her knuckles turned white. On the chipped countertop, two plastic pregnancy tests sat side-by-side. Both displayed two stark, undeniable pink lines.
Bella’s reflection in the mirror was hollow, pale, and terrified.
She had not seen Lucas Dracott since that night in the penthouse. True to his word, his influence had silently swept through her life. When she reported for her shift at the Thornbury Hotel the day after her mother’s funeral, the manager had handed her a severance check and told her her services were no longer required. No explanation was given, but the fear in the manager's eyes told Bella everything she needed to know. Lucas had erased her from his proximity.
Finding a job as an accountant with a gap in her resume and a history of janitorial work had been agonizingly difficult, but she had finally secured a position at a small, struggling logistics firm in the suburbs. She was barely making rent, but she was surviving. Until now.
She pressed a hand to her flat stomach, a chaotic storm of panic and despair raging in her chest. She was pregnant. With the child of the most dangerous mafia boss in Chicago. A man who had looked at her with absolute disgust and told her to disappear.
For two weeks, Bella agonized over what to do. She knew the stories of the Dracott syndicate. She knew that men like Lucas did not leave loose ends. If she told him, he might force her to terminate the pregnancy, or worse, take the child and dispose of the mother. But the alternative—raising the child of a billionaire in crushing poverty, hiding from the shadows for the rest of her life—felt equally impossible.
Finally, desperation won. She had to tell him.
On a rainy Tuesday afternoon, Bella stood outside the towering, glass-and-steel headquarters of Dracott Maritime and Logistics. She was wearing her best, although threadbare, professional suit. She approached the massive reception desk, her heart hammering against her ribs.
“I need to see Mr. Dracott,” Bella told the polished, intimidating receptionist. “My name is Bella Kovalchuk. Tell him it’s a matter of absolute urgency.”
The receptionist raised an eyebrow, typed something into her computer, and picked up a phone. A few minutes later, two men in dark suits stepped out of the private elevators. They did not look like corporate security. They moved with the silent, lethal efficiency of cartel enforcers.
“Ms. Kovalchuk,” the taller of the two said, his voice dangerously soft. “Mr. Dracott is in a meeting. He asked us to deliver a message.”
Bella swallowed hard. “I need to speak with him directly. It’s personal.”
“Mr. Dracott does not have personal meetings with former hotel staff,” the man replied, stepping closer, his presence a physical threat that made Bella back away toward the revolving doors. “His message is this: The transaction was completed three months ago. Any attempt at extortion will be met with a severe, permanent response. Do not come here again.”
“Extortion?” Bella gasped, her eyes widening. “No, you don’t understand! I’m pregnant! He needs to know—”
Before the words fully left her mouth, the enforcer grabbed her arm in a vice-like grip, his fingers digging into her skin, and forcibly escorted her out into the pouring rain.
“Mr. Dracott is a very busy man,” the enforcer hissed, pushing her away from the building. “Women claim to carry his children every other week to secure a payout. He instructed us that if you return, we are to handle you. Go home, little girl. Before you disappear.”
Bella stumbled on the wet pavement, the rain instantly soaking through her cheap suit. She looked up at the towering glass monolith of the Dracott building. He hadn't even come down to look her in the eye. He had assumed she was a grifter, a parasite returning for a second payout, just as he had predicted.
Standing in the freezing rain, shivering and utterly alone, Bella placed both hands over her stomach. A fierce, maternal fire ignited in her chest, burning away the fear and the desperation.
May you like
“Fine,” she whispered to the empty street, the rain mingling with her tears. “I don’t need him. I don’t need his money, and I don’t need his family.”
She turned her back on the Dracott empire and walked away. Six months later, in the sterile, bright room of a charity hospital, Bella gave birth to twins. A boy and a girl. Leo and Mia. They had their mother’s dark hair, but the moment they opened their eyes, Bella’s heart stopped. They possessed the exact, piercing, steel-gray eyes of Lucas Dracott. She was holding two pieces of a monster, but as they wrapped their tiny, fragile fingers around hers, she vowed that she would protect them from the darkness of their father’s world, even if it cost her her life.
