The Pregnancy I Hid from the Mafia Boss

Inside the cabin, the luxury was staggering. Plush leather seats, dark polished mahogany trim, crystal glassware reflecting the muted lights of the city below. To anyone else, it was the pinnacle of wealth and comfort. To me, it was a gilded cage flying at thirty thousand feet.

I sat by the window, staring out at the sprawling maze of lights that was Chicago. The city looked vast, indifferent, and terrifyingly familiar.

Across the aisle, Liam and Luna were fast asleep. The shock of being bundled out of our apartment in the middle of the night had eventually worn them out, and now they were curled up together on a wide leather couch, wrapped in cashmere blankets provided by one of Anthony’s silent, towering bodyguards.

Anthony sat across from me. He hadn't said a word for the last two hours. He sat with a glass of scotch untouched in his hand, his dark blue eyes fixed steadily on me, watching my every breath as if he were afraid I might dissolve into mist if he looked away for a single second.

"You look exhausted," he finally said, his voice cutting through the hum of the jet engines.

I didn't look at him. I kept my face pressed against the cold glass of the window, watching the distant lights of downtown Chicago grow closer and closer. "Wonder why, Anthony. Could it be the armed men who dragged us out of our home at two in the morning? Or maybe the fact that I've spent three years looking over my shoulder because of you?"

"I didn't drag you," he replied calmly. "I brought you home."

"This isn't my home," I spat out, finally turning to glare at him. "My home was a drafty little apartment in Portland where nobody knew my real name and my children were safe from monsters like you."

Anthony’s jaw tightened, but he didn't raise his voice. He set his glass down on the mahogany table between us with a quiet clink.

"Monsters, Eliza?" he asked softly. "Is that what you think I am? A monster who kept your mother alive in the best hospital in Seattle when her kidneys failed? A monster who ensured you never had to work a double shift at a diner just to buy groceries?"

My breath hitched. I stared at him, my chest tightening. "You... you paid for my mother's treatment?"

"From day one," Anthony said, leaning forward, resting his forearms on his knees. His gaze was unblinking, intense, burning right through me. "Did you really think a woman with zero financial history could afford experimental dialysis in Seattle on cash-register wages? You were careless, Eliza. You left a trail a mile wide, and the only reason the Board didn't find you first is because I erased every single footprint before they even knew you were walking."

I felt as though the air had been punched out of my lungs. All this time, I thought I was being clever. I thought I had outsmarted the great Anthony Russo. In reality, I had been living in a glass house he built around me to keep the rain off my head.

"Why?" I whispered, my voice cracking. "If you knew where I was... if you knew I had your children... why didn't you just take them? Why wait three years?"

Anthony went still. The silence in the cabin grew so heavy I could hear the faint sound of Liam breathing across the aisle.

"Because," Anthony said slowly, his voice dropping into a raw, gravelly register I had never heard before, "I wanted you to come back on your own terms. And because... when I found out you were pregnant, I realized something terrifying."

He reached out, his warm fingers gently catching my chin, forcing me to look up and meet his eyes. I tried to pull away, but his grip was firm, inescapable, yet surprisingly gentle.

"What?" I breathed, my heart pounding against my ribs.

"For ten years, I built an empire on fear, control, and blood," Anthony murmured, his thumb brushing across my cheekbone. "I thought I was untouchable. And then I realized that the only person in the world who had the power to destroy me was a twenty-four-year-old assistant who smelled like vanilla and spent her lunch breaks reading poetry in the park."