I Lost My Baby, So I Burned His Mafia Empire Chapter 03
Helplessness tangled with raw fear as the people Raven had called hauled us out of the cave entrance
like it cost them no effort at all.
The scrape of jagged gravel tearing my skin barely registered compared to the wave of despair rising in my chest. I clung to whatever was left of my sanity.
“Raven, what do you want from me? What will make you let me go?”
Her hand slipped around my neck, and she didn’t bother answering with words. The tightening grip said everything louder than speech ever could- nothing short of my death would satisfy her.
In her pupils, I saw my own face turning purple. Each breath clawed in my lungs, thinner than the last, and the hand I’d scraped down to the bone flailed helplessly in the air.
“Ms. Vittorio, please spare Ms. Tyler!”
I sucked in air, ragged and desperate, but death didn’t back away. Instead, it shifted targets. Suddenly, Iris- shaking so hard her teeth chattered–was the one in Raven’s grip.
Her eyes were shot with red, veins straining on her
temples. Even then, she forced a trembling smile at me, shaping two silent words: [Run now.]
I was nearly broke. I grabbed a man’s pant leg with everything I had left, yanked his phone out, and
punched in the number my fingers knew by heart.
“Killian–please. Please save me. Save Iris.”
“He’s busy,” Cora drawled on the other end, sounding bored out of her mind.
“Put him on.”
“He’s in the shower. Whatever you need, you can tell me.”
The pain in my chest tightened until it felt like it could split me open. I stared at Iris, whose breaths were turning terrifyingly shallow, and forced the words past my shaking throat.
“I’m sorry. I was selfish. It was my fault the Vittorio Family lost their heir and that you became a widow.”
Silence stretched for a few seconds. Then Killian’s voice replaced hers.
“You finally admit it?”
“I do.” Tears spilled before I could stop them. “Please- save me, save the baby, save Iris.”
“I’ll allow it,” he said. “I’ll have the staff let you out. From the estate to the hospital, you’ll kneel and bow every step of the way. When you arrive, anyone you want saved–I’ll arrange it.”
My knees buckled, hitting the ground with a dull, heavy thud.
My spine straightened for a second, then folded inch by inch as I lowered my forehead to the pavement.
Heat pulsed across my skin, the world smearing into a haze of red and salt, and I couldn’t even tell whether the wetness dripping down was tears or blood.
Step ten thousand.
The faint outline of the hospital doors finally came into focus.
I stumbled, almost collapsing, and instinctively cradled my stomach as I met Killian’s gaze from yards away.
His eyes dropped to the trail behind me–amniotic fluid mixed with blood marking the pavement in a long, tragic line–and annoyance tightened his expression.
Then his phone rang. He pulled it out.
“Mr. Vittorio, we finally uncovered the truth behind that night years ago.”
“The drink Ms. Tyler had–it was originally meant for Ms. Vittorio.”
Killian shot upright, brows knitting hard as his
grip on the phone tightened. “What are you talking about?”
“Ms. Vittorio had feelings for you for years. She planned to use the drug that night to get you into bed. Ms. Tyler grabbed the wrong glass.”
Something jammed in his throat. When he finally managed to speak, his voice came out hoarse.
“That’s impossible.”
“We reviewed the black box footage. No editing. No tampering.”
The ember on his cigar burned down to his fingers before he noticed. He jerked, dropping it, but when he looked up, all he saw was the instant I crumpled, a spreading bloom of red beneath me.
He surged to his feet. Cora shouted after him, but he didn’t hear a word as he shoved the door open and
tore downstairs.
The hospital entrance was right there. So close.
I reached out, my mind fogged with pain, acting on
pure instinct now–just one more step, one more breath, one more second.
One last step.
If I made it, the baby might live.
I pushed forward. My fingers grazed the air inches from the door when darkness swallowed everything.
The heartbeat beneath my ribs faltered.
Right as my consciousness slipped, two voices shouted my name at once.
“Elise!”
I tilted my head faintly, vision fading, and in the split second before everything went black, I saw a familiar figure land a brutal punch on the guard nearest me and sprint straight toward my collapsing body.