Chapter 2: The Life She Built
Elena did not move from the door for a long time.
Mila eventually wriggled free and padded toward the small living room with her stuffed rabbit. Leo remained pressed against Elena’s leg for another minute before quietly following his sister. Only then did Elena allow herself to breathe.
Three years.
She had built this life one careful decision at a time. No credit cards in her real name. No social media. No calls to anyone from Chicago. She had dyed her hair a softer brown, learned to bake before sunrise, and rented the apartment above the bakery with cash saved from selling every piece of jewelry she had taken with her the night she ran.
Gray Hollow had been perfect because it was forgettable. A damp little town tucked between wooded hills in West Virginia, far from the polished violence of Marco’s world. Here, people cared about weather, church socials, and whether the bakery would have cinnamon rolls left by noon. No one asked why a young mother with twin toddlers had arrived alone. No one connected her to the Bellini name.
She had wanted it that way.
In Chicago, her life had smelled of marble floors, expensive cologne, and the constant undercurrent of danger that came with loving a man like Marco. In Gray Hollow, her mornings smelled of yeast, sugar, and coffee. The difference had kept her sane.
Elena walked to the window and carefully pulled the curtain aside.
Marco’s black car was still parked across the street.
He had not left.
Of course he hadn’t. Marco Bellini did not walk away from things that mattered. That was part of what had made him terrifying to his enemies and, once, magnetic to her. He endured. He pursued. He claimed.
She let the curtain fall.
In the kitchen, she washed the flour from her hands and tried to steady herself by returning to routine. Bread still needed shaping. The twins still needed breakfast. Fear did not earn the right to stop the day.
But as she moved through the small apartment, one truth pressed harder with every step.
If Marco had found her, others could too.
May you like
And the people most dangerous to her had never been only his enemies.
Some of them shared her blood.
