Mafia Runaway Lover

The rain had not stopped for three hours. Rose gripped the steering wheel with trembling hands, her knuckles white, her vision blurred by tears and the water streaming across the windshield. The wipers moved frantically, and still the road dissolved into smears of red and gold. The name he had given her was Rose. It was beautiful, and it was a lie. Tonight, she no longer cared which name she would die under. Her phone lit up on the passenger seat for the fortieth time. *Rafaello.* She did not need to read it. She could still hear his voice, calm and cold, drifting through a half-open door. "If she ever carries my child, Enzo, I'll get rid of it myself." Rose pressed her lips together, but a sob escaped anyway. "Stop," she whispered. "Please, stop." One hand left the wheel and settled over her stomach, over the small, secret life she had been too afraid to name out loud. This morning she had stood before the mirror, rehearsing the truth. Who she was. Why she had come. Everything. She had even imagined that he would listen. How foolish she had been. "Mama," she choked. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I couldn't save you. You raised such a useless daughter." Somewhere in a place she could not reach, her mother was still waiting for her. She knew that. She knew exactly what she was abandoning, and the knowledge only made the tears fall harder. "And you..." Her voice cracked on the word. "I'm sorry, baby. Mama couldn't protect you. I couldn't even protect my own child." Lightning split the sky. For a moment the world turned white, and the road curved sharply ahead, slick with rain. Her foot did not move toward the brake. If I disappear, he can never find me again. The tires screamed. The guardrail rushed toward her. Her phone slid across the seat, still lit with his name. Rose closed her eyes. --- Miles away, in a dark office above the city, Rafaello Vescari stood before a wall of silent screens and felt something cold crawl up his spine. "Sir," Enzo said from the doorway. "The tracker on her car has stopped moving." "Where?" "The old highway. Near the cliffs." Enzo hesitated. "Sir, the report says..." Rafaello was already walking. He did not take his coat. He did not take his gun. The most feared man in the underworld crossed the room like a man possessed, his voice low and shaking with something he refused to name. "Get the cars. Now." "Sir?" "If she dies, Enzo..." He stopped at the door. Thunder shook the windows behind him. "...I will burn this entire world to the ground."