Just as I step off campus, a black town car drives up beside me, and it slows down, trailing me as I walk. Cars behind it start honking loudly, and people stick their heads out and shout, but it maintains it slow speed beside me.

Luca Gallo? Come to insist that he’s a good man, that–

“Princess,” A voice shouts. My father’s voice.

I turn around and glare at him as he steps out of the car.

“I’m not doing this,” I say, shaking my head at him in disgust. “You need to go away. I told you.”

I turn away from him, ready to get as far from him as I can.

“You gonna keep my own grandson from me?” he shouts back at me.

I stop and freeze. Shit. Shit! How did he find out? I didn’t tell anyone. Luca wouldn’t be stupid enough to tell anyone, especially not anyone in my family.

Could Giovanni have figured it out and…

“Bella,” he says, opening his arms as if I were going to run up and hug him.

I don’t move, and he steps closer. “Come in the car with me, Princess. Let’s talk this over.”

“I don’t want to get in the car with you,” I say. “I don’t want to have anything to do with you.”

“Okay,” he says. “Let’s just have the whole campus hear us talking about this.” He starts shouting so loud that people stop and gawk. “You think any of these NYU ivory tower fucks know who Anthony fucking Riela is?”

I grab him by the wrist. “Stop it!”

“Then get in the car,” he hisses.

I get in the damn car.

Stefano is in the car, in the rear-facing seat. He grins smugly at me. He’s got a big black bruise covering half his face, and his knuckles are bloody. “You should have seen the other guy, Bella.”

He winks at me, but it doesn’t have the suave effect he wants, since his other eye is swollen shut. It just looks like he’s blinking.

I sit in the back seat, and my father sits down next to Stefano, facing me.

“She will not see the other guy,” my father hisses, his face turning red.

I don’t know why they think I give two shits about the poor sap Stefano barely managed to beat up. Do they really not understand that I’m done with their petty crap?

“I don’t know what you think,” I say. “But it’s not true.”

“You aren’t pregnant?” my father asks. He’s using the tone of voice that is calling me out on a lie, and daring me to keep it up. When I was a little girl, he’d hit me if I pressed on after he used that tone.

“If I am,” I say. “It’s none of your business.”

“Who is the father?” he asks.

“My boyfriend,” I say. “Some guy at NYU. Some guy who doesn’t need to be brought into this mess you call a family.”

“Do not lie to me, you spoiled little Princess,” he says, raising a finger. “The father is not at NYU, and he has been in this mess all along. His father killed your brother–”

“Jesus,” I snap. “You just can’t stand that Luca doesn’t hate you back, can you? As if it were his duty to keep the feud going for no reason, like you want to do so badly. Just let it go. Just drop it.”

“Listen here, Princess,” he says. “That kid is a Riela, through and through. I don’t give two shits who the father is, but this baby, he’s the future of our family–”

“It’s a he?” I snap. “You had someone sneak an ultrasound on me? Let me guess, his name is Anthony.”

“Sweetie,” he says, reaching out a hand. “This baby will be taken care of.”

I feel suddenly suffocated, like the walls are closing in on me. I look through the window and see we are stopped at a red light. I grab the handle, shove the door open, and jump out of the car. I run across the road, weaving and bobbing between the stopped cars, until I’m off the road. I don’t look back, I just run until I think I’ve lost them.

I don’t think they’ll actually follow me. My father delivered his message to me, and he’s not the kind of man who will repeat himself either. He’s made it clear that the baby is the family’s more than it’s mine, and that me having a baby is all the excuse he needs to bully himself back into my life.

I get on the train, and when I hear the stop for Luca’s garage, I find myself getting off the train.

If anything, I need to at least tell Luca that my father knows. To warn him. It doesn’t mean I’m going to marry him or let him into my life, but Luca is the reasonable one in this stupid and pointless feud.

When I get to the garage, I see Vinny and some of his guys working on a car together.

“Is Luca here?” I ask.

Vinny jumps at my voice, nearly hitting his head on the hood.

The younger guys look at me, but they look away just as fast, none of their eyes lingering. Luca or Vinny must have told them I’m off limits.

“He’s…” Vinny says, pointing toward the office, but then he reaches up and scratches his chin, as if suddenly remembering he’s not supposed to tell me. “He’s not here.”

I roll my eyes and walk past him toward Luca’s office.

I pound on the door. “Luca–”

The door opens, and I see a face even more blue and bloody that Stefano’s.

Oh, God. Luca was “the other guy.” My warning is too late.

“Luca…” I say.

He pulls me inside and shuts the door behind us.

“I came here to warn you,” I say, and I feel tears filling my eyes. I feel like this is all somehow my fault.

He laughs. “I appreciate it.”

His voice sounds almost muffled, but he smiles, and I’m relieved to see he still has all his teeth.

“I saw Stefano,” I say. “Looks like you got him pretty good.”

“It was five on one,” he says. “I’d say I did amazingly well, given the circumstances.”

He wheels his cushy swivel chair out toward me, and I see him wince a bit as he moves. He gestures for me to sit down, but I shake my head.

Luca shrugs. “Look, Bella, I understand this is complicated.”

“Understatement,” I say.

“I thought a lot about this,” he says. “I am going to be a father to our child. I’m fucking stubborn, and you aren’t going to keep me from our kid. That’s that.”

I open my mouth to try to argue over him, but he holds up a finger and silences me.

“But listen,” he says. “This shit. This mafia shit. It’s not going to touch him. I swear to God, this kid is going to have a real life, away from this.”

I feel myself shaking my head. It sounds good, but I don’t see how it’s possible.

“Starbucks,” he says. “We’re making a deal for these garages to become a big chain, like Starbucks.”

“I thought it was Jiffy Lube,” I say.

He laughs. “Look, the point is, I’m trying to go legitimate. I’ve been winding down all the bad shit, it’s too much damn work. Too much stress. I’ve got the money built up to make this happen, this Jiffy Lube thing. Vinny’s Garage, there will be one in every town there’s a Wal-Mart in, which is practically everywhere. By the time our kid is old enough to know what’s going on, I won’t be the kind of man I am now.”

I sigh. “It sounds good, Luca, but–”

“But the feud?” he asks. “Look, Bella, I’m gonna call a truce.”

“Like my father will accept that?”

“You’ve been out of this too long, Princess,” he says, grinning. “They just hit me. Now it’s supposed to be my turn to hit them back. We’re supposed to keep hitting each other a little bit harder each time, until they have a good enough excuse to ice me. But now that it’s my turn to hit back, if I call a truce right now, they have to respect it. If I called a truce after I hit them back, they could rightly tell me to go fuck myself, but calling it now, when I’m supposed to be out for revenge, that’s something they can’t just dismiss or ignore.”

I sigh. I grew up with this enough to know he’s right. As much as my father hates Luca’s guts, the “old ways” and all of the over-complicated rules about respect and honor mean that my father will have to–at a minimum–pretend to consider the truce. Even just pretending, that will buy time.

“Alright,” I say. “Try it. It can’t hurt. By the way, where is Gio?”

“Oh,” Luca says, holding up a hand. “I forgot to tell you, it wasn’t Gio who talked.”

“Come on,” I say. “It had to have been.”

Luca shakes his head. “He didn’t know. I didn’t tell a soul, Bella. I’m not blaming or accusing you, but if you told anyone…”

I shake my head. “Just my roommate,” I say. “She’s...she’s so far outside of this, she has no clue who you or my father is. It couldn’t have been anyone I know.”

Luca shrugs. “Your doctor?”

I sigh. I guess it doesn’t actually matter how he found out, does it? All that matters is that I somehow need to get him to accept this, to find a way to deal with it without killing the entire Gallo family, and denying that my child is half Gallo.