On my way to class, I shuffle through my purse, worried I forgot my keys.

“Dammit!” I hiss. “Crap, crap, crap!”

Nothing has gone right since I figured out I was pregnant. Luca trying to be a good guy did not help things, and lately it’s felt like I’m just cursed. It’s probably just that I’m so stressed out that I can’t think straight, and I keep doing idiotic stuff like forgetting my keys. Sara is working late, and I won’t be able to get back into the apartment after class.

I turn around suddenly, deciding I’d rather miss class than be locked out for the better part of the night.

As soon as I turn around and start walking in the other direction, I notice two guys who were behind me have stopped too. They break away from each other and suddenly get really interested in their phones.

Please, don’t let this be what I think it is. I don’t have the patience for this shit. I fish through my purse absently, and I grab hold of...my keys.

“Bella, Bella,” I say to myself. “You idiot.”

I pull the keys out to make sure they’re really there, and I sigh relief. Of course, the keys are a smaller problem, a problem I’d rather have than these two goons potentially following me around.

Without warning, I turn quickly on my heels and start power walking toward class. I turn sharp at the first corner, and as soon as they’re out of sight, I stop and wait for them to run right into me.

I cross my fingers, praying they aren’t actually following me. That I’m just being paranoid.

But then one of them spins around the corner, and his eyes widen when he sees me. He makes a show of walking on past me, avoiding eye contact with me entirely. Just when I’m about to say something to him, the other one whips around the corner.

He’s twice the size of the first one. He’s got big arms, but most of his size is in his gut. He’s gasping for air, as if he had just run a marathon. “We got her, or–”

He starts to say, but then he sees me.

“Oh,” he says.

“Oh!” I shout at him. “Oh!”

“Uhh,” he mutters.

“I know you,” I say. “Don’t I? You’re Giovanni.”

He points to himself and cocks his head.

“Giovanni,” I say. “Giovanni Gallo. Luca’s cousin.”

“Nah,” he says. “That ain’t me.”

“Gio,” the other one says from over my shoulder. “Come on, man, she knows.”

I look up and glare at him. “And who are you? And why are you two following me around?”

“Luca wanted you looked after,” he says.

“Did he say why?” I ask.

I’m worried that Giovanni knows I’m pregnant. Gio is notorious for being entirely incapable of keeping even the smallest secret. Even when the feud was raging, he would still spread gossip between the families. My father once said it would be like if a German soldier in World War I jumped the trenches, ran across No Man’s Land, and poked his head into the enemy trenches just to blurt out to the British army: “Hans shit his pants when the mortar shell went off, and Franz just found out his wife is cheating on him with a Frenchman.”

“Nah,” Gio says. “Luca didn’t tell me nothing, Bella, I swear to God and Jesus and Mary, the whole trinity and shit.”

“That’s not the trinity, Gio,” I say.

“You know what I mean, Bella, I don’t know why he has us watching you, but he sent me personally because he trusts me more than anyone else. Even though I don’t got the muscle or the brains that the other guys have…”

“That’s why he sent me,” the other guys says, grinning. “Because I have those things.”

“I don’t need either of you here,” I say. “You’re more likely to draw trouble to me than anything else.”

“That hurts,” Gio says. “That hurts me right here.”

He points to his heart, and gives me his most sincere and pained expression.

“Seriously you two,” I say. “If I see either of you following me again, I’ll call the cops.”

The “brains and brawn” guy, who still didn’t tell me his name, lets out a sigh. “Come on, Gio,” he says. “Let’s get going.”

“Wait,” Gio says, looking up at me. “Bella, baby, you gotta tell me. This all seems so damn juicy. Vinny told me you came by the garage a few weeks ago, that Luca fixed up your car. I know you’re making this big show of not being a mafia princess and all, but now Luca has us watching over you, and Luca won’t tell me shit–seriously not a peep from him–and I just gotta know.”

“Gio,” I say, staring him down. “If I did have a secret, and I told you, everyone in China would know before I even got home. Besides, there’s nothing to tell. I don’t know why Luca is doing what he’s doing, but it should have nothing to do with me, and like I said, if it keeps having to do with me, I’m going straight to the police.”

Gio lets out a disappointed whine, and the other guy drags him away by the arm.

* * *

When I get home, I break down crying.

Luca has them watching over me because I’m pregnant. Because he supposedly cares about me and the baby.

I remember the muggers and the knife, and realize that he’s not entirely off base with his paranoia. If something like that happened to me while I were pregnant, it could be really bad.

But being mugged, or being in a car accident, or any of the bad things that happen to normal people, people whose fathers aren’t mafia kingpins, are statistical anomalies. They are small risks you take living in modern society. Letting a man like Luca Gallo into my life, that is a near statistical certainty that bad things will happen to me and those around me. To my child, or any other children I might have.

I don’t want to force my own kids to do what I felt compelled to do–to feel forced to break away from our entire family just to have a safe and normal existence.

I sob into my pillow. Bawling my eyes out. Sara won’t be home, so–

Between sobs, I hear a timid knocking at my door.

I tense up immediately. What if Gio or–

“Bella,” Sara’s voice says. “You okay?”

God. Why is she home?

“I’m fine!” I shout, my throat sore and hoarse from crying so much.

“You don’t sound fine.”

I sigh loudly, and I decide to open the damn door and let her in. If she’s willing to butt her head into things, then I’ll give her a damn earful.

Sara has no idea who I am or who my family is. I can tell her a version of what happened, and it will feel so good to get it off my chest. To spill my guts, so to speak.

She sits down on the edge of my bed and looks at me with a sympathetic smile. “Poor thing.”

“I’m pregnant,” I wail.

“Oh,” she says. “And I guess it’s safe to assume that…”

“Not planned!” I nearly scream, but my stuffed up nose makes me sound comically pathetic.

I curl up into a fetal position, holding my pillow tight against me.

“And he…” she says.

“I know who he is,” I say. “And he’s trying to do the right thing.”

“Oh,” she says. “So...it could be worse then?”

“The thing is,” I say. “This guy, let’s call him...George.”

Sara nods, looking ready to listen.

“So George,” I say. “There’s maybe a good guy underneath, but the guy he is now is actually not good. He’s a bad guy, the kind of guy you have sex with one single time and tell yourself you’ll never consider even smiling at again. The kind of guy who you get so swept up by that you forget to use a condom.”

I grit my teeth. “I didn’t forget. I remembered, but Luca was already inside me, and I told myself it was better that way. Jesus, was I stupid.”

“Wait,” Sara says. “So which is the father? Luca, or George? Luca is the hot one that picked you up a few weeks ago, right?”

I bury my face into the pillow and scream. I look back up at her. “Luca is George, Sara. There’s just one guy: Luca. And yes, that’s him.”

“Oh,” she says. “I’m not very good at using fake names either. I usually do the ‘my friend has this problem’ thing to avoid it...but then I guess you wouldn’t be crying so hard if it were your friend, so that probably wouldn’t work for you.”

“Whatever,” I say, waving a hand. “It’s not like you know him anyway, so why do I have to pretend his name is George. So Luca is a bad guy. I’ve known him since I was little, and I’ve always known he’s bad news.”

Sara clicks her tongue. “Those are the hardest ones to stay away from.”

“Right,” I say. “But I did so good for so long, Sara. I almost stayed away, and I really was just gonna have it be this one time.”

“So he’s trying to be a father for the kid,” Sara says, “But that’s bad, because he’s bad.”

“Yes!” I say, throwing the pillow down right in front of her. “Exactly! I’m so glad this is making sense to you. I was thinking I was crazy.”

“Well,” Sara says. “If he’s such bad news, you should tell him to shove it. Who cares if he’s talking big, he’d probably disappear once the kid is actually born and crying and pooping in its diaper.”

I frown at that. “That’s the scary thing,” I say. “I don’t think he would disappear. I believe him. So I have to try to decide if I want to shove away this guy who really wants to be a father, who really wants to help…”

Sara shakes her head. “You have to trust your instincts, Bella. If you know he’s a bad guy, it will rub off on your kid. Now is your chance to make a clean break from him. Don’t let him worm his way in.”