Billy shook his head.

"I don't need references. I need you to be done fast so that we can continue our lives as if they were uninterrupted."

He smiled at her and touched her still exposed thigh.

"Hopefully with more of each other though and less of whatever the hell tonight was."

He paused thoughtfully.

"The dancing was real nice though. You really are good at that."

Then his eyes made their way back to Rora's amber shaded vices that Billy could not pull away from. Her eyes held something, Billy wasn't sure what, but he didn't believe it to be something like her soul. It was a yearning, a longing for someone. No, not someone, him. It had been a long, long time since he had seen that.

"So, price?"

He asked the price but she found herself wanting to tell him more and so, she did.

"I've been dancing since I was five.  I love it.  When I'm dancing I don't have to work at it.  I'm just me.  I mean."  She winced realizing how foolish that must have sounded to him.  "God, that sounds pretentious as shit." 

She chuckled dryly. 

"Sometimes I think too much, but when I'm dancing I ... I just do whatever I feel.  I don't think.  I just... do."  She looked down at his hand touching higher on her leg now.  He'd come up to her thigh, nearing the Lioness tattoo that had become a symbol of all she strove to be in life and all that mattered most to her.  With his fingers brushing her skin lightly, gooseflesh rose all over her.  Aurora shuddered and found herself wanting to climb back into his lap.  

He was staring at her eyes, she realized.  She wondered if he would kiss her again.  She wanted to be kissed again and yet, she suspected she knew where that would lead.  After discussions of price and killing men were done, what other excuses would she have to not take things a step further and then how quickly would that become another... and then another? 

For a moment she let herself imagine what might happen between them if she didn't put a stop to it.  It had been a long time since that afternoon on the roadside with Anthony, she had been ready that day... she knew she had been and yet, she'd never let anyone touch her like this since then.  

She blinked hard, trying to dismiss the memory that came rushing back reared its ugly head.  She seldom dwelled upon the dead, what they looked, felt, smelled or tasted like... but Anthony wasn't like all the others. 

"$150,000 as a security deposit."  She forced herself back to talking about something easier. 

"Since you're not concerned about the specifics it'll be another $350,000 when the job is done.  You can either pay me in cash or I'll get you information on what you can do with the money to make sure it gets where it needs to go."

She put her hand upon his, which still rested on her thigh, and gave it a gentle squeeze.  

"Take a moment to think about it.  I need to find the powder room and freshen up."  

With that Aurora stood up.

Billy squinted slightly. He was sure she was being nice to him. She could charge a lot more for what she was asking. Hell, he had left more on the tables back there in the other room. Still he watched her get up to go.

There was no need to think about it. This was cheaper than he had expected to be honest. He was willing to pay ten times as much, so why blink an eye. WHen she came back he could hand her the envelope in his pocket and be done with the whole affair.

Well, the whole Paulie one anyway. The affair Billy really wanted to get involved in just went to the powder room.

Aurora Byrne was a hell of a...

His mind stopped in that moment. Never did he think far enough ahead. Not once in his life had anyone accused him of being on equal footing, let alone thinking ahead. Bella was Rora's mom! Billy was not looking forward to having to cross that particular bridge.

"Fuck, I just stepped in it again."

He blurted out to the empty room. Silence followed while he waited and closed his eyes listening to the music wafting in through the now open door.

Billy had made a decision, tonight was a good night.

Aurora came away from the toilet and walked to the small sink and washed her hands.  Looking in the mirror she stared into her own eyes, examined what was left of her makeup after all that kissing and fixed her hair.  All the while she contemplated the big question of 'what now?'  Was this a thing?  Were THEY a thing?  A couple?  Would they go their separate ways at the end of the night or would he invite her back to his place?  

Unlike with Anthony, Billy did have his own home.  He didn't have people breathing down his neck and there was no one there to tell them what they should and should not be doing.  It was just him and her.  A man.  A woman.  It seemed pretty cut and dry.  Did she, or did she not, want to go home with him if he asked.  After all, she could say no.  Why did she feel so torn up about all this?  She was a solid bundle of nerves and self-doubt and she hated it.

"Pull yourself together, Rora."  She muttered to herself.

Just then the door to the bathroom came open.  

"Occupied!"  She said grabbing for a towel to dry her hands on.  She heard the door closing behind her, assumed that the person had retreated upon hearing someone was using the facilities.  It was only after she felt the arm come around her throat that she realized that she was wrong - perhaps DEAD wrong.

Aurora pulled on the forearm clamped tight around her throat and began to go through every motion she could think of to break free of the larger, clearly more physically capable, white male form.  She tried to stomp on his feet, to no avail.  She tried to pull the arm away but she couldn't manage it.  She reached back trying to claw at the face of her attacker but other than tagging his skin a few times, she was ultimately unsuccessful.

The assassin made hushing sounds, as if he was trying to calm a baby, assuring her it would be over soon which only ignited a fire in her chest.  It wasn't just terrifying, it was insulting as fuck!  She threw her lower body into the air, caught her foot on the wall and kicked off as hard as her dancer's leg muscles could manage.

The assassin flew backward, crashing hard into the sink and the wall behind it - the wall which was the only barrier between her and Billy.  She couldn't scream but she could make damn sure he knew something was happening mere feet away.  Maybe, just maybe, he would realize she was in trouble and help would be coming before she passed out ... or worse.

The assassin's crash into the wall didn't just create the desired thud, it also sent the mirror & a potted plant which was on the wall beside it, crashing to the tiled floor.  It was a lovely cacophony in the cavernous bathroom, something that she KNEW Billy had to have heard - provided he was still in the room.

As her attacker tried to recover his footing, Aurora found a bit of wiggle room and exploited it, twisting herself round and dropping down suddenly to pull out of his grip.  Aurora took a loud gasp of air, filling her burning lungs and then thrust her whole body into her attacker's gut and ramming him violently into the wall again.  This time a decorative picture crashed down and the glass shattered on the tiles.  

The door was mere feet away, she turned and ran as hard as she could for the door but he caught her dress under his foot.  Aurora went down hard onto the tiles.  The impact would leave bruises and scuffs but nothing more.  She saw him raising something above his head, she rolled out of the way as a large metal planter stand was brought down on the tiles where her head used to be.

Aurora lashed her leg out, sweeping the attacker's Achilles tendons hard.  The strike wasn't about her strength, it was about the human body and how it reacted to pressure in certain places.  Her father had taught her she didn't need size to bring down a Goliath, just smarts.  Her attacker dropped to the floor.  She could have tried to run again, but Aurora knew better... as messy as it was, she had no other choice. 

She pulled her throwing knife free of its sheath on the garter which she wore on her left leg, and in a heartbeat, the blade slid silently into the man's throat.  Aurora lept up and back away, watching him as he slowly began drowning in his own blood.  The wound bled profusely with each heartbeat creating a brilliant fountain of crimson every second, decorating the white tiles in the devil's own medium.  The man would be dead in moments, but now she had murdered someone in a place where the body was sure to be found and soon!  And worst of all, someone had tried to kill her and she had no idea why!

It was nice listening to music in the dark Billy had decided. He would do this more often. He would get a record player for the Warehouse when this was all over. The beat of the music could lull one to sleep.

Right up until it was interrupted by a loud bang against the wall. He looked in the direction of the sound and then it was followed by a shattering sound. Billy was on his feet then and running. That's where the bathroom was!

He pushed his way through a crowd that was barely phased by any noise coming from where he knew Aurora to be. The band was loud enough, and for the rooms it wasn't? There just weren't any close enough to the bathroom for people to hear what was going on. So it was up to him.

He grabbed the handle and turned. It was locked. He banged with one hand on the door and then a split second later it swung open. Aurora was alright, but there was a red stain on the floor behind her. Her hair was a tangled weave compared to how it was earlier and she was breathing heavy.

"Rora, what the...?"

He stopped. Billy had seen enough broken and bruised men in his life to know a living one from a dead one. He pushed Aurora in the chest back into the bathroom and took one look at her handiwork.

He stepped carefully, so as not to touch any of the blood and then reached down and pulled the knife from the man's throat.

"Impressive, but you should really take this with you don't you think?"

He removed the man's handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the blade clean. He walked over to Aurora and knelt down to slowly slide the blade back to where it belonged.

"It doesn't seem like anyone has noticed what happened yet, but that blood is inching toward the door. Wipe your hands, now and let's get out of here."

He watched as she nodded. She was good at what she did clearly. She kept a head on her shoulders during all of this and overpowered a larger man with what seemed like relative ease. It was entirely possible she wasn't kidding about the comment earlier. It might be too easy for her to kill him.

Something was off though. It was probably the fact that someone clearly just tried to kill her but... wait a minute.

"Rora, I think you might have pissed some people off. Have you ever been on the receiving end of your kind of work before? It's not pretty."

He unconsciously rubbed his stomach where he had taken that bullet on a job for her mother before stepping out into the house again. 

He refused to let go of Aurora's hand, but it was time to leave, so they made their way toward the door, quick, and quiet as Billy could manage. Which was to say, quick.

That's when he saw the bold son of a bitch coming from the stairwell. He had clearly been in another room of the house listening, or waiting. It was the only reason a man like that would have a gun out by his side. Billy could see him so clearly, his grease black hair shining like it was trying to be the only source of light in the room. His pencil mustache twitching as spotted the lion's coat that was the golden dress Aurora was wearing. His eyes that were just shy of being too close together in his horse-long face. Everything about his screamed scum. And yet, he was halfway across the room and he had a gun.

Billy did the only sensible thing he could do. He hugged Aurora tight to his chest so she couldn't see anything. And then he felt a punch in his left arm, and another in his shoulder. The man was a pro. Two shots at a time.

Billy went down to one knee after the second, purposely dragging Aurora with him. He heard screams then, but no more shots. He turned and looked at the man with the gun. It had jammed!

Billy bolted toward the man like a gorilla charging through the forest of trees. Chaos of people scattering all around him, the screams of men and women alike muffling his ears until the moment of impact. He felt the would be assassin leave he feet. He felt him land hard underneath him on the ground. Billy put all of his weight onto the man as he sat up then and looked him in the eye.

"You fucking idiot. The hell did you think you were doing?" 

He reached up with his uninjured arm and grabbed the man around the throat. He could feel his feet kicking as he tried to find purchase, but he was wearing good shoes, Tuxedo shoes. Those things were slippery, and the hardwood floor gave them no reprieve.

"Finché sono in giro, non impedirai all'Alba di sorgere."

The Wolf didn't have an invitation, nor did he have time to pack a suit after getting the call from Salvatore's men.  It took every ounce of his willpower and common sense not to hop in a car and put the peddle to the floor when he heard what the Devil had been doing in his final moments.  A plane would get him to Detroit faster, but waiting for it to fuel up was absolute hell.  Every second that ticked by before and during the long flight left him contemplating a wide variety of ways some professional might be snuffing out the light of his life right now.  It was rare Gavin Byrne was scared by anything, especially these days, but today he couldn't deny that he was petrified.  

Getting in the main entrance was impossible.  The grounds were covered by cops and two civilian-dressed FBN agents were in a car out front, though what the fuck they were doing here he could only guess.  He prayed Aurora hadn't managed to acquire her mother's misfortune of constantly drawing down their ire.  One of the last times he was in this fucking hell-hole of a city, he nearly died because of those bastards and their vendetta against the Luciano family.  He didn't want to go through anything like that ever again.  He doubted he'd survive such wounds a second time.

Skirting around the edge of the property, Gavin found a hole between two bushes that allowed him to pass through unseen.  Once in the manicured lawns until he found a tray of drinks and a towel.  He wasn't wearing a suit like the other waiters, but by this point in the evening, most people were too drunk to care about anything other than picking up another glass.  He'd just keep moving and not speak... his goal was a simple one, find Aurora before the hitmen did and get her to safety as quickly as possible.

Gavin had been out of the game for a long while, but some faces - the most dangerous of them at least, didn't change.  Enforcers and hitmen didn't exactly keep records of those people in their line of work, but the ones who lived long enough to be considered 'old' were known to everyone.  For a killer to live long enough to be considered 'old' in their line of work was a significant feat.  And so it was at 100 yards Gavin spotted and correctly identified Ben Walker.

The fact that the hired gun was still lingering outside near the exit meant that Aurora was likely still alive and still inside.  He was waiting to ambush her, and Gavin had seen him before he himself was seen.  If things had gone the other way, he had no doubt he would have gotten the same mutual respect, admiration, and target upon him that he now placed upon Walker.

He moved towards him, silent, putting aside the tray of drinks and towel on the first table he passed.  Killing the bastard quietly was key, he was sure he could do it but not being seen in the approach was everything.  Gavin crouched low and moved fast until, somewhere inside the house his worst fears were realized.  

Two shots in rapid succession.

Screams.

He didn't allow himself a moment to speculate on what happened, he pulled the nickel plated & pearl-handled 411s that Bella had insisted he bring, and put two slugs into Walker leaving him in the bushes.  Then he moved quickly to the front of the house trying to blend in with the crowd.  The whole while he intently listened to what he could hear people saying to each other, to the cops and it they weren't talking about a woman.  It sounded as if a man had been shot at and another man had taken him to the ground.

His heart raced, hopeful that Aurora's bodyguards had actually come with her tonight.  Perhaps the man who took the bullets was Tiny or Tim?  He watched the doors from just beyond the fence until at last she appeared as radiant as the sun itself emerging in the dark of night.  He smiled and resisted the urge to run to her.  She was focused on whoever they were bringing out... a big guy... not Tiny or Tim.  

It took a moment but as they brought the giant man out into the light he could make out the face of Billy Mastrosimone!  Bella's god-son was with Aurora.  He'd taken a bullet for her! 

I'll be damned... she's got my luck after all.  I owe that man a drink... or two, or three.

Gavin moved fast, he didn't have much time.  It was clear where they were going and with three known hitmen and, who knows how many they didn't know about, after her... he wasn't going to let her out of his sight for more than a moment.  

"I'm sorry."  He said to the paramedic who was getting out of the driver's side door.  Before the man could ask what Gavin was sorry about, he hit him as hard as he could and the man fell to the ground.  He was out cold.  Gavin snatched up the driver's hat and his coat.  It was a tight fit but he didn't need to be able to zip it up.  He just had to look passable from the outside until they were out of sight of the cops.

Gavin sat low in the seat, listening to the paramedic loading Billy into the back and checking his vitals.  Aurora was climbing in as well, just as she suspected she might.

"Is he going to be okay?"  Aurora asked the paramedic, Gavin could hear the twinge of fear in her voice.  He began to slowly pull the ambulance away from the curb and drive off.

"Your ... um..."  The paramedic more focused on tending to Billy's condition than anything else and fumbled for a word he didn't know to describe their relationship and before he could restart his sentence to avoid the unknown descriptor, Aurora filled in the blank.

"My boyfriend."  She offered in a rush.  And then said slower, as if speaking to him.  "He's my steady guy."

Gavin froze, his hands gripped the wheel.  He tried not to let his mind go down that path right now.  He had to focus on getting her to safety.  There would be time for dealing with relationship issues AFTER he was sure she wasn't going to be shot or gutted by some professional.

"Well, your boyfriend here is really lucky.  One bullet grazed his shoulder and the other passed through his arm without hitting anything vital.  A few stitches, some pain meds, and he'll be on his way to healing up in no time.  The doctors at Mercy are some of the best in the world.  They'll patch him up real good, so no worries at all, Miss."

The instant he knew the Don was going to be okay, Gavin turned down a side street.  The ambulance jostled in a way that made the medic in the back with Aurora instantly aware something was wrong.  Aurora, seeing his reactions, reached under Billy's coat and pulled the gun she felt earlier in the evening out of it's resting place in one single smooth motion. 

She leveled the iron on the driver who had turned to point his gun at the medic. 

The Byrnes, for a brief instant, were staring each other down.

"Dad?!?"  Aurora exclaimed in shock, instantly lowering the gun.

"Hey, Squirt."  Gavin winked at his daughter.  He then turned to the medic, "Thanks for the ride, but I'm afraid this is our stop."

"What the hell ..."  She tried to make heads or tails of the situation, but her father being here threw EVERYTHING she knew into a whole new world of fucked up.

"We're going home.  Now."  Nothing about his tone suggested this was a discussion, but Aurora didn't instantly comply.  Instead, she returned Billy's favor from earlier and holstered his weapon for him, letting her hand linger on his chest as she did so.  For a moment she stroked his chest through his clothing the way she had done earlier. 

It was an intimate affectation which Gavin had only ever associated with Bella.  His daughter was touching a grown man in the same way his wife traced out the scars on his body when they were alone in quiet, intimate moments.  For the old man, it was the first time he'd ever looked at his little girl and saw something else.  SomeONE else.  The woman before him, dressed in her revealing evening gown, hands still stained with a bit of red blood wasn't anyone's 'little girl.'  Not anymore.

Aurora's amber eyes searched Billy's in silence a long moment, wondering if she had it in her to tell her father to go fuck himself... or if she could even justify leaving the man who just saved her life.  Wordless, she stood, wondering if he would say something before she finally broke down and did so herself.

Billy had reluctantly gotten into the ambulance. There was really only one reason for it. It was his excuse for getting the hell out of dodge. Nobody in that place wanted him around just then, and most importantly there was still the matter of the guy in the bathroom which was not dealt with. he couldn't afford to be around any longer. So he lay there, barely able to be squeezed into the back of the tin can that was supposed to bring him somewhere to make it all better.

Then it swerved and Billy's eyes shot open.

Before he could move of blink, or breathe there was a quick exchange between his girl, and her pops. She had said it first, not him, that's ll he needed.

Billy chuckled as Aurora looked into his eyes. He could stare into them forever, but then he would bleed out, and her father would probably get impatient with the both of them.

"He called you squirt. I thought your name was Aurora. You gonna take that shit from this guy?"

He smiled at her and then looked over to the White Wolf, his smile fading completely. His nod should have said all it needed to, but Billy had to be certain.

"Tell Donna Byrne I'm sorry I ever put Aurora at risk. I never would have if I thought there was a chance."

He then turned to Aurora.

"I have a feeling your family wants you around right now. I'm gonna get this guy to give me some morphine and then go home. I feel like my girls deserve an explanation."

He lifted his good arm and pushed open the back door with more ease than he expected.

"Oh, and I'm not giving you the contract."

He then looked to the older man once more.

"Am I getting out here, or are you?"

"Billy, I ..."  She started to protest.

Gavin took Billy's opening, returning his nod of respect, and then ran with it.  He moved towards the back of the ambulance. 

"We've got a car waiting to take us back to the airport."

"Dad, please just..."

"You'll go home.  I'll go take care of the bounty."

"There's a bounty on me?!?"  She paused and then couldn't help but wonder aloud, "How much?"

Gavin chuckled dryly, he would have asked the same thing.  "Too much.  Let's go."

"Dad, please!"  Aurora snapped as Gavin stood in the open doorway, looking back at the two of them.

"Borne sold you out."  He growled like his wolf namesake.  "We can't know how many guys are in town looking for you."

Aurora's face went pale.  "I'll kill him..."

"Done already."

"You?"  She asked, brow furrowed.

Gavin shook his head, no, and replied "Salvatore."

She sighed.  Her bodyguards.  They'd sold her out to Salvatore after all and he'd sold her out to her parents! 

"Damn him to Hell."

For a moment Gavin started to speak.  Visibly stopped himself and then chose to say something else, "Thirty-seconds, Rora.  Not a tick more."  The White Wolf lept out and walked away leaving his daughter alone with the man she referred to as her steady and a shell-shocked medic who didn't dare move a muscle or make a sound.

She didn't hesitate, she kissed him and silently counted to ten before lifting her lips from his. 

"The minute you're well..."  She gave him another quick peck adding, "Thank you."

Billy nodded.

"I'm on the first plane to Philly. We need to have a long talk, all of us."

He paused.

"Maybe not Will."

He jerked his head toward the open door then and held out his arm for Aurora to steady herself on as she got out. The hardest thing in the world so far that night was watching her walk away from him. The only consolation he had was that it was with someone who Billy knew would die before any harm came to her.

Billy on the other hand...

"Well doc, you got two options cause this shit hurts like hell. Give me something to stop the pain, fix what you can, and then drop me off where I tell you to, or, option two, you learn first hand what that guy probably did to your partner."

Billy watched as the medic scrambled around the back of the ambulance and stick Billy with a needle before taking out a kit. The man was not practiced in stitches, but Billy knew a good seamstress of the skin.

"Just bandage it up tight as you can and get me to the Warehouse district in Corktown."

As he lay back down in the ambulance he realized he didn't actually say goodbye to Rora. One more mistake he vowed never to make again.

Aurora walked down the stairs, realizing half-way down her father wasn't going to follow.  Aurora could hear a wash rag being rung out.  She could smell death hanging in the air the way it did after a body had sat for a bit.  Old blood mixed with the floral scent of soap and as the door to the basement closed behind her, the light at the bottom of the steps became the only illumination.

Isabella Beatrice Luciano-Byrne wore an apron and stood behind the large table in the middle of the room.  At her feet, in the cement floor, bloody water ran down into the drain and Aurora could hear the echos of its journey down into the black abyss of whatever lay under the ground floor of their home.

Her graying raven hair was pulled up into a messy bun at the back of her head.  Whisps escaped here and there and she tried to wipe them away from her face with the back of her hand as her fingers were a soapy-bloody mess.  In her grip she held a washing cloth which she kept putting into a bucket of soapy water, ringing it out, and continuing her work to the sound of softly spoken Latin prayers that would have made ancient monks question their faithful dedication for how pious she sounded.  

As she took in all these things, Aurora had found herself trying not to look at the object which The Dragon had been cleaning so meticulously... the nearly naked form of their father.  Sadly, she could not avoid looking at him forever and as she did, Aurora's bottom lip quivered in spite of what she might have expected it to do.

A puffy-red-eyed Bella lifted her chin to look upon her daughter.  Then, silently reached into her soapy bucket to pull out another cloth and offered it to the young woman.

"What do I do?"  Aurora asked softly as she took the cloth.

Bella's voice cracked as if she'd been crying and not talking to anyone for a long while, "I'll say the prayer.  Repeat what you hear."  She picked up her father's hand and began to try to get the blood out from under his nails one at a time.  "This is how they do it in the old country."

For a long while, the half-sisters washed their father in silence.  This body was a reminder of the truth of who they were born to be, who they might have been had others not made choices for them in life, and what they'd both chosen to be in the face of it all.  More than seeing the fifteen scars on his body from bullets which had failed to do what the new ones had done, what truly scared her was the absolute meticulous precision with which Bella worked.  

"How much have you done this sort of thing?"  She finally asked after she'd sobbed out another amen.

"Too much."  

Aurora shuddered at how her mother's words matched perfectly her father's words about the price of the bounty on her head.  

"But I'm glad we got to do this one together."  She admitted tears filled Bella's brown eyes.  "Because one day soon you'll need to know the prayers for me and your father, even if he doesn't care that much for them."

"Mom..."  Aurora wanted to tell her not to talk about her death, that she wasn't going anywhere but... she hadn't planned for Salvatore to go anywhere either.  Or Uncle Will.  Or Grandpa Jack.  She looked at her mother and considered how many 'too much' was and a tear escaped the corner of her eye.

"Our father lived and died that we would have better..." She said.  "I nearly lost everything for you and Will to have the path out that I and your father will never have and still you chose this?"

Bella motioned to Sal's body.  Then she shook her head.

Aurora said nothing.  

"I can't do this for you.  If you ever come to me like this... I'll eat my gun."

"Mom!"  Aurora's voice squeaked a strangled cry.

"I need you to know the price I can't pay, Aurora.  I'll give everything up for you to have a safe and happy life.  You want me to walk away from my title, my money, my life ... all the things we own and even your father.  God have mercy on me for it, but even he doesn't matter to me so much as you and William."

She stepped closer to Aurora.

"In or out."  She said softer. 

Bella shook her head.

"You can't be half-a-mobster.  If you're in... it's here in Philly with the people who brought you up into this life.  Where Sal should have been... surrounded by family where he might have had a chance."

She sighed.

"Anywhere else gets you this."  She looked down, indicating Sal's condition.  "If you're content to live a life outside of the mob, then it starts when you go back to Vassar.  You come home only for holidays.  Briefly.  Never more than a few days and no more dating mobsters.  You'll end whatever it is you have with Billy."

Aurora's mouth fell open, "You... you're just upset about Dad.  You don't mean that."

Bella nodded.  "I do."

"And if I'm in... can I finish at Vassar?  Can I keep seeing Billy?"

Bella thought for a moment, "You'll finish at Vassar, but ... no.  Billy is out of the question.  Seeing any mobster outside of our operations is as well."

"You can't do that to me."  Aurora spoke in almost a whimper.

"I can.  I can do anything necessary to protect you - even from your own bad choices.  I know can't understand now... I hope you never do."

Tears flowed down Aurora's cheeks as she threw the washcloth in the bucket and ran up the stairs, slamming the door behind her leaving Bella alone in the dimly lit basement with a dead body - her daughter upstairs somewhere hating her.

She looked down at Salvatore again, trembling with rage and sorrow. 

When her tears came, she wasn't sure if she was crying for not being able to tell him all that she had to say, or if she was crying because it had finally happened.  Bella finally understood that her father had genuinely loved her and had, ironically done everything in his life for her greater happiness even at the cost of his own.  Now preparing to bury him, her transformation was finally complete.  Despite all she'd done in her life to avoid it, in the end, she was no different than Salvatore, the Devil himself, for she would defy even God if it meant that her family got one just one more day.