•Apollo DiStefano•
•A week later•
We are back in New York, after months of being held in Russia and then Scotland, I'm finally home with the person I love the most and our upcoming baby. Arabella says I can pick the color of the nursery but that's all she's going to let me pick because I have sketchy taste and she used my 'ROUGH' tattoo as evidence which is stupid since she loves the fucking tattoo.
Rude.
Let's get one thing straight: I do want to kill Mariano for getting my baby sister pregnant but Arabella is on their side so there's nothing I can fucking do, besides I am happy for them; they're two of the most important people in my life so if they're happy, that's enough for me not to drive my knife through Mariano's heart.
I haven't been to work since we came back four days ago because I was spending time inside of Arabella and you know, occasionally resting from being inside of Arabella. I like her being so horny and needy.
After I got ready to go down to the gym, I stood by the bed, watching Arabella sleep; she snores like a dinosaur but still cute as fuck so I pecked her forehead and left a note on her nightstand so she doesn't go crazy. Part of her PTSD of me being kidnapped is having to know where I am at all times.
As I went downstairs, I thought about how I'm going to tell Arabella about Artemis. She's certainly going to be surprised she doesn't know everything about me but she's also going to be heartbroken; we share that darkness...losing a sister.
She's not coping as well as I would expect her to but Viktor helps every day; he moved in with us as soon as we came back and has decided to not leave his sister behind because family always comes first so I'm starting to like him, slightly, not much but almost a little.
In the gym there was Mariano, Viktor, Armani, Enzo, and Emilio "Hi, men," I stepped onto one of the three treadmills.
Everyone said hi back at the same time "What's up, babe?" Mariano asked as I placed my sweat headband around the top of my head.
I sighed "Nothing, just nervous about telling Arabella."
"Telling her what?" Viktor asked as he did perfect squats in front of the mirror wall.
"A secret she can tell you after I tell her," I replied, looking back at the treadmill's control buttons. "How's Allegra?" I asked Mariano "Does she have morning sickness?"
"Yup and also has to pee every five minutes," Mariano sighed. "Advice?"
"Keep the doughnuts coming and be prepared to have bruises all over your body; if you were afraid of my mom's wooden you should be terrified of a pregnant woman, especially if she's Arabella's best friend."
"Fuck," he decreased the pace of his treadmill.
"Yeah, you'll do lots of that too. I mean Arabella and I are having amazing sex every three hours, she's so horny—"
"Okay! Can we talk about something cuter? Like, where are you taking her for your babymoon?" Enzo inquired, pushing the upward arrow of my treadmill.
"Giù le mani," I growled, slapping his hand away.
(Hands off.)
"Ouch," he whined, "you're fucking mean."
"Ti lamenti troppo," I smirked, pushing the downwards button "and what is a babymoon?"
(You whine too much.)
"Sort of a honeymoon before your baby is born: babymoon," Armani said as if it's supposed to make sense. "There's also the push present."
"Since when do these things exist?" I asked, taking my shirt off.
"I don't know; Angela and Eva made me watch some show called Yummy Mummies," Armani explained.
"Fun," I said sarcastically.
"Oh oh! She's also missing her baby shower but men can't attend such thing so we should go out drinking," Mariano chuckled.
"Sweet baby Jesus, why are there so many events before the birth?" I complained.
Viktor stepped onto the treadmill beside Mariano's "Because she's pushing a watermelon out of her body through her vagina and you are not moving one finger; my sister deserves every event dedicated to her so you better start planning, buddy."
Viktor's right and I hate to admit it but I have a babymoon to plan and a push present to buy; thank God Mariano said my sisters are already taking care of the baby shower because I'm not good at planning parties or anything that involves socializing.
When I was done with my workout, I rushed back to my bedroom but made a stop on the way to grab a picture of Artemis from our old room. It's so dusty and I hate seeing everything like this...we had so much fun in this room. A place once filled with love, laughter, and light is dark and gloomy these days but my mother insists on everything staying intact because that's how she last saw it; I was moved out of the room when I came back because I just couldn't bear looking at her empty bed, it just helped that horrible and vivid memory replay over and over again in my head. Sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the bed, trembling and feeling pain on my body which I never seemed to be able to locate.
Arabella was still asleep when I entered the bedroom, she wasn't snoring anymore but all the blankets were on the floor "Bella," I whispered with a smile, admiring my wife before walking around the bed to hide the picture in the upper drawer of my nightstand.
(Beautiful.)
Once in the bathroom, I got the shower going before stripping out of my clothes while humming a random song "...and the way you look tonight..." I sang quietly as I stepped into the glass cube.
"Nice voice."
Her voice startled me and I screamed like a child "AHHH!"
Give me a break, she was asleep like a minute ago, how the fuck does she sneak up on me?
"Pussy," she laughed, pulling her PJ pants down as she sat down on the toilet which is between the shower and tub.
"Well, it's not my fault you're a fucking turtle ninja," I breathed out, looking at her with my hand on my chest "fucking hell."
She chuckled, wiggling her toes "You were distracted, that's why I was able to sneak up on you."
"I know," I acted all cool. "So, princess, I was talking to the boys at the gym and they mentioned three things I didn't know have to happen before Napoleon is born."
"Three things?" She raised an eyebrow "elaborate."
"Babymoon, baby shower, and push present," I said, squirting shampoo onto my left hand.
"What is a babymoon, exactly?" she asked and I heard the flushing toilet.
I sighed, foaming up my shampoo before placing it on my scalp "Supposedly, we go on some sort of honeymoon before the baby is born so where would you like to go?"
"Umm–"
"AHHH!" I screamed since her voice was closer than before; somehow she was in front of me "How the fuck are you doing this?"
Arabella laughed, quite loudly, enjoying every second of it "You're such pussy," she reached for the shampoo and I gripped her wrist before she could grab it "What?" Her eyes locked with mine as a cheeky smile played on her luscious lips.
"Arabella, don't call me that," I said calmly.
"Why?" Her smile grew.
"I don't like it," I took a step closer "it ruins this for me," with my free hand, I cupped her pussy. "All right, baby girl?" a smirk played on my lips as a soft moan left her mouth.
"Ye-yes," her breath hitched.
"Good girl," I pecked her forehead and pulled both of my hands away. "What would you like as a push present?" My hands massaged the shampoo through my hair.
She cleared her throat, trying to act cool but her cheeks were all red and cute "I don't know, I have everything I need."
"Well, you still have three months to think about it," I stood under the water to rinse my hair.
After we showered, I carried her to the closet and dressed her before dressing myself; I love it when she's my barbie. She ended up wearing white lingerie, an ivory cable-knit cashmere sweater, a bouclé maxi skirt and black boots so comfy for my pregnant wifey. I, on the other hand, ended up wearing a black three-piece suit with a dark burgundy button-down shirt underneath the waistcoat and a black tie, all of these chosen by Arabella and her recent obsession with Lucifer.
A staff member brought breakfast for us but I couldn't start eating, I couldn't keep it in anymore so I went to get the picture and sat down looking at her, waiting for my wife to look back at me so she would somehow tell me to start talking "Everything okay, handsome?" she asked before taking a sip of her green juice.
I shook my head and handed her the framed picture "I'm going to tell you something my father worked really hard to hide from others."
She took the picture carefully "Who is she?"
The moment plastered on the shiny paper behind the glass is from a few weeks before we were taken. I stole my dad's camera from his home office and figured out how to use it while Artemis and I played outside which led me to take a picture of her twirling around "Her name was Artemis," I took a deep breath, feeling a shiver ran down my spine "she was my twin sister."
Arabella's eyes went slightly wide as she glanced between the picture and my eyes "You had a twin?"
"Yeah," I nodded with a sad smile "Artemis and Apollo, you know my mom's obsession with Greek Mythology."
She placed the picture on the table with her eyes admiring it "She's gorgeous."
"Artemisa was murdered when we were little," I blurted out and finally got it off my chest. "Her full name was Artemisa Aurelia DiStefano."
Arabella put down her fork, I saw her mouth go dry at how harshly I delivered the sentence "Apollo, baby, I'm so sorry."
I slowly nodded "The room you went into before everything happened was once our room, that's why mom was so weird about it," I sniffled.
"The tattoo on your back..." she frowned "who would murder an innocent child?"
"A man hungry for power," I clenched my jaw "full of jealousy," I gazed up at her "Sergei Smirnov."
"Baby, you're crying," she stood up and walked over to me to wipe my tears away with her thumbs. "It's okay if you do–"
"I need to talk about it, I trick myself into thinking that it doesn't affect me anymore but it does," my voice broke; there was a knot in my throat. "I miss her every day," I sobbed.
My wife sat on my right thigh and wrapped her arms around my neck holding me close, my face buried between her breasts "I know how you feel."
She's so strong, I don't know how she doesn't break down in tears every second of the day, especially right now when we are talking about it "I'm so sorry," I gazed up at her, trying to pull myself together. "Arabella, I'm so sorry, we haven't talked about Viola's death–"
"I don't want to talk about it," she interrupted "not yet, right now I want you to tell me what you planned."
I can't force her to cope so I simply nodded, looking into her eyes with my left hand caressing her right cheek "Okay, princess," a deep sigh left my mouth as my arms went around her waist. "It was after our seventh birthday party, we were outside playing with our puppets..."
I told her everything, every single detail and watched her hold back the tears, playing strong for me and myself because she's still in denial about Viola
"What Sergei did was wretched and perverse. I'm so sorry you had to go through all of it, baby."
"Don't be," I whispered looking into her sad eyes and that's when her lower lip started quivering as tears sprung her eyes "princess, you need to cry."
Arabella shook her head but a second passed and her face was in the crook of my neck, sobbing loudly as she gripped the lapels of my jacket "My sister is gone and it's all my fault!" her voice was shaky...shattered.
I held her close, trying to shield her from all those horrible feelings "None of it is your fault, we will punish the guilty."
Now that she knows the whole truth and nothing but the truth, it's time to make the people responsible for the last few months suffer for the greatest mistake of their lives.
Bang bang and snip snip, bitch.