V E R A
P R E S E N T D A Y
I walked in the room, Kohl's ass is hanging out of his pants, which by the way he has a very nice, firm-looking butt. Cassio is on his knees in front of him about to pull the rest of his pants and boxers down. "Zip it back in horny hoes."
They both snap their gazes in my direction since they didn't hear me come in. For two of the most dangerous men in this house, they sure forget to stay on guard.
"The door was locked."
"And I picked it." I place my hands on my hips, "Why the hell are you two up here, doing this, while my daughter's birthday breakfast party is downstairs?"
"We haven't seen each other in days, give me a fucking break," Cassio grumbles.
"You see with your eyes not with your mouth on his dick. On top of that, you're playing a risky game right now considering I'm engaged to you." I point in Kohl's direction. "You weren't even supposed to be here today but some guard already spotted your car and asked me why it was here."
"I thought I could sneak in."
"You thought wrong." I spat before pointing at Cassio, "You go downstairs, now and you," I pointed to Kohl, "You got work to do."
Kohl raises his eyebrows, "I'm your Capo."
"And?"
Kohl and Cass look at each other before they both let out a sigh, "She'd make a good Capo."
I smiled. I would, wouldn't I?
Kohl is going to hide out here for a while during Emmy's party to look through the files we have been able to retrieve after receiving all the chips. Kohl decided to stay back because he wanted to give Soren a chance to stand by Emmy when she blew out her candles tonight. I don't know when he's gotten so nice, considering he wanted to put Soren to the ground when he found out about what he did to me years ago but I think he's warming up.
Emmy is probably the reason why since she talks about 'Ren this' and 'Ren that' after their playtime. Like now as I walk into the kitchen, she is standing on him, each foot planted on each of his muscular thighs, while he holds her hand as they talk about unicorns. The smile he has on his face is bright enough to compete with the damn sun.
I want to smack it off his face.
Before I went downstairs, after locking Kohl in his office, of course, I went and placed the fake engagement ring in the bottom drawer of my nightstand. I never wear the ring in the house, only when I need to, like this morning when one of Kohl's underbosses came for a surprise visit to give Emmy a gift.
The gift was a sweet gesture but the mini panic I experienced was not because the ring was in one of Emmy's stuffed animal's pants pockets and I couldn't find it.
Kohl and I are engaged to hide the fact that he is in a relationship with Cassio, his enforcer. They have been dating secretly for the past four years. People have been pressuring Kohl to get married, bring in an heir to keep the family reputation going since all the men in his family have been Capo for years.
Being in the mafia, being gay is "banned" and isn't acceptable. Your punishment is death for liking men because there is no leaving the mafia once you're inducted whether you're an underboss or a mere soldier. If your Capo is gay, he must step down and the next man picked is allowed to be Capo.
I think it is absolutely corny, I mean seriously? Because you like men you should be sentenced to death? It's the 21st century, get over your masculinity and just let people love who they want to love.
Unless it's incest, that is just weird.
Anyways, although Kohl and I have a set wedding day we're not actually going to get married. He just needed people to get off of his back until he is able to find someone worthy enough to become Capo.
I'm starting to trust Soren, a little bit, but not enough to tell him about my fake engagement to Kohl. It'll make it easier for him to try to put his hands on me, and knowing our past and my sort of small soft spot for that hideous man, I'd most likely melt quicker than I'd want to.
He's not hideous, he's actually beautiful with his dark brown eyes and curly hair that I loved twirling in my fingers especially during intimate– Stop. I– oh my god, it's only eight o'clock in the morning, there is no need for me to feel this horny.
Matteo, who was the only person we were waiting for, comes into the kitchen carrying a huge gift. I swore I told them not to give Emmy her presents early.
"For me?" Emmy squeals, her eyes lighting up as she asked the question. She knew it was for her, she just likes to act clueless.
Reminds me of her hideous father.
Matteo nods, putting the gift down near her. She quickly gives him a kiss on the cheek, and a hug before ripping apart a small piece of the wrapping paper and taking a slight peek. She gasps, throwing herself on top of the box to hug it.
"What did Uncle Teo get you?" Beau asks her.
She places her face down onto the box, as her response gets mumbled.
"Emmy, you're mumbling."
She lifts up her face, showing the biggest smile and glossy green eyes, "A princess carriage."
Everyone at the table cooes, smiling at her and Teo who has the biggest smile on his face.
"Damn it, how am I supposed to top that?" Luca mutters crossing his arms.
Emmy tears off the rest of the pink wrapping paper, and throws herself on top of the box again. Soren winces every time she does that, his hands trembling and wanting to reach out and hold her even though he knows she's not in pain for doing that to herself.
"Thank you, Uncle Teooooo." She jumps into his arms, pulling him into a tight hug and squeezing him as hard as she could.
"You're welcome." He kisses her forehead. "After breakfast, we can build it together, okay?"
"Yessss! Mom I gonna eat!" She climbs back onto the bench, plants her butt right next to me, and looks up at me with those wide, innocent eyes. "C'mon mom."
I gasped, putting my hand on my heart, "Mom?"
"Yah, I four now so I gonna call you mom not mommy."
I scoffed, cupping her two chubby cheeks in my hands, "Listen to me child, you'll call me mommy until you're eighty."
She frowns, "Mmm no."
"Mmm yes."
She crosses her arms, trying to glare at me. I raise my right brow, daring her to argue with me.
Her glare starts to melt, "Fine mommy."
I smiled kissing her forehead, "That's better."
She cups my cheeks and pulls my head down to give me a kiss on each of my cheeks.
My eyes connect to Soren, who is still smiling brightly like he's the damn sun. I slightly smile because his stupid smile is ridiculously contagious.
Throughout breakfast, Soren and I took turns feeding Emmy because she kept staring at the box on the floor beside her and forgetting to put food in her mouth.
As soon as Matteo was done with breakfast, she dragged him into the backyard so they can build the gift he got her. I hope he knows that she'll ask him to push her around in that all day.
Cassio disappeared, and I sure as hell hope they can keep it quiet up there, or else I'm kicking both of their asses tonight.
Even though it was Emmy's party, I'm still gonna put her down for a nap so she'll have more energy for her party tonight.
Everyone should be arriving before she wakes up from her nap, and hopefully, we'll be able to surprise her when she goes into the backyard for her pool party. She'd been wanting to swim in the pool since June started but we hadn't been able to get it cleaned until a week ago.
She's a huge fan of the water unlike me who stays clear from anything that has to do with swimming. The ocean has sharks and whales and the pool has chlorine that makes my skin itch. I rather just sit and bathe in the shade than be in the water.
I lay on the bed with Emmy whose head is laying right on my boob, her arm lying across my stomach. Her rosy little mouth is parted, a stream of drool dripping out. My thumb caresses her cheek softly, smiling as I remember the first time I got to hold her.
"One more push Vera, you got this."
I swear she's been saying 'one more' for the past 72 minutes, that's right I've been counting.
I lay back to catch my breath, the hand holding mine squeezes and the other hand pushes the hair out of my face.
Alright Vera, one final push so I can get this damn baby out of me.
She's too damn stubborn.
Well, who's fault is that?
Shut up and push dammit.
I take in a deep breath, pushing one final time. A small little cry keeps my eyes open as they threaten to close from how exhausted I feel.
She's here, Vera. Your daughter is here.
They put her tiny body on my chest, and she immediately calms down. Her little wails die out as her little fist lays above my heart. She is covered in bodily fluids, and she looks red and purple but my little girl has a full head of dark hair.
I let go of the hand holding mine, wrapping both of my arms gently around my baby. She feels so fragile. One wrong move and I could potentially break her.
"Hi, sweet girl." I cooed running my hand down her covered back.
Her eyes try to open but can't. I move my hand up, the pad of my thumb slightly grazes her cheek. "I'm gonna make sure you have the best life I could possibly give you."
My tears drip down my cheeks as I think about Soren, her father, my ex-lover. He won't be here for her life, hell, he won't even know she exists. I didn't think I'd be in this position, having to raise our daughter by myself but he made his choice. From now on every decision I make is for her, to make sure she's safe and has the life I wanted but never got.
"I love you so much Emmy, I'll always love you."
I feel the tears falling again and I quickly wipe them away. After being pregnant with Emmy, I'd been a lot more emotional physically than I'd ever been before. My little girl dug out these emotions from me the moment she started growing inside of me.
My phone vibrates on the nightstand, alerting me.
Avira: I'm gonna harass your baby daddy, do not come to protect him.
I let out a small laugh, before replying.
Me: Do your worst.
My family is a crazy bunch and if Soren can't survive them all for the next thirty minutes then he is definitely in trouble in the long run.
••••
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published: september 23rd, 2022