by Lylah James
“The contractions have started, haven’t they?” Lena said with a knowing look.
I nodded.
“Will you be coming with us?” I asked Lena, with a pout.
She shook her head. “Maddie will be there for you. I’ll stay home and get everything ready for the big homecoming.”
Lena pressed her palm dramatically to her forehead and sighed. I rolled my eyes because it was such a Maddie move.
“There is so much to do,” Lena sighed but with a happy, serene look on her face.
“While Mom is busy, we’ll pop the baby out. It’s a fair plan,” Maddie added.
More like I would be doing the popping.
I shuddered at the thought just as another intense ache went through my back and lower belly. That hurt!
And it was only the beginning.
I felt a slight tremor of fear, and the panic continued to rise. “Maddie, you can’t leave my side, okay?”
She soothingly patted my arm. “I’m not gonna leave. Even when you threaten to kill me.”
“Okay, good.”
When I was finally reassured, Maddie and I made our way out of the kitchen. I was slow, much slower as each step felt too uncomfortable. It felt like my stomach would drop any second now.
I heard a shout. I furrowed my forehead in confusion.
Alessio?
“I got the bag,” he bellowed.
Maddie and I were just walking into the living room when we saw him practically beeline toward the door without even a glance our way.
Huh?
I waddled to the entrance with Maddie at my side. Just when we reached outside, we saw the two cars rushing out of the driveway as if some kind of demon was chasing them.
Wait, what? WHAT?
“Did they just drive off without us?” Maddie growled at the empty parking spot. “Who’s going to pop out the baby? Alessio? Or Viktor? Freaking stupid assholes.”
I rubbed my temple tiredly. This was a mess…a total mess.
When another pain coursed through my lower belly and I doubled over, the cars rushed back in.
Alessio and Viktor jumped out, almost falling in their haste. “What the fuck? Why aren’t you in the car?” Viktor snapped.
Alessio silently made his way to me, and I glared. There was a sheepish look on his face, and he mouthed a quick sorry.
From the corner of my eyes, I saw Lyov and Isaak coming from the courtyard. They looked at everyone gathered, and their steps hastened to me.
“What’s wrong?” Lyov asked quickly.
“It’s time. The baby is coming. But she’s two days early. That’s not good. Not normal, right?” Alessio rattled back, his hand molding over my stomach protectively.
Isaak’s and Lyov’s eyes widened, and they paused with their mouth hanging open.
Great. Just what I needed. Two more panicking Mafia men.
“Alessio, two days early is nothing. I’m sure everything is good,” I tried to reason.
Isaak’s and Lyov’s mouths snapped shut.
“It’s time,” Isaak muttered. “Fuck.”
“It’s okay. We got this. It’s cool. Everyone stay calm. Stay calm. Isaak, we have done this before. We’re good,” Lyov muttered back.
He was surprisingly calm. Huh?
Isaak nodded. “Yeah.”
“Where the fuck is the car?” Lyov suddenly bellowed.
Or not. He was definitely not calm.
“The car is right behind you,” Maddie returned, a look of exasperation on her face.
“Right. Right. Let’s get her in the car. Get going, boys,” Lyov ordered harshly. He sounded out of breath.
Alessio swept me off my feet and cradled me to this chest. “I got you, Angel.”
I locked my arms behind his neck and held on. He carried us to the car. After placing me on the seat, he climbed in beside me. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and held me to him before barking out his order. “Let’s go.”
Maddie was half-sitting, her legs still out when the car tore out of the driveway. “Fucker!”
“Pull your fucking legs inside,” Viktor snapped.
“If you can give me the time, asshole,” she snapped back fiercely.
I pressed my forehead in the crook of Alessio’s neck and breathed in his manly smell. Alessio’s smell. The scent of his expensive cologne touched my nose, and I sighed as my shoulders slowly relaxed.
He was tensed underneath me; his legs felt like a rock. One of his hands was fisted at my hip while the other was gently rubbing my pregnant belly.
From my position, I could feel his wild heart and the throbbing vein in his neck. Placing a kiss there, I closed my eyes. “It’s going to be okay.” My voice was quiet, only for him to hear.
His hand paused on my stomach. I felt him take several deep breaths, but he didn’t say anything.
The rest of the ride went quickly and silently. Nobody spoke a word, and the tense air was suffocating.
When Alessio helped me out of the car, it felt like I could finally breathe normally. He cradled me yet again in his arms and carried us into the hospital.
“Where is Dr. Cooper?” he shouted inside the entrance.
There were doctors, nurses, and patients all around, and everyone paused at his shout.
“You aren’t supposed to shout,” I muttered. My cheeks heated under everyone’s scrutinizing stares. Alessio was completely oblivious to the attention he brought upon ourselves.
“Are you Alessio Ivanshov?” an elderly nurse asked.
“Yes,” he growled, giving the woman a mean look, though she didn’t look at all scared. She just looked pissed that Alessio was causing a commotion.
“Dr. Cooper has already prepared a room for your wife. I’ll lead the way,” she continued before turning around without a second glance.
We followed her to the elevator. Getting inside, Alessio didn’t relinquish his hold on me. Not even when I tried to wiggle free.
“You can let me down now,” I said softly. “I’m too heavy.”
He glared at me, and I stared back, waiting for him to calm down. “No,” he snapped.
Okay, now he sounded like a caveman.
“I can carry you,” he continued, sounding much calmer now.
With a sigh, I shut up. There was no point arguing. He would win in the end.
When we stepped out of the elevator, the nurse steered us to a room at the corner. “You will be the only one on this floor. Your husband has it reserved for you.”
My eyes widened when I realized she was speaking to me. Reserved? The whole floor?
I stared at Alessio, but he was concentrating in front of him as he led us to my room. The room looked nothing like I expected.
It was a huge room. Couches in the corner with a coffee table. The bed wasn’t small, either. It was most likely a double bed. Even the pillows looked too soft. The machines looked dainty next to the bed in the large room.
I guess Alessio really prepared for this.
He settled me on the bed and pushed me back against the pillow. “Where is Ivy?” Alessio asked again.
His blue eyes stayed on mine, though.
“She’s doing a surgery right now,” the nurse calmly replied as she fussed over me.
“What? She’s supposed to be here. With Ayla. Who’s going to deliver the baby?” Alessio shouted.
I rubbed my forehead as I watched him lose control yet again.
From the corner of my eye, I saw her checking the machines, and then she came back to my side with a syringe.
“This won’t hurt,” she murmured, pushing the needle into my arm. I closed my eyes, refusing to watch what she was doing. I winced, but she was right. It didn’t hurt. Just a tiny prickling sensation.
But Alessio being Alessio saw my wince and went crazy on the nurse.
“What did you do to her? What are you doing?”
If Viktor didn’t pull him back, Alessio wouldn’t have probably leap over the nurse.
Oh God. Someone do something. This was about to turn ugly.
“Sir, please would you calm down. I am just doing my job. With that said, your wife has just started her contractions. She won’t give birth for many hours. But then again, that just depends on her body and the baby. I have had a few women whose labour went as long as eighteen hours,” the nurse explained as kindly as she could.
But it was obvious she was losing patience. And quickly.
“Your wife is not the first woman to give birth. She’ll be fine,” she muttered before walking out of the room.
“Well, she is my woman. And she’s giving birth for the first time,” Alessio retorted back. “There is a big difference!”
I closed my eyes, my head sinking into the pillow.
This was going to be a long ride.
A long, tiring ride with six overbearing, gun-carrying, ruthless mafia men.
Who promptly panicked at the idea of a woman giving birth.
Chapter 33
When the contractions hit me again, it was impossible to hold my scream. Letting out a bellowed shout, I tightened my fingers around Alessio’s hand.
Maybe I was crushing them impossibly tight. Too tight.
I even caught him wincing a few times.
I didn’t have the time to care when I felt another pain in my lower belly. It felt like my stomach was going to burst open any second now.
“Ouch. Ahhhh…” I cried out as another contraction hit. This time, I was full-on sobbing. “It hurts…” I moaned, trying to find Alessio’s face through my blurry vision.
When something cold touched my forehead, I sighed. So soothing. Maddie had been doing this for a while now.
I was sweating, it was too warm, and it hurt. After wrapping some ice in a towel, she pressed it over my forehead and dragged it softly over my face.
Only Alessio and Maddie were with me in the delivery room. Not that it stopped the others from bursting into the room whenever I screamed.
Like now.
“Shit. Is it time?” Viktor practically broke the door in his haste.
“No. She still isn’t fully dilated,” Maddie replied, sounding tired.
“Oh, okay,” he muttered, closing the door again.
“Alessio, it hurts…too much…” I huffed as I felt another contraction coming.
“It’s okay. Breathe. Breathe. Ivy said breathe,” he said stiffly. I could hear the fear and panic in his voice. His voice was too low…too soft for my liking.
The pain hit me harder than before, and I screamed yet again, bearing down at the pain.
His voice was next to my ear. “Breathe, Ayla. Breathe.”
“I am breathing!” I screamed at him. Anger suddenly swelled inside of me, and I gripped his hand harder.
He hissed painfully.
That hurt? Huh? Huh?
I was pushing his baby out of my vagina, and he was complaining about his hand?
I tightened my fingers even more, maybe too much.
“Alessio!” I hissed angrily.
Weren’t my contractions coming too hard and too fast?
Alessio was saying something incorrigible, and I heard Maddie arguing with him. My ears couldn’t make out the words. The pain was too much.
When Alessio let go of my hand, I wanted to cry.
Why did he let my hand go? Was I too mean?
No. Come back!
Opening my eyes, I saw Alessio pacing the length of the room. He gripped his hair tight in frustration, and I suddenly felt bad for taking my anger out on him.
For the first time, I noticed that his suit jacket was no longer on. His tie hung loosely around his neck, and the first two buttons of his shirt were open. His hair lay on his forehead, and sweat masked his skin.
He looked as tired as I felt. Like he was feeling my pain.
“Where is Ivy?” he growled for the hundredth time.
Ivy came and went a few times. But because I wasn’t ready and Princess wasn’t ready to make her appearance yet, she went to check up on her other patients.
“Alessio, can you help me up?” I croaked out. My throat felt dry from hours of screaming out my pain.
His head snapped to me, and his eyes met mine. Those intense blue eyes never failed to get all my attention, even when I was in impossible pain.
He hurried to my side again and pushed a hand behind my back, helping me in a sitting position. Ivy said I could walk around; it might make the labor go faster.
And that was exactly what I was going to do.
The little smart princess was coming out of me soon, whether she liked it or not.
“Are you sure?” Alessio asked quietly. He appeared almost scared to talk to me.
I nodded silently as he helped me off the bed, with Maddie always at my side.
They helped me around the room toward the huge blue bouncy ball. With Alessio in front of me, he helped me sit on it. He knelt between my legs, his hands on either side of my hips, holding me securely.
I could see the lines of stress on his forehead. He looked like he’d aged by five years in just hours.
I held Alessio’s cheeks while softly bouncing on the ball. “I’m going to be okay. Princess is going to be okay too. Have a little faith in me, would you? I can do this. We can do this.”
“I can’t see you in pain like this, Angel,” he muttered hoarsely.
Just then, another pain ripped through me. My nails bit into his cheeks before I quickly moved my hand away.
It felt like I was being ripped apart from down there. My breathing was labored, my chest heaving with exertion.
“Oh…oh…” I breathed through the pain as another contraction hit right after the other. Again and again, my stomach rippled in pain. It traveled all the way to my back. It felt like the whole lower half of my body was being contracted in pain.
Alessio’s hand went to my stomach, and I saw a flash of pain on his face. “I’m…fine!”
It was meant to be soothing, but it ended with a shout as another contraction ripped through my lower belly.
My princess wasn’t happy in there any longer. It looked like she was ready to come out even if it meant ripping through my belly and vagina.
“Help…me…up.” I huffed through my harsh breathing. “It hurts…”
Alessio sprang into action, and in mere seconds I found myself reclined in the soft bed. My fingers found their way around his wrist, refusing to let him go.
I had a killer grip on Alessio as the contractions kept coming, right after the other. I had no break or chance to breathe through the agony.
A sudden urge to push ripped through me. My legs fell open, and with Alessio helping me sitting up halfway, I bore down on the pain.
Finally, Ivy made her entrance.
I sighed and then shouted. Her eyes widened, and she hurried to me, peeking under my gown.
“Oh. I see the head. A full head of black hair,” she sang happily.
“At least she isn’t bald,” Maddie mused with a wink.
“My daughter isn’t bald,” Alessio replied, looking quite affronted that Maddie would even think such a thing.
I was pretty affronted too.
But there was no time to think through it when I was hit with another agonized contraction. “Ahh…”
My scream was probably heard all over the floor. I panted, but still my princess didn’t make her way out into the world.
Stubborn. She was going to be stubborn like her father.
Just what I needed…another Alessio.
I felt Alessio’s warm breath next to my ear as he whispered soothing and supportive words. He was gentle, kind, and so loving.
I fell more in love with him in that moment.
But then hated him the next.
When another pain came, he tried to encouraged me with “Breathe, Angel. Push. Just breathe. It’s okay.”
Breathe? Just breathe?
I crushed his hand in mine just when Maddie yelled, “Shut up!”
“
Okay. Sorry. Don’t breathe. It’s not okay. Don’t breathe.”
WHAT? WHAT?
That earned him another hand crushing.
Maybe I also bellowed that I hated him and never wanted him to touch me again.
“Alessio, just shut up,” Maddie growled when I started crying through the pain.
Ivy, from her position between my legs, threw supportive words at me, telling me to push on every contraction.
She had been repeating this for too long now. I had been pushing! But no baby yet.
I sobbed with each push. I even pushed Alessio away.
I saw the look of panic on his face. He looked hurt. And the fear…it was all over his expression. He was slightly shaking with it too.
My emotions were a mess. One minute I hated Alessio and couldn’t bear for him to touch me, while the next minute I cried because he was a few steps away.
“I’m sorry,” I screamed with another contraction. “I am such…a bad…wife. I’m…sorry…come back here.”
Alessio was at my side in a second flat. He gripped my hand again, but this time his lips were on my forehead.
He placed kisses over my sweaty face, gentle sweet kisses as I pushed and screamed through each contraction.
Alessio whispered against my skin. How much he loved me. How strong I was. He was in awe with me and loved me more every minute.
It made my heart soar, and I even smiled once.
“I love you, Angel,” he whispered against my lips. Such a sweet kiss. Sweet words. Everything I needed.
“You amaze me every day. Every time. You are my strong Angel. I know you can do this. I know you can bring our daughter into this world like a true warrior Angel. Push. Just one more push,” he said against my forehead.
His arm held me up as I screamed with a push. I felt something wiggle out but not enough for my baby to slip out.
“Arggg,” I gasped and then bellowed.
I was dying. Was it possible to die?
Nope. I couldn’t die. I still had to meet Princess. I still had to walk down the aisle in a wedding dress to my husband.
“What are you doing? Can’t you see she’s in pain? Do something!” Alessio finally screamed, losing his patience.
He poured his fear and anger on Ivy, who just shook her head.
