Deadly Vows
Page 40
Luciano doesn’t smile back, and usually, he is friendly even to strangers.
“You too, sir” is all he says, shaking Reno’s hand.
“Well, Victoria’s right over there.” He motions, and Luciano nods, walking toward the girl. I move to take a seat on the chair and notice that his wife has disappeared. Reno notices my gaze and speaks up.
“She knows it’s not her place to be here when no other woman is present.”
I have to refrain from rolling my eyes. Great. So my son is going to have a docile wife, judging from Reno’s treatment of his wife.
“Here.” Luciano’s gaze is as flat as his voice. Victoria is watching him with wide eyes as he hands her the gift. “I hope you like it. We skipped Christmas with Mom to give it to you,” he growls at her.
She doesn’t respond; she only nods. But I am shocked at Luciano’s blatant dislike for this girl. She opens the gift, revealing the dress that he has picked out. She smiles, looking at Luciano.
“Thank you,” she whispers.
He only grunts in response.
“How about we leave the kids to get better acquainted and head into my office to talk business?” Reno says.
I nod, walking out of the room with Reno, leaving my son with his future bride.
* * * * *
We spend the day talking about business and upcoming opportunities. The day is boring, and I would have rather been home with Elise than here. I feel guilt eating away at me. She is right. I am being selfish by doing this. I am looking for more power. I could have skipped today and spent time with her and my son, but I am here.
A loud scream pulls me from my thoughts. We both immediately stand and head out of the room, looking to find Luciano and Victoria. Luciano is standing over her body, and he looks angry. As angry as I have ever seen him. Victoria is on the ground, with her curly pigtail on the ground next to her.
“What the fuck happened?” her father roars.
She immediately looks up with fear in her eyes, but I take in Luciano. He is vibrating with anger. He is so upset.
After a moment of silence, Victoria finally speaks up.
“I … I wanted to show Luciano I was brave, that I could cut my hair, that it wasn’t that important to me … and I accidentally cut my hair too much,” she utters.
Silence envelops us, and her father begins laughing next to me. He claps me hard on the back.
“Children are something else these days, huh?” he says.
I am not listening, though. I am watching my son. He is looking at her with a vivid hatred in his gaze.
“I think it’s time we head out. We still haven’t had our time with Elise yet, and I really need to check on her,” I say, smiling apologetically.
Don smiles at me and gives me a firm shake. “It was a pleasure having you, Capo. I think things are going to be fantastic for our future as well as theirs!” He smiles.
I smile back and call for Luciano, who comes immediately, not even stopping to say bye to Victoria.
* * * * *
The car ride is silent. Luciano is sitting next to me with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Do you want to tell me what really happened?” I say. I can see right through Victoria’s little lie.
“I don’t like her,” he growls.
“Why not?” I ask.
“She’s a spoiled brat that doesn’t know when to shut her mouth,” he says.
“Luciano, what did you do?”
“I cut her pigtail out,” he says.
I look at him in shock. “You did what?” I ask.
He looks at me with a serious gaze and pulls the knife I’ve gotten him out of his pocket.
“She thinks she’s better than me. And she said mean things about Mom. So I made her shut up. And I told her if she ever said something like that again, then I would cut out more than her ponytail next time.”
I look at him in confusion. Where is all this aggression coming from? Luciano never acts that way. And it is very rare when we are training. Now he is acting that way toward the girl he is set to marry, of all people.
“I don’t like her, Papa,” he says.
“Luciano, why didn’t she tell on you?” I ask.
“What she said was something her dad wouldn’t like.”
I open my mouth to ask him more, but we are pulling in the driveway and Elise is waiting for us in the doorway of the house. Luciano’s eyes light up, and he jumps out of the car, sprinting the rest of the way to his mother, turning back to that happy-go-lucky child I am so accustomed to. I can’t help but wonder if that is something I should keep an eye on.
* * * * *
“She was mean and ugly, Mama. You should have seen her.” Luciano is sitting next to Elise, telling her all about Victoria. And he has yet to say anything nice about her.
Elise nods, listening, and occasionally looks at me in anger.
“Well, Luciano, you should give her a chance. You may like her,” she tries to reassure him, but he scrunches his nose and shakes his head vigorously.
“No, no, no, Mama. She’s annoying. I don’t ever want to see her again!” he says.
She rubs his shoulders lightly. “Why don’t you go open your presents?” Elise says.
As Luciano runs toward the tree, Elise’s eyes fall on me. She stands, walking toward me, and when she stands over my body, she speaks.
“I hope you can live with yourself. You sentenced our son to a life with a woman he hates,” she hisses.
I grab her arm, pulling her down, and she squeals as she falls on my lap. I press a long, hard kiss to her lips. “I don’t want to fight you, at least. I’m sorry. I was wrong.”
Her eyes widen at my admission. I place my palm against her cheek. She is so cold and pale.
“I love you,” I say. “I didn’t know I was going to feel that way when I first was told I had to marry. But it happened. Maybe we did get lucky falling in love, and I’m sorry I compared Luciano to myself when I found out the news. I wasn’t thinking. But I can’t change anything now. So please don’t stay mad at me. I just want to love you and be near you today.”
She stares at me and slowly smiles, leaning into me. I kiss her forehead, enjoying the closeness of her body. I miss it.
Luciano comes running over to us with a box in his hand.
“This one’s for you, Daddy!”
He hands me the box. It is the one Elise has been up wrapping late that night. I feel Elise tense atop me.
“Maybe now isn’t the best time to open it,” she murmurs.
I look at her in confusion. “Now is the perfect time,” I say.
I slowly tear the wrapping paper off and pull the top off the box to reveal pregnancy test kits. Three, to be exact. My heart stops and my eyes widen. I reach in, grabbing one and looking at the results. Positive. I look up at her with a shocked expression.
“Really?” I whisper.
She smiles at me, nodding, tears beginning to form in her eyes. I feel my eyes burn from tears beginning to well up. Excitement burns deep inside of me. She isn’t sick; she is pregnant. We are going to have a baby. Another one. That explains her constant mood swings and lack of eating.
I place my palm on her stomach, which will soon grow from the child now inside of her. I laugh out loud, feeling so happy. I pull her closer to me, kissing her again. And again. And again.
* * * * *
Luciano sits in his bed, looking at us in confusion. Elise and I are in his bedroom, ready to tell him the big news.
“Luciano, we have something to tell you. Some really big news,” I say.
Now it is Elise’s turn to speak. “We’re having a baby! You’re going to be a big brother.” She smiles.
Luciano’s eyes grow as wide as saucers, and he jumps up on his bed.
“Really?” he shouts. “I’m going to be a big brother?” He starts running around the room in excitement.
Elise laughs and smiles at him.
Two Months Later
&
nbsp; The nurse is placing the ultrasound on Elise’s belly. She is holding my hand as we look at the screen. The nurse turns to us, smiling.
“Is this your first baby?” she asks.
Elise shakes her head. “No, we have a son already,” she says.
Luciano isn’t with us today, though. He is with Romelo, preparing.
“Oh, so I bet you guys can’t wait to see what baby number 2 is, huh?” The nurse smiles at us, turning her head back to the screen. The room is silent.
“Are you guys ready to know what you’ll be having?”
We both nod in excitement.
She turned to us, smiling. “Well, it looks like you two will be having a beautiful baby …”
About the Author
Haley Stuart was born and raised in Liberty City, Texas. She graduated from Sabine High School in 2014 and pursued her athletic career at SFA for two years until transferring. She now resides in Dallas, where she is continuing her education at the University of North Texas. Haley fell in love with books at a young age and turned that love into writing. If she isn’t writing, she is reading, dancing, or binge-watching anime.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57