by Kendra Riley
Dante was quiet, listening with rapt attention. He hadn’t bothered to ask her about it all, his level-headedness had been replaced with ego. He had been selfish, he knew. He hadn’t wanted anyone to do that to Aniya, and he had been secretly hating whoever the father was.
“I’ve always disliked Jose,” he spoke up. “Competition was nonexistent with him, but he always tried, and I always beat him, except this time, or so how my ego would like to think. He was rubbing it in,” he laughed a hollow laugh.
“I couldn’t look at you for fear I’d let my guard down. Again, it was my ego talking. That fear was part of my ego. I didn’t want to be ripped apart from you, or from Isabella. For the first time in my life, I felt something different, I felt what it was like to truly love someone without condition.”
“You don’t do that to people you love, Dante,” she told him. “I was willing to go through it all, you know. I had a feeling your mother wouldn’t like me, I had a feeling a lot of people didn’t want me to be with you, because I’m a single mother, without a college degree, and for a moment, you made it feel like it didn’t matter, until -- well, I had to remember things change, even relationships, even people. It was an eye-opener. I’m not a gold digger, I’m not a social climber, I’m proud of what I’d done so far.”
“And that’s what makes me need you more in my life,” he finished for her. Everything he said was the truth, and he didn’t care how awkward he sounded, he didn’t care how strange it was to be uttering those words, so full of meaning, to someone he had only met months ago.
“Dante, this isn’t going to work out,” she sighed. “I have too many things to think about, Isabella is-”
“Isabella is our number one priority,” he said. “Ours. I’ve already spent days thinking about everything, mulling it over, and what surfaced was I couldn’t let you go, I can’t let you leave my life without us trying it together.”
Aniya took her leap of faith.
Chapter14
Trying it together... What did trying entail? Did it involve heartache? Tears? Sleepless nights? She looked at him, and she saw something in those eyes once more, something deep, a near bottomless pit of uncertainty. Only one thing was certain. He was here now, professing what he was feeling for her. It dawned on her she had never said those words to him. “I love you” had been something unspoken, and she hadn’t had the courage to say it, fearing a breakup. He wasn’t the only one that was afraid.
She was as scared as hell,. Love wasn’t supposed to feel foreign, it was supposed to feel like home, right? They were both rookies to this, so it seemed. He had his share of dates and misadventures, and she had hers, and yet here they were, admitting things they had been bottling up for a while now.
“Jose isn’t going to stop easily,” she mumbled to him, closing her eyes.
“Who says we’re stopping here?” Dante told her. “If there’s one thing I’ve done all my life, it’s to keep moving on. Life doesn’t stop for us, and I know you know this. I’m here, with you. I know I can’t replace who Isabella’s father is, but she’s perfect the way she is. Life without you, life without the two of you -- it’s something I don’t even want to imagine.”
“Why are you only saying this now?” she asked him.
“It sounds stupid, but maybe I needed a trigger,” he said. “It was a trigger I thought was unnecessary to life, I told myself I had everything going for me. Relationship concerns were supposed to be the last thing on my mind. I thought wrong.”
“I readied myself to end it with you. Whenever that opportunity came.”
“This is your opportunity,” he said to her. “We can end it here, tonight, or we can work out on it.”
“We’ll keep fighting over this,” she said.
“Then let it come. And then we deal with it like adults, like good parents for Isabella.”
“You’re taking on the role as her father?” she said, “and you don’t care what the others say?”
He shook his head and gave small laugh. “I’ve come to terms with that, and you should, too. It’s not like you’re going to die with what they’re going to say, right? We’re in this, the two of us, and I won’t have it any other way.”
“Your face is still bruised,” she remarked, walking up to him. She couldn’t bring herself to hold him, not yet.
“You can come closer, you know, I won’t bite.”
“The last time I got close to you, we started to date,” she replied, feeling a smile creep up on her face.
“You know, I had this gut feeling I was going to date you, the moment I saw you in the gallery. You didn’t act pretentious, you didn’t even know me.”
“And I guess that’s why you were attracted to me?”
“Let’s just say I was quietly drawn to you,” he replied.
“How are we going to work on this? This is all too much, I don’t think I can-”
He shrugged. “We’re together. We’ll take it one step at a time, that is, if you’ll have me in your life.”
“I think Isabella’s answer was already a yes.”
“What do you mean?” he said, curious.
“I saw you two asleep. I figured I wouldn’t wake you up yet, you know, to give me time to collect my thoughts about it. I thought I’d turn out angry. I guess it’s more complex than that. I’m angry, but I still love you.”
“You love me, huh?”
She looked down. “I guess I do.”
“Great. Now we’re even,” he said with a smile. “Things don’t necessarily get even with love, nothing’s ever fair, but I’ll take this as it is.”
Aniya looked up. “So you do love me?”
“What? You want me to say it out loud? It’s going to be weird. Just wait for that perfect time,” he told her. “But for now, this is the part where we kiss and makeup.”
Aniya took a step towards him, and kissed him.
***
One year later
“Come on,” Dante coaxed Isabella as he got out of the car first. She had started her first day of preschool today, and Aniya and Dante didn’t want to miss it for the world.
“Where’s your ID?” Aniya asked her.
Isabella flashed it in front of her, grinning from ear to ear. On her identification card were the words: Isabella C. Santoro. “I have my full name on it,” the little girl declared.
“Excited?” Dante asked Isabella.
The girl nodded. “Very much. Will you come pick me up later?”
“Maybe daddy will,” Aniya said stooping down to look at her daughter’s face. “Be a good girl?”
“She’s always a good girl,” Dante said with a grin. “Give me a high five?” he asked her, bending a little so Isabella could reach. Isabella jumped up, as high as she could. Dante kissed her forehead. “I’ll see you later, sweetheart.”
They watched as Isabella lined up with the rest of the children, teacher in tow. Slowly, the preschoolers made their way in, and Isabella waved her hand to them, signaling that she was leaving.
“Well, there she goes,” Aniya found herself murmuring. “First day of a real classroom setting.”
‘Don’t cry on me, now,” Dante told her.
“I’m not,” Aniya said, miffed. She forced herself to smile. “Let’s get to work, shall we?”
Their drive was a quiet one, each consumed in their own thoughts. Aniya’s was filled with anxiety of her child’s first day of school. She had recently begun studying for her bachelor’s degree once more, taking online classes, and she had almost forgotten how much she had loved learning.
“Shall we pick you up later?” he interrupted her trail of thought.
“Why? Aren’t you busy?” she sked him.
“It’s just a quick lunch. Then I bring Isabella back home, work again,” he said.
“Sounds like a lot of trips.”
He shrugged. “It is her first day of school. I feel like celebrating it.”
She smiled at him. “Alright.”
; She kissed his cheek goodbye, and clocked in before eight in the morning. Her office was still the same, even though a year had gone by already. There were key pieces that had sneaked their way into her office, though. There was a photo of Isabella and Dante sleeping perched atop her desk and a new lamp, courtesy of Dante. She still loved working for the gallery, under Anna’s tutelage and demands. A lot had changed in her personal life, however. They had gotten married three months ago, with Dante legally adopting Isabella.
It hadn’t been easy, getting to where they were now. There were tears, magazine articles, local TV news snippets- but she and Dante had survived through it all. Jose was still in the picture, as he was Isabella’s biological father, but he had relinquished all rights to his child, giving in to Dante instead. Carlos had pulled through with the legalities, and Pilar had become Isabella’s godmother, as did Anna.
The court orders would hurt Isabella, Aniya knew, once her daughter was grown enough, and Isabella would have to face Jose in the future. Dante loved Isabella, it wasn’t even a consolation, and she was glad she had married a man who loved her child as much as Isabella loved him back.
It was a beautiful feeling; to love, and be loved in return. At least there was that steadiness in her life, a peace she hadn’t known would exist. The minutes ticked into hours, and her phone rang.
“We’re downstairs, mommy,” Isabella said over the phone.
Aniya walked towards a waiting car, and kissing her child once more, and Dante as well. They headed for their favorite café, where a waiter who knew them by name already, had prepared Isabella’s favorite strawberry milkshake.
“How was your morning so far?” Dante asked her, sipping his iced tea. The day was warm, but a cool breeze picked up every now and then.
“Not too busy,” Aniya replied, wiping some of the milk from Isabella’s cheek. “Yours?”
“Hell-“ he stopped, realizing he wasn’t supposed to say that. He saw the look on Aniya’s face, and he grinned sheepishly. “Sorry.”
“Where were we?” she said, brows raised.
“Work was hectic,” he said carefully. “We did get that deal pushed through, south of Madrid.”
“You got it?” Aniya’s eyes perked up. “That’s great!”
“Took a few months,” he said with a sigh, “but we got it. All 5 hectares of it, ready for Madrid’s first residential and retail city. A city within a city,” he smiled. “How would you like an apartment there?”
“The house is fine as it is,” Aniya told him. “So much waste if we take it away. Besides, I like the garden now.”
“Penthouse living seems great, too.”
“I think I’ll be sick if I live somewhere that tall.”
“Why?” he laughed, “you never get sick, so altitude sickness won’t be a problem.”
“Well, I get morning sickness lately…” her voice trailed off, and she looked at him, trying hard to hide that smile.
“You’re-?” he couldn’t continue, his eyes wide open.
She nodded. “Mhmm.”
“How many months along?”
“Two,” she replied. “Wanted to make sure, so I didn’t tell you yet.”
He looked at Isabella, and then he looked back at Aniya. “I’m going to be a father, again?” he grinned. “Well, why did we even eat here? We could have gone somewhere else. Are you sure you aren’t that hungry? What about-? We haven’t had check-ups. Holy- how does this work?”
Aniya laughed. “You’re already a great dad, and a great husband. Don’t panic.”
Dante laughed again, his palm over her belly this time. “Two months, it’s that tiny?”
“It’s that tiny,” she laughed.
“Well, I guess I know what we’re doing over the weekend,” he announced. He looked at Isabella and smiled. “Sweetheart, how would you like to be an older sister?”
Isabella made a face. “It’s okay I guess.”
He looked at her and he took her hand, squeezing it in his. She smiled at him, knowing this was all she truly needed. This was what happiness looked like.
THANKS FOR READING!
Authors Personal Message:
Hey beautiful!
I really hope you enjoyed my novel and I would really love if you could give me a rating on the store!
YES, I WILL RATE YOU KENDRA!
Thanks in advance and check the next page for details of my other releases. :)
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