Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 157

Jerome makes a horrible noise, half cry and half groan, as he falls to the floor.

Daniel shouts and I hear a scream - I realize passively that the scream comes from me - before Kent reaches down and grabs Jerome by the shirt, lifting him again so that he can punch him another time, his fist flashing across his jaw- But Daniel's on him now, grabbing his father by his arms and ripping him away from Jerome, who moans on the floor, his face turned down towards the cold marble.

My hands are pressed to my mouth in horror as I see blood all over Jerome's face, all over the floor -

Daniel stumbles backwards with Kent's arms wrapped in his own, pulling Kent away. "Get off of him!" Daniel cries, his eyes looking frantically towards his boyfriend.

Kent lets out another feral roar, pulling hard at Daniel, trying to get back at Jerome - to, to kill him, I realize -

"Stop!" I scream, putting my whole heart into the word, into the noise that rips from my lips. "It's not him! It's not Jerome!"

Kent and Daniel go still, turning towards me, and suddenly the only sound in the room is Jerome's injured moans.

I keep my eyes fastened on Kent's, willing him to look at me, to pay attention to me, to let his rage fall away...

And something about it works. Kent and Daniel stay still for a moment before Kent shakes himself, hard, and growls at Daniel to let him go. Daniel hesitates but does as his dad says. When Kent doesn't move for Jerome again, Daniel falls to his knees at Jerome's side and urges him to turn over, to let him look.

But I don't have time for it. Instead, I stare at Kent as he collects himself, as he leashes the animal within him and straightens his shoulders before walking over to me. As he comes close he puts his hands in his pockets again, though I can see them tightened into fists, as if he has to put them away to avoid grabbing me again.

My lower lip shakes a little as Kent stares down at me, but I raise my chin once more, reminding myself again and again that I didn't do anything wrong.

"Who is it, Fay?" Kent growls, clearly working hard to not flip out again. I see his shoulders twitch with the effort. "Who is the father?"

"You are," I reply, as steadily as I can.

Kent just stares at me, not bothering to do what Daniel and Jerome did and inform me, needlessly, that that's impossible because he's had a vasectomy - that he can't be the father. Kent knows that I know.

And I watch his face twist with disbelief. "Liar," he snarls, glaring down at me.

Slowly, I just shake my head, denying it. Categorically.

I am not lying. If I'm pregnant, he's the only one who can be the father. I know it logically, but I also know it in my bones. As I stare up into his face, I let him see the truth there.

To my shock, Kent lets out one more twisted snarl before whipping away from me, stalking across my bedroom and out the door, gone before I can even blink.

I feel myself collapse a little in his absence, catching myself against the sink on my palms as my knees go weak. And then, thinking what's the point, I just let myself slip to the floor, still staring into the bedroom and at my door, which is standing wide open. "Where -" I hear Daniel ask, and I turn to him, my mouth open with shock. "Where did he go?"

"I have no idea," I murmur, shaking my head a little.

Daniel heaves a big sigh and then helps Jerome sit up. Jerome, I'm glad to see, is conscious, if not in a great deal of pain. And, deciding that Jerome needs him now more than I do - which is probably true - Daniel turns his attention to him, feeling at Jerome's face for a broken nose or jaw, trying to assess the damage.

I do nothing. I just sit in silence, watching, my brain...empty.

Because for perhaps the first time in my life...I've just got nothing.

I mean, what am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to think? I'm sitting here, in a gorgeous marble bathroom, knocked up by a supposedly infertile Mafia King who thinks I've been unfaithful to him, watching my fiancé - my baby's brother - try to assess whether or not my lover broke his lover's jaw?

Like...what the fuck am I supposed to think?

So I just don't. I just sit there, silently, for a long...long time.

Kent storms down the stairs, his face dead to the emotions that pound through his body. When he reaches the ground floor he continues steadily, walking swiftly to the door at the back of the kitchen that leads out to an area behind the house that his guards use for their smoke breaks. When he gets there, Kent hurls the door open and glares out at the men, who go silent and still at his sudden arrival.

"Marco," Kent commands, snapping his fingers. Then he turns, knowing Marco will follow. Kent moves now towards the garage, slamming the door open, his focus only on his next steps. He moves to the passenger side of the escalade as Marco grabs the keys and moves to the driver's seat. Then, to Marco's shock, Kent opens the door to the back seat and climbs in.

Marco only hesitates a moment before opening the driver's door and sliding in, buckling his belt and turning on the car.

"Where to, boss?" Marco asks, trying to keep his voice even though he intuits that something is very, very wrong.

Kent sits motionless in the back seat, his head hanging. Then he mumbles an address that Marco taps into the car's GPS before starting to back out of the garage.

As they begin to pull out of the garage and move down the driveway, Marco glances into the back seat. His jaw drops when he sees Kent laying himself down across the three seats that make up the back row, his eyes pressed shut.

Marcos driving slows a little as he wonders what the f**k is going on - the boss, he never shows weakness like this -

"Go!" Kent snarls, noticing the change in the car's speed. Shaken, Marco does as he's told, refocusing on the road.

In the back, Kent presses the heels of his palms against his eyes, trying to control his breathing. But it does no good. He feels the panic rising in him, taking control of his limbs, his mind -

Panic that he hasn't felt in months, because she's been there - there in his bed, warm and sweet, in his room, making him laugh. Fay - this incredible young woman, who he had trusted - who was....was fixing things for him, making him better, making his life better - But now she had fucking betrayed him. And is trying to lie about it, even though it's impossible...

Kent grits his teeth, shaking his head, remembering the way she looked just a few minutes ago when she stared up at him with such clarity and assurance in her eyes and told him that he's the father of her child.

Is it - is it even possible that Fay has become that good of a liar in the past few months? Is she even capable of it? But Kent knows that he's underestimated her before. He could be doing it again.

As the panic takes over, as the pain rises in his chest and he groans with it, Kent keeps tight at the center of himself the tiny kernel of hope that...

That something went wrong. With him. With the minor surgery he had years ago.

And as his mind goes dark with the pain of his panic attack, as his body curls tight against the seats, he repeats a single refrain over to himself.

The doctor will know. The doctor will tell us. A simple test. A simple test...a simple test...

And he'd know soon. Because that's where they are headed now.

Directly to the urologist's home office.