Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 176

ridiculous thing I've ever heared?

didn't think we'd pushed you that far along into the realm of the ridiculous." Imaly, when the young are in love, they cannot keep their hands off of each other. You know?"

But somehow, I manage to simply laugh at Natalia's suspicion that Daniel might like men - as if it's th "Really, Natalia?" I ask, scoffing pleasantly. "I mean, I know we're not a very handsy couple or anything but "Ah well," she says, wrinkling her nose at me a little bit. "I suppose that it is just that you are American I laugh and nod along with her, giving a little shrug as if I can believe it.

"Well of course you do," she says, chuckling a little as she fingers her martini glass, "you saw it with Ke Again, I tuck my true emotions deep, deep inside myself. "Yes," I say, smiling at her. "I could tell that y She nods, looking out at the ocean wistfully. "Perhaps, in another life..." she sighs.

I, at the house." ..really had something."

I murmur something in assent, wanting nothing more than to grab her damn drink and splash it all over her face.

"But family and children are so important to us," she says, blinking out of her thoughts and turning back to me. She gives me a warm smile, apparently dismissing the thought of Kent and reaching out a hand to stroke a tendril of my hair.

I force myself not to tense up under Natalia's hand, to not clench my jaw or swat her away, instead smoking peasantly. "Anyway," she continues, "you will forgive me for trying to get Daniel to meet some other girls, yes? I had to try to find him a girl he might like, so that he could start a family. But!" she laughs now, drawing her hand away. "I was wrong - he found the wanted, without my help! As so many do."

"Yes," I say, glancing over at Daniel with what I hope looks like hero-worship in my eyes. "I understand

thers don't always see what we have. But Daniel and I love each other very much."

"I can see it now," Natalia sighs, pleased. "And soon the world will have evidence of it, when your little baby's born."

I turn back to her and grin, pretending a motherly pleasure that's absolutely fake. Because Natalia wa "Well," Natalia says, sitting back and smiling at me peacefully. "I hope you will accept my apology -I w

I smile at Natalia, and nod, but a rush of feelings flood me as I come to understand that Natalia basic about it.

Luckily, before I start to feel even weirder about this, Daniel's phone rings.

Distracted by his conversation with Alessi, Daniel glances at the phone's screen, but then his face falls "What is it?" Alessi asks, sensing that something is wrong.

"Um," Daniel says, glancing at his uncle and then at me. "It's...well, it's the prison."

My muscles tense, but I force them - one by one - to relax.

to be a very specific type of mom, and I have a strong suspicion that I want to be precisely the opposite type.

g to do my best by my boy. But I was wrong. And now, forever, we will be friends. And I will try to do my best by your boy - for Lenai's sake."

My understands herself as this child's grandmother. And that Lenai...well, that she probably would have very mixed feelings about this baby, if she ever knew

he looks at it. One by one, we all go silent as we watch Daniel stare at his phone.

"Well then," Alessi says, leaning back in his chair with a sad and empathetic expression. "I suppose you should answer it."

Daniel's face is tight as he lifts the phone to his ear and says "hello?" But the rest of us don't hear any more as he gets to his feet and walks to the deck's rail, leaning against it. He turns about thirty seconds into the phone call to give us all a thumb's up, letting us know that all is well, but then he turns away again.

Hoping, quite desperately, that Natalia can't hear how hard my heart is beating, I turn back to everyone at the table and give them a bright smile. "Dad?" I say, turning to him. "Weren't we saving a peach pie for a beautiful night like this?"

Dad hesitates for a second, staring at me, but I force my smile to deepen, to will him not to giving anything away. "You remember dad, right? Unless Janeen ate it," and then I turn, laughing, to smile at my sister.

A huge grin breaks out on Janeen's face, not a moment of it looking fake. "You know me too well, sis," she says, giving me a wink. "But I used self-restraint!" she continues, laughing and putting up her hands. "It's still there!"

Dad gets up then, heading into the kitchen to get the pie, and Janeen leans forward across the table, asking Natalia something about Italian fall fashions this year that I know she doesn't care a damn about. Still, Natalia leans in as well, speaking eagerly. Gratitude for Janeen sweeps through me then, because she picked up her role seamlessly. So much of her job at the club depends on her ability to read the room and act appropriately, after all. I lean back in my chair, thinking she's a fabulous sister to have when you're pregnant with a baby whose mafia daddy is a secret, and in jail.

And currently on the phone with your husband.

I resist the urge to look over at Daniel for the length of the phone call. When he comes back to his seat ten minutes later, I tilt my head at him in inquiry, hoping Natalia and Alessi read it as the worry of a wife for her husband. Daniel gives me a soft smile and a nod, letting me know he's okay. So, I move on, dismissing the event, and burying my burning desire to know what the hell just happened on the phone call.

Eventually - after far too long - Natalia and Alessi leave. Both kiss me warmly as we walk them down to their car, welcoming me again to the family, though perhaps this welcome is the first true one since only now are they actually convinced that I'm carrying a Bianci baby. Then, shouting their goodbyes, Natalia and Alessi pull away.

I exhale a tired sigh once Daniel and I get back into the house and I close the door behind us, leaning back against the wall.

"You all right, baby mama?" Daniel asks, smiling at my exhaustion.

"You know," I say, shaking my head with my eyes closed, "it's weirdly more exhausting now that she likes me. She's so...attentive."

Daniel laughs and puts an arm around my shoulders, leading me upstairs. "Welcome to my world."

"Awww, poor adored baby," I say sarcastically, reaching up to pinch his cheek the way Natalia does. "Always spoiled! Fawned over since the day he was born!"

"It's nice," he sighs, pretending to be chagrined, "but you're right, it is exhausting."

"Hey, I'm doing another batch of these!" Janeen calls as we enter the kitchen, holding a shaker of espresso martinis above her head. "Alessi left all the supplies!"

"Count me in!" Daniel calls, leading me out to the patio. "Make one for Jerome too!"

"You got it!" she replies. Dad's out on the patio, clearing away dishes, and I move to help but he waves me off, bidding me to sit.

"I don't like all this fussing," I grumble, sitting down hard in my chair. "Just because I have like, this tiny little ball of cells in my belly," I say, looking down at myself again, "doesn't mean I can't do anything."

"The baby's actually as big as a kidney bean now," Daniel says, sitting down next to me and grabbing a handful of cashews from a bowl on the table. He looks curiously down at them, picking one up. "Or, like, just as big as this." He laughs, grinning before popping it into his mouth.

"Don't eat the baby," I murmur, lifting my legs up to curl beneath me. But then I frown at him, cocking my head to the side. "Wait, how do you know that?"

"I've been doing research," he says, shrugging. "I'm going to be a dad, after all. The paperwork says so."

"So weird," I murmur. "Two weeks ago I'd have murdered for any documentation that the baby was Kent's -"

"Jerome's jaw would have thanked you for that," Daniel murmurs, making me laugh.

"Certainly," I agree, continuing, "but now, today, we paid a great deal of money for paperwork proving precisely the opposite," I sigh. "What a strange world."

"Please do not discount my role in this shady deal," Janeen says, coming out the door with a tray of espresso martinis in her hands. "I expect recognition and gratitude."

"You got it, sis," I say, giving her a grin. As she winks back at me, I see movement in the kitchen and wave to Jerome, who is coming up the stairs.

"The doctor was cute, Janeen," Daniel says, casually taking my hand and holding it in his, I think needing the touch as much as I do at this moment. He's stressed, I can tell, and so am I. "And clearly he likes you. What's stopping you from dating this one?" "If you date them," Janeen says, giving Daniel a little glare, "they stop paying you."

"Not my experience," I say, leaning forward and grabbing my half-drunk glass of coke.

"Yes well," Janeen says, turning her glare on me as Jerome comes out the door and heads for a vacant seat between her and Daniel, "not all of us get multi-million-dollar contracts after they've just kissed someone a couple of times."

Daniel and Jerome turn their heads to me, their eyes wide. "What's what's this?" Daniel asks, but then he stops. "Actually - keep your secrets. I don't want to know."

"Well I do," Jerome says, stopping down to give Daniel a kiss on the cheek before sitting down.

"Enough!" Janeen says, picking up a fork and clinking it against her martini glass, drawing all our attention to her. "Because I know what you two are doing," she says, pointing the fork at me and Daniel now. "You're doing your clever conversation thing - where you bring up all sorts of interesting things to distract everyone from what's important."

Daniel and I shut our mouths, smirking, because we know we've been rightly accused.

"Oh," Jerome says, turning to look at both of us now. "Yeah, I hate it when you do that. But what's she talking about? What happened?"

"Go ahead, Daniel," Janeen invites, not unkind. "What the hell happened on that phone call?"