Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 190

"Now listen, baby," Daniel growls, pitching his voice a register lower - and I'm laughing already, because honestly it does sound so much like Kent that I can barely believe it. "I'm very disappointed in you - you need to be tougher -" Jerome bursts into laughter too and I smack Daniel on the shoulder, though I can't help my glee. "Kent would so not say that! Not to a baby!"

"I guarantee that's what he said to me!" Daniel protests, laughing too. "Seriously, that's dead on! Welcome to my childhood!"

"Oh, you're exaggerating," I murmur, rubbing a hand along my belly. "Don't listen to your uncle, baby - he's being mean."

"Okay okay," Daniel says, still laughing a little. "Let me try again." He clears his throat and takes a deep breath, and then starts speaking in his Kent voice again, which has me laughing from the very first word. "There is only one proper way to make a Sunday Gravy - and you have to start by sweating the onions for a long time -"

I'm still laughing, harder and harder as he goes, but suddenly I gasp because -

"Oh my god!" I almost shout, and Daniel and Jerome snap their faces up to mine. "It worked!" Instantly their hands are back on my belly, trying to feel for it -

"Keep going!" I say, urging Daniel on.

Laughing, Daniel brings his head an inch closer and - to my pleased surprise - starts speaking to the baby in Italian, his voice still low.

And the movement inside of me - it increases - a fluttering, and a bubbling, and every once in awhile a little tap tap.

And quite suddenly I'm crying, my hands on my cheeks as I stare down at my stomach.

"Can - can you feel anything?" I ask my friends between my tears.

"No," Jerome says, taking his hand away and smiling at me. "But we can tell you can, which is still really cool."

"I'm glad the baby knows its roots," Daniel says, grinning up at me, and I run my hand through his dark hair, smiling at his handsome face. "Little Italian baby knows what's important."

"Ugh," I sigh, pretending to be disappointed at this development. "It's going to be insufferable," I murmur, "like the rest of you. Always going on about different kinds of parmesan cheese and the appropriate ratio of pork to beef in a meatball -"

"What on earth is going on here?" I hear Janeen ask from the doorway, and all three of us turn to grin at her. "Honestly, Fay," she says with a sigh, "I've always hoped, for your own sake, that you'd find yourself in bed with two half-naked good-looking guys - but this," she sighs, "...disappoints, just a little."

"Come in!" I call, patting the bed. "The baby's moving!"

"What?" she gasps, and hurries into the room, her hands instantly going to my stomach. "Can I feel it?"

"I don't think so," I sigh, as disappointed as she is. "I think the baby's too small for that. But this is the first time I've felt it move!"

"That's so cool," Janeen murmurs, taking her hands away but still smiling at my stomach. "It's only going to get better and better from here." And I take my sister's hand, squeezing it, so grateful for her and pleased that she's as excited as I am.

But Janeen's face, when she looks up at me, is sad.

"What?" I ask, suddenly stricken to see her looking like that.

"Fay," she sighs, shaking her head. "You're almost halfway through this pregnancy and...I mean, I know that whatever you're going through is complicated but...what on earth is coming next? I mean...am I even going to be around when this baby is born?" And I hesitate because...well, it's a very real question.

I look down at the blankets on the bed, tracing my fingers across them, not knowing what to say. Because as much as I want - desperately - for Janeen to be there, to be a huge part of this baby's life?

In order to do that, she's going to have to make some big changes.

"I think it's time," Jerome says quietly, and I look up at him.

"You do?" I ask, quietly.

"It's now, or two days from now," he says, giving me a little shrug. "No time like..." he glances at the clock, "3 am for a nice long, difficult chat."

And I nod to him before looking back at my sister. "If you're ready," I say softly, seriously. "I'll tell you now...everything you need to know to make that decision. Because I have to make some big changes very soon - and you're very welcome to be part of them. But it's a big choice...and I'll understand if you say no."

"Okay," Janeen says, and then to my shock she stands up from the bed.

"What?" I ask, shocked. "Where where are you going?"

"To the kitchen," she says, calling over her shoulder. "Because if we're going to have this long, difficult chat, we're having cold pizza while we do it!"

"Ohhh, bring it in here!" I call, suddenly ravenous. The baby flutters within me too, making me grin.

"Not in the bed," Daniel groans, falling back against his pillow and covering his eyes with his hands. "Crumbs in the bed!"

"You've never sounded more like Kent in your life," I say to him, grinning as Janeen comes back into the room with three half-filled pizza boxes.

And then my sister flops down on the bed next to us, and I tell her everything.

Three days later, Ivan comes back to the house. I watch him from the front window in my dad's bedroom as he gets out of the car, my eyes taking in the blue suit he probably wore for court. Because today - this morning - Kent's sentence was passed. And Ivan's here to tell us what happened. To my surprise he looks up and sees me in the window, but his expression doesn't change. He just gives me a sad little shrug, letting me know that it's done, and I nod, letting him know that I accept it.

And then he starts for the front door, and I turn away from the window, heading back towards the main part of the house, my mind eagerly turning. Because if everything went through, and Kent's going to be transferred to the state penitentiary tomorrow... Then that means tomorrow is the big day.

And that I have a great deal of work to do.

When I come into the main part of the house, I see that Ivan is already in the kitchen, looking sympathetically around at my family, and especially at Daniel, for whom today is probably the hardest.

Ivan's eyes light on me, though, as I cross to the kitchen and he can't help the smile that pulls up at his lips. "Hi, Fay," he says as I come forward to give him a hug.

"Thanks for coming to tell us, Ivan," I say, my voice sad.

"It's no trouble," he replies.

"Well?" Daniel snaps as I step away from Ivan, and I turn to give him a pretend little glare. I'm not really mad, though - Daniel is acting precisely as I asked him to: angry, frustrated, and unwilling to tolerate Ivan's presence in his household after everything Ivan did to take his dad down. "What happened?"

"It went through as expected," Ivan says cooly, meeting Daniel's eyes and slipping his hands into his pockets, keeping himself even as he delivers the facts. "The state - at my recommendation as well as four other detectives - decided that Kent has given enough information to satisfy the requirements of the plea deal."

"And enough information," Daniel growls, "that if he ever steps foot outside of the prison, the families he ratted on will kill him instantly. If they don't arrange to do it in prison."

Ivan purses his lips a little and I see him clench his jaw. "I can't do anything about that, Daniel," he replies. "Your dad made his own choices about how to live his life. This is how the state has decided to respond."

"My dad," Daniel snaps, taking an aggressive step toward Ivan, but Jerome grabs his arm - like he's done before - speaking softly to him in what looks like an attempt to get Daniel to calm down.

Because right now? Daniel looks like he's about ten seconds from leaping forward and ripping Ivan's head from his shoulders.

And Ivan goes just as tense, looking like he'd like to let Daniel try, just so he'd have the chance to take another Lippert down.

I go cold when I see this on Ivan's face, but I do nothing.

Because this? This tension?

This is exactly what I want.