Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 230

"Maserati," I murmur as I slide into the front seat of Daniel's new car, not forgetting Kent's promise to buy me my own car if I can learn the names of the others. "What?" Daniel asks as he turns the car on while I buckle my seatbelt.

"Nothing," I sigh, looking at our dark villa, my eyes in particular on the windows to the master suite. No lights turn on with the sound of the engine, which I take as a good sign.

Daniel takes a deep breath, staring out the windshield for a long moment. "We're sure we want to do this?" he asks, a little fear in his voice.

"We're sure," I say, letting no hesitation come into mine. Because I have thought this through a thousand times, and I know this is the best way to get us to our goal. The pieces have been in place for a long, long time and now? It's time to make our move. "Kent's going to kill us," Daniel says on a sigh, but he starts to pull into the driveway anyway.

"You leave Kent to me," I murmur, making Daniel laugh a little, I assume because he's more than willing to do that. But, really, once we explain everything? I really do think that Kent will forgive us.

Especially if I have a little time to...persuade him.

"All right," Daniel says as we pull off the property and hit the road in the dark of the Italian morning. "Here we go."

We drive for a long, long time and I keep my eyes fastened on the countryside, delighted by it. Sicily is just so incredibly beautiful, even from the highways. Daniel and I don't say much to each other, some light music that neither of us listen to filling up the quiet. Daniel doesn't put anything into a GPS, apparently knowing where he's going from memory.

I frown a little as we pull of the highway and he confidently makes turn after turn.

"Seriously?" I ask, frowning at him a little. "You just...remember where to go?"

"I learned how to drive here, Fay," he says, sending me a little smirk. "I came every summer as a teenager. I know these roads like the backs of my hands."

My eyes shift, then, to the literal backs of his hands, which are long and thin - one significant difference between him and his father, really. Kent's hands are broader, but Daniels - while still large - look like they belong to a musician.

He must have gotten them from his mother.

"Still," I say, trying to distract myself. "It's an island, but it's a big island. I can't believe you remember how to get here."

"Fay," Daniel says, looking at me with a sigh. "On this island? All roads lead to this one house."

And I gulp a little because...

Well, while Kent was a mafia boss in America, he was one of many, and he operated at least with the veneer of secrecy.

The people we're going to see today?

They're more like kings.

Daniel sighs again and reaches out a hand to take mine as we pull up to a set of gates. To my surprise, when Daniel rolls down his window he doesn't speak into a speaker. Instead, a guard comes forward, leaning down to speak with him.

Obviously, I don't understand a word of it. But still, the way that Daniel speaks to the man - with complete authority in his voice, almost dismissive...

I realize, quite suddenly, that if these people are kings?

Daniel is very much a long-lost prince, returning home.

The guard steps away for a moment, his eyebrows raised in surprise as he looks Daniel up and down, and then he speaks through a radio to someone presumably inside. A moment passes and then the guard nods to Daniel, pressing a button so that the gate swings forward.As Daniel pulls through the gate and starts down the tree-lined drive ahead of us, the road so long we can't yet see the house. I take a moment to look over at my husband as we drive, and then I look down at my stomach. Because if Daniel is a prince... Then this baby, at least on paper? It's next in line, just after him.

And me? Well...

But all of these thoughts are wiped from my mind as the trees fall away and the largest, grandest house I have ever seen in my entire life rises before us. My mouth legitimately falls open as I stare up at what is honestly a palace made of yellow stone with a broad terra-cotta roof. Flowered vines crawl all over it, climbing walls covered in balconies and terraces and windows that are all thrown open to catch the fresh morning air.

I'm still gaping as Daniel pulls around a stone fountain and puts the car in park in front of the incredible structure that can barely be called a home. Kids run laughing out of a ground-level door, but they completely ignore us, heading for some kind of incredible garden to the left that's completely bursting with flowers.

Daniel's face is stern as he unbuckles his seatbelt, but he bursts into laughter when he glances at me and sees my expression.

"Well, Fay," he says, his face now bright with his smile. "Welcome to Villa Bianci. What do you think?"

I blink at him, completely stunned. "Um," I say, shaking my head a little in awe, "I think I married the right Lippert." Daniel laughs again at that and reaches out to put a fond hand on my shoulder.

"Seriously?" I continue, ducking my head so I can peer towards the top of the house. "This is where you spent your summers as a kid?"

"It is." Daniel says, his voice soft, "But it's also where Kent grew up."

My mouth forms into an awed "o" as I realize that Daniel's right - that Kent has soo much history here. This is where he fell in love with Natalia, where he met Lenai...

And my heart wrenches suddenly with guilt to be here without him.

But before I have time to indulge that emotion, a familiar figure strides from the house with open arms. My face breaks into a grin.

"Nephew!" Alessi shouts, and I glance at Daniel to see a wide and genuine smile on his face as he opens his car door and begins to step out. I follow, eager to greet Daniel's uncle because - well, because even as I recognize that Alessi was as much of a snake as Natalia, he was always nice to me. Or at least pretended to be. Like Ivan, I can't help but like him at least a little.

Alessi and Daniel wrap each other in tight hugs, pounding each other's backs as I climb out of the car and stand a little awkwardly to the side.

"How are you?" Alessi asks, speaking in English for my benefit. "We were so worried for you - we heard about the breakout, and then that you were missing, but nobody answered a phone or any email - we didn't know -"

But before Daniel can answer Alessi breaks away from him, moving towards me and sweeping me up into a hug of my own that makes me laugh with joy. "Fay, it is so good to see you, safe and sound," he murmurs, his words blurred against my hair as he fondly tucks his head close to mine. He steps back a little then, looking me up and down, his eyes in particular moving to my stomach. "And the baby, yes? The baby is well?"

"Baby's doing great," I say with a smile, running a fond hand over my stomach.

Alessi claps his hands together excitedly, apparently genuinely pleased to hear it. And why would he not be? That's his first great-nephew or -niece, for all he knows. He's got no real reason to doubt it.

"And your father," Alessi says, his face dropping a little as he moves again to Daniel's side. "How is he - where is he?" I study Alessi's face, seeing genuine worry there - and I remember again that Kent is more than a brother-in-law to Alessi - that they were best friends their entire childhood.

My heart sinks again with guilt, because Kent - he really should be here.

But I clench my jaw and work to dismiss the feeling, knowing that it's not going to do any good. This is chess, after all. There's no room for stray emotions.