Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 250

I reach for a dish in front of me but Daniel smacks my hand away playfully, murmuring that he'll fill my plate. I laugh at his over-solicitousness, but I'm secretly grateful - because while I recognize pasta and bread and cheese, I honestly don't know what any of these dishes are. And Daniel - he knows what I like, so I just trust him.

As the meal passes I realize that my trust was well-placed, because almost every bite makes me moan in delight. I have no idea what I eat, honestly, but everything is rich with cheese and butter and these amazing sauces that I soak up with bread - and the seafood and the meats - Honestly, by the end of the meal I rub my poor swollen belly, wondering if there's more food than baby in there right now.

"Oh my god," Janeen moans, eating her last bite of bread. "I'm going to gain twenty pounds living here -"

"Good," Jerome says, pitching his voice to a very stern and manly register. "I like my woman with some meat on her."

Daniel and I laugh at them before Daniel sighs, shaking his head at us. "We haven't even hit desert yet -"

"What?" I gasp, genuinely worried. "There's more!?"

He frowns at me. "Desert is half the meal, Fay -"

"Oh my god!" I exclaim, appalled, but he laughs and pats me on the knee. "Don't worry, there will be time to digest. Nonna needs time to get it all together anyway."

I sit up suddenly, looking around the table. "Wait, she isn't even here -"

"Of course she's not," he says, rolling his eyes. "Italian mothers - the good ones - they eat in the kitchen between courses."

"Daniel," I say, putting my hand on his knee and pointing to myself. "American mother. It's very important that you remember that in the upcoming months, because that? Preparing a feast for fifty people and then not eating any of it? That's crazy!"

"It's not crazy," he says, laughing at me. "Feeding people is her love language, Fay. You just have to learn to respect it."

I open my mouth to say something else, but suddenly my ear catches on English on my right-hand side for the first time since dinner began.

"So," Bianci says, leaning forward and folding his hands together on the table, looking between Kent and I and clearly speaking in English for my benefit. "Now that dinner is finished, shall we go have a drink? In my office?"

Kent slowly nods and begins to stand, glancing at me as well. Taking the hint, I put my napkin on the table and stand too, stepping to his side.

When Daniel starts to raise himself, Bianci puts a hand out.

"That's all right, Daniele," Bianci says, giving his grandson a warm smile. "You just...enjoy the evening, yes? Ensure that Fay's sister and her fiancé do not get lost with all these Italians."

Daniel blinks but, clearly dismissed, settles back in his seat.

Bianci turns to Alessi now, nodding, and Alessi stands too. Gio, a little further down the table, likewise stands and together the four of us follow Bianci towards the proverbial lion's den.We are all silent as we follow Bianci upstairs and into the same dark room that Daniel and I met him in yesterday. There's already a fire cheerfully burning with a set of five chairs circled around it. At the center of the circle is a small table with five drinks set out on it - four whiskeys and a frosty glass of ice water with a wedge of lemon on the edge.

We each take a glass and then our seats, and I smile as I take a sip of my water, which really is refreshing.

"My wife," Bianci says, leaning forward to smile at me, "grows the lemons herself."

"Thank you," I say, genuinely touched at the considerate gesture. "Again, you have such a beautiful home, Don Bianci. Thank you for welcoming us here."

"It is your home now too, Fay," Bianci says, waving a hand around as he leans back in his chair and sips his drink. "You are family now, after all."

I nod, accepting the welcome and sitting back in my own chair as Kent sinks into the one next to me, giving me a single glance and a nod, which I return. I smile as I looking at Alessi and Gio, ready to play this little game of chess Bianci has set up, ready to play Queen to the King at my side. Because even if the men in this room don't know my actual relationship with Kent, by inviting us here in Daniel's absence?

They've made it very clear that they understand who in the Lippert family actually holds the power.

"Papa has told us of your offer, Fay," Alessi starts, giving me the sweet and friendly smile that he always uses on me as he speaks. "I admit, it's quite generous, and with such...interesting terms."

"I'm glad you find it so," I murmur, keeping my voice soft and my words bland because Gio, this morning, told us they're ready to counter. And I have no intention of offering anything else until I hear what they have to say.

Plus, I want to see Kent at work.

"We admit that we're intrigued," Bianci says, picking up where Alessi leaves off. "Though I must say...I'm not sure the terms are quite even."

"Out with it," Kent says on a frustrated sigh, and I glance to my right to see him clenching his jaw, glaring at Alessi and Bianci. "No need to dance. If you want something more, tell us what it is."

"It's not that we want more, my boy," Bianci says, dragging his glass of whiskey through the air before him. "We just want things to be even. Donna Lippert has offered us quite a pretty package, but you, Kent? You have been invaluable to this family. And you could live what - forty, fifty more years? In that time, what you could provide - as a respected member of the Bianci family, of course - far outstrips what is currently on the table."

"That assumes that you don't do anything with Fay's industries," Kent counters, "just liquidate them, sell them off as-is. If you built them, they'd bring you far more than I could."

"And if we asked you to run the industries?" Bianci asks, raising his eyebrows before taking another slow sip of his drink. "To build them up for us? You have a...talent for that kind of growth, Kent, that Alessi and my other captains do not have." "No," Kent says, shaking his head, taking a hard line. "My employment here, in Italy, for you, is not on the table."

The negotiation continues for a long time and I stay quiet, watching the words travel between the two sides like a tennis match, Bianci constantly trying to push Kent, to see what he can get him to give, and Alessi wedeling and explaining where Bianci needs him to. At one point my eyes meet Gio's, who raises his brows as if to say impressive, no?

I purse my own lips and nod, sighing discreetly through my nostrils because Kent is right: they've got something very particular in mind, and they're wasting time, wearing Kent down by keeping him negotiating.

And Kent, I can tell, knows precisely what is happening too. But he also knows that he can't leave this room without a deal made. They'll wear him down until he has to take what they offer last - at three in the morning, if necessary. But me?

I have an excuse.

As Alessi again makes an offer that Kent will inevitably refuse, I sigh and put a hand on my belly, pushing to my feet.

The men immediately stop talking, everyone turning to me. I put on a sad little grimace, looking around at them with apology written on my face.

"I am so sorry," I murmur. "But I admit - I feel a little ill. I think the baby..."

I let my sentence trail off, looking over at Kent. He looks up at me, worried, and I shake my head just the tiniest imperceptible bit, letting him know that I'm not actually sick. Kent fights a smile as he stands by my side.

"Apologies," Kent says, getting to his feet and standing next to me. "But, for the sake of my grandchild, I'm so sorry that we'll have to leave without coming to an understanding. Such a shame, I had really -"

"Fine," Bianci snaps, showing his cards finally when pressed and revealing that he, too, wants this locked down tonight as badly as we do.