Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 278

now in his lap.

When I walk back into the room I find myself laughing, suddenly, when I realize that Daniel has cut one of Ivan's hands loose so that he can drink the bottle of water next to him on the desk, but that Ivan's using that free hand to stroke the fur of the puppy, which is "Did you make a friend, Ivan?" I ask quietly as I walk over to them, my legs a little shaky after that last contraction.

"Figured he needed an emotional support animal," Daniel murmurs, leaning back against the desk with his arms crossed.

"It is helping," Ivan murmurs, his voice considering. But when he turns his face up to me, I see that his eyes are rimmed with red and he's just doing his very best to put up a strong front. "Or at least, it's not making it worse. And he is soft."

"Ivan," I say, my voice soft as I move close and put a hand on his cheek, my heart breaking for him. "I'm sorry," I murmur.

"Why are you sorry," Ivan sighs, looking away from me but not pulling away from my hand. "You're the only one who told me the truth."

"Yeah," I say, considering that that's probably true. "But I did have you kidnapped and tied into a chair to do it. Plus," I turn his head a little and eye the bruise starting on his cheek that matches Jerome's. "Looks like my husband got a little rough with you, didn't he?"

Ivan sputters a little laugh, shaking his head. I step back, tucking my hands behind my back. "I might have earned that one," he murmurs in reply.

We're all quiet for a moment and I reach out and scratch the puppy's nose. But even in the quiet, I'm tense, because while Ivan can sit here all day turning over the facts in his mind?

I'm on an ever-shortening time limit.

"The deal still stands," I say quietly. "We asked you to listen. Now we'll let you go. But...do you have any questions first? Or anything you want to talk about?"

He looks up at me, a little baffled. "Seriously, that was real? You're just going to let me go?"

"Well, do you believe what she said?" I ask, nodding towards the monitor. "About...who your dad was, and who killed him?"

He exhales, long and slow, looking at the now-black monitor himself.

"I guess I've got no reason not to," he murmurs. "A confession freely delivered to a man who was also there that night, who knew what happened. Not given under duress, totally unprompted by her interlocutor? And I have no rational reason for why she'd say it if it didn't happen..."

He shakes his head, still thinking it through.

"Kent's not innocent," I say, and Ivan turns his face to me, "of a lot of things. But in this particular case, Ivan? Your vengeance, all these years, was directed at the wrong person."

"The person I've been working with all these months," he growls, tearing his eyes from mine, clearly ashamed of himself.

"Don't be too hard on yourself, Ivan," I say quietly, my heart genuinely going out to him. "You're just a little mafia baby like me. We were both born into and caught up in this world without even knowing it."

"Probably why you were so good at it, Ivan," Daniel points out, "when you were undercover." But I lift my eyes to Daniel and shake my head a little bit, letting him know that it's not the time. Daniel just shrugs, probably thinking that the point stands. I can't help smiling a little. I glance at the clock. Shit.

"So," I say quietly, trying to keep my cool even as the seconds tick away towards my next contraction. "Do you want to go? Or, we can have Kent come in - he can answer any questions -"

"I'll go," Ivan says quickly, looking up at me. "If...that offer still stands."

"It does," I murmur quietly, and then I nod to Jerome, who comes forward with a knife in his hands, kneeling down to cut the ties at Ivan's ankles. "But..." I hesitate a little. Ivan looks up at me, waiting.

"Ivan," I say quietly, crossing my arms across my chest. "Can we just have peace between us, once we've let you go? I mean, we're not your enemy..."

Ivan hesitates even as Jerome cuts the last tie on his wrist. He stands as he rubs the red skin there. "Will you let me go, even if I say no?"

I consider him for a moment and then I nod. Daniel glares at me, but I ignore him. "You're not my enemy, Ivan," I say quietly. "You never have been. I'm not coming after you - none of us are. I'd like it if the same were true for you in return."

Ivan looks at me evenly, his head slightly turned to the side, perhaps for the first time considering me as the powerful woman that I really am - because honestly, that is a promise I can make right now.

Ivan? He's free. I won't let anyone touch him unless he comes after us first.

"I need some time," he says quietly, "to wrap my head around all of this. But, if what she said in there is real?" He looks towards the door, to where Victoria is somewhere else in this house, "then we've got no problem, you and I. Or me and Kent, or any Lippert. Is that fair?"

"It's fair," I say quietly. "I'll forward you Fiona's number, all right? She's my Alden contact." I bite my lip for a second, considering. "I mean, a lot of oldschool Alden men were killed that day we escaped..."

Ivan lets out a bitter laugh as I casually consider the murder of my and his father's old friends.

"But," I say, letting a little smile play at my lips as Ivan passes the puppy into my arms, "if there's anyone still alive who can verify the story...she'll be able to put you in contact."

"Thank you," he says quietly, looking down into my eyes.

We stand like that for a long moment, and I study his sad, serious, handsome face, wishing things were different for him. But this world is not fair - and Ivan, like so many of us, got caught on the wrong side of it.

He closes his eyes, exhaling a long breath, and then looks towards the door, clearly ready to go.

I nod to Daniel, who takes Ivan by the arm just above his elbow. "I'll see you out," he murmurs quietly.

"So gallant of you," Ivan says dryly, trying to tug his arm out of Daniel's hand, but Daniel just laughs and doesn't let go. Then he starts to quietly let Ivan know the plan - that he can take one of our cars back to the hotel - we'll come get it later today. Jerome looks at me worriedly as we follow them out of the room, but I just shake my head at him, letting him know that I'm all right.

Well, not all right. As the tension of this particular situation rolls away from me, the stress of the next bit starts to hit in full force. Jerome seems to see it on my face, and he immediately wraps a supportive arm around my waist and takes my hand.

We follow Ivan and Daniel out into the living room and I'm a little surprise - but not concerned - to see Kent standing in the kitchen with two glasses of water on the counter. Clearly, he's used getting water as an excuse to come into the rest of the house, leaving my mother in the nursery, probably behind a locked door.

Kent nods solemnly to Ivan, who does the same as he heads for the door, the keys to Daniel's fancy car in his hands.

Before he can reach the door, though, it opens.

I blink at the sunlight that floods through it and, when I can see again, catch sight of Gio's confused survey of Ivan as he leaves our house.

"Ivan!?"

My heart sinks into my stomach when my sister's voice hits my ears and a strangled little noise comes out of my throat that makes Jerome go tense beside me, because he probably thinks I'm dying or giving birth or something equally dramatic. There's a mumbled greeting and a farewell then as I hastily pass the puppy to Jerome and move towards the door, passing Gio and heading immediately for my sister, who peers, confused and interested, after Ivan as he walks away. "What the fuck is he doing here..." she breathes, baffled.

"Janeen!" I cry, and my sister barely turns in time to catch me in a hug. Tears spring to my eyes - honestly, I didn't even know how badly I wanted her here until she was here -

But a wave of emotion crests through me relief, and fear, and the knowledge that my mom is still in the other room - and that this baby is coming-

The next contraction starts to hit, and my face twists with pain.

"Baby," she murmurs, holding me tight and then pulling back to look at me, her eyes going wide. "Oh my god, baby!"

"What?" Kent's voice is tense as he appears at the door, glancing over my head for a second as Ivan drives Daniel's car away down the driveway, the gate already opening for him. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" Janeen asks, turning to glare at him. "Are you seriously trying to tell me that you didn't know that she's in labor!?"

Kent's eyes go wide as he focuses them immediately on me.