Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 279

"Shit," I hiss, but, well... Too late now.

I groan as the contraction hits in full force, clinging to Janeen's shoulder as I bend over at the pain of it, somehow feeling some kind of relief when I'm bent in half-

Honestly, I don't know nothing makes sense right now, my whole body is groaning with the pain of it-it feels like a charley horse combined with a deep aching, almost like a burning - my knees go weak, my legs starting to give out - But Kent's there in an instant, his arms wrapped fully around me as he barks orders at everyone to cle door, to get inside -

I try to take a stumbling step forward as the contraction hits its crescendo, but it's too much -

So instead, I just lean, hard, against Kent, pressing my eyes shut until it passes.

When the pain starts to lessen, I find one of my hands gripping one of his, his other arm wrapped around my back and curling around my torso, holding me up.

"I'm okay," I pant, starting to straighten, to look up at him. "Seriously, Kent, I promise - I'm fine -"

He breathes my name, his voice shaky as he looks me over, assessing me.

I glance towards the house and he immediately understands, moving forward with me through the door to where my anxious family is waiting, Gio closest to the door.

"How far apart are your contractions," Gio demands as Kent walks me over to the couch.

"Um," I say, actively avoiding the question as I look around the room, trying to decide how to handle t

"Fay!" Gio commands, glaring at me.

"They're four minutes," Jerome says, coming close with his arms anxiously crossed, the puppy clutched against his chest.

Kent curses swiftly and fluidly, turning to glare at me.

"Jerome!" I growl, glaring at him. "Betrayer, twice -"

"Are you serious," Kent growls, taking my face in his hands even as he sits down with me on the couch "How have you - how have I -"

"That's the real question, Kent," Janeen says, coming close and glaring at him. "How did you seriously not notice this - women don't just go into labor for half an hour - she's probably been like this for hours, all night!"

Kent glares in her direction and then looks at me, the same angry question in his eyes."Um," I say, glancing away towards the floor. "I may have been...hiding it. Just a little bit."

"Fay!" he snaps, appalled.

"We had shit to do, Kent!" I hiss, turning my eyes back to glare at him. "We were on a timeline - we had to get this done - shit, we still have to get this done!"

"Nothing is more important than your safety, Fay - than the baby -"

"Um," I say, my voice going a little shrill and my eyes wide as I point down the hallway towards the nursery, "I might say that the fact that my mother is locked in the room down the hall maybe trumps my labor at this moment -" "What!?" Janeen shrieks, spinning to stare at the hall which holds her own bedroom. "What the - where the hell is dad!?"

"I am calling an ambulance," Gio murmurs, whipping out his phone and starting to dial.

"Fay," Daniel says, coming forward, reaching for me.

"Stop!" I shout, thrusting my arms out to the side and stopping Daniel in his tracks, pushing Kent away from me just a little bit. "Everyone just stop! For ten seconds!"

Everyone, to my surprise, freezes.

Well, except Gio, who turns away from us and starts to murmur in fluid Italian into his phone.

"This is not done," I say, pointing down the hall. "And we cannot just drop this now, just because the baby is coming as well."

Kent starts to protest but I turn my glare specifically on him now. "Kent," I say, my face grave. "You know I am right. We put too much work into this to let it collapse now - I have not slept in 36 hours -"

"Ohhh my god," my sister moans, putting her face in her hands and tilting her head back, starting to pace in an anxious circle.

"We are so close," I say, leaning towards him, locking eyes, making him see and understand. "Just wrap this up, Kent," I beg, taking his shirt in my fists. "Finish the plan, and we'll concentrate wholly on the baby. I promise." Kent hesitates for a long second, but then he nods, steady. And then he gets to his feet, striding away from me.

"What!?" Janeen breathes, storming forward, "Kent you need to get her to a hospital -"

"Oooh geeze," I say, leaning back against the pillows of the couch as another contraction starts. My heartrate increases as panic hits me a little bit. Because this one - I mean, it can't have even been five minutes this time - God, this is all going so fast -

"No time," Gio snaps, shoving his phone back into his pocket. "Ambulance is on its way, but considering how far along she is," he sits down on the couch next to me, quickly looking me over and checking my pulse. "...I'm sorry, Fay," he says quietly, shaking his head at me, "I think this is happening here..."

"What?" I breathe, looking at him with wide eyes. "No, there's still time -"

"No," he says, taking my hand as the contraction starts. "Too late, Fay - the paramedics are coming, and my friend, an OBGYN - she is coming now - "

"Gio," Kent barks from his place by the kitchen counter. I get a glimpse of him before the pain of the contraction makes me press my eyes shut as I cry out at the pain of it. God, it's like nothing I've ever felt before. "Get over here. Now."

"Zio," Gio breathes, appalled. "I need to stay with Fay -"

"You need to get over here," Kent growls, "and do as I say."

I nod hastily to Gio, letting him know I want him to go, and I murmur my sister's name. Gio hesitates, but I force myself to drop his hand. After a second his weight lifts from the couch and I feel a lighter body take its space. I reach for my sister, tucking my face against her shoulder as the pain wracks through me.

My sister holds me through it as I pant, as some instinct in me tells me - ridiculously - to get on my knees - maybe even to push -

"Daniel!" Kent barks, and I can hear the worried tension in his voice, can feel that he's just barely holding it together. "Jerome!"

The contraction starts to pass and I hear footsteps moving across the room to Kent's side.

Janeen, sensing that the contraction is passing, starts to whisper-hiss to me. "Fay what the f**k is going on?" she asks, looking frantically between me and the others in the room, her eyes going wide as she notices - maybe for the first time - the puppy that's in the room as Jerome puts him on the floor and he scurries over to settle anxiously at my feet. "Are you crazy!? Where the hell are you sending the doctor - he has to stay here -"

"No," I gasp, trying to catch my breath as I rest my sweaty forehead against my sister's shoulder. "He has to take her to Bianci -"

"Who," she asks, baffled, and then I hear her gasp, "your - your mother?"

I nod weakly, taking deeper breaths now. "It was the only way," I murmur.

"The only way to what?" she asks, tense beside me even as her arm slips around my shoulder.

I raise my head to meet her eyes. "The only way to keep us all safe," I say, nodding lightly. "Mom threatened Kent if we didn't give her to Bianci. So," I shrug weakly. "We are giving her to Bianci instead."

Janeen stares at me with her mouth open, shocked and I think a little appalled.

"Someone has to go down, Janeen," I whisper, agonized - because while I am steady in my choice...I know that others will judge me for it. "Mom made sure someone was going down, and I'll be damned if I was going to let it be me or any one of us." Janeen freezes as she stares at me, realizing what I'm saying.

That...that my mom is the one going down.

That I'm handing her to Bianci, telling him freely that this is the American FBI agent who has been seeking his fall.

And he...he can do whatever he wants with that information.

Can do whatever he wants...with her.Janeen's head snaps to the side and my gaze follows it, both of us going rigid at the sight of Daniel and Jerome suddenly reappearing in the room - god, I didn't even notice that they'd left- and leading a stumbling woman forward out of the hallway, her arms zip tied behind her back, a black bag over her head.Gio is suddenly at my side, murmuring questions to me, telling me to lay back so that he can perform an examination, ordering Janeen to go get towels -

But Janeen and I both just sit there, perfectly still, staring at my mother being lead away to the door.

"Fay," Gio says, shaking my shoulder -

But I can't I can't look at anything else -

"Stop!" Janeen calls, suddenly jumping to her feet.

Something about her movement shakes me too, breaking me from my shocked reverie. I suddenly turn to Gio as Janeen strides away from me. "Gio," I gasp, "what are you doing - you have to take her to your grandfather -" "No," he murmurs, looking at me steadily, "we decided - Daniele and Jerome, they will take her in my stead -"

Anxious, I glance over at Kent, who stands between me and my mother, his eyes steady on me. Because - I mean - this wasn't the plan -

But he gives me a firm nod, commanding me to trust him, before he turns away to handle Janeen, who is striding for my mother.

I exhale a shaky breath and nod back to Kent, reaching out my hands for Gio's even as I keep my eyes on Janeen.

"All right, Fay," Gio says, his voice taking on the calm and steady tones of a doctor well practiced in emergency medicine. "Look at me - it's time for you to focus on this -"

But I ignore him as Janeen stops in front of my Daniel and Jerome, my mother clutched between them. "Take off her hood," Janeen says, crossing her arms. "I want to look at her."

Daniel hesitates, looking at his father.

Slowly, Kent nods.