Chapter 18
DOMINIC
My hand shakes as I hold the pack of vitamins, my mind racing.
Prenatal vitamins. Sofia’s been sick for weeks.
Since Vegas. She threw up on the plane, and I’ve watched her inhale saltines and sip ginger ale ever since.
I didn’t think anything of it. Or, truthfully, I just never let myself believe she could hide something like this from me.
“Tell me,” I demand again, because she’s staring at me looking shocked, as if she also didn’t know those were in her purse.
For a few seconds, the hallway goes completely still. I can hear a television blaring from one of the apartments. From another door, I hear voices laughing and flatware clinking against glass. Everyone else’s world seems to still be spinning regularly.
“I’m pregnant,” she finally says in a small voice.
The words drop between us like a bomb, and I can barely process them.
“It’s yours,” she says after a moment, when I don’t respond. “In case you had any question about that.”
Her tone is sarcastic and defensive, which theoretically would be understandable, since I’m standing here like an idiot, unable to form a coherent sentence. But it pisses me off. She’s the one who lied. She’s the one who kept this from me.
“Were you ever going to tell me?” I ask her, still clutching the vitamins in my hand. “What was the plan here?”
She looks down quickly and shakes her head. “A lot has happened, Dominic,” she says. “I had to make sure the time was right and—”
“How long have you known?”
She looks up carefully with guilty eyes. “Since the day after Vegas,” she admits.
The day her father stormed into my office and told me to fire her. Does she know about that? Did he do it because he found out she was pregnant with my baby? My head swirls with a million questions that probably will never get answers, so I start with the easiest one.
“Who else knows?”
She sighs. “No one else,” she promises me. “I haven’t even told Maya. I’ve been carrying this all alone, Dominic.”
“And whose fault was that?” I ask. “You could have told me any time in the last three weeks. Hell, you could have told me last night when we were trapped together in that stairwell.”
Her face hardens and I realize I’ve pushed too far.
“Between almost being attacked by intruders almost finding out you’re a crime lord?” she shoots back. “You can’t be mad at me for keeping this a secret when I literally had no idea who you really were until yesterday. Can you really blame me for being cautious?”
That stings and she must know it.
“Of course not.” I sigh. “Obviously, you had your reasons, Sofia, but can’t you understand why I’d be hurt?”
“I do,” she says softly, tears coming to her eyes. “As hurt as I felt last night learning the truth. But I still chose you, Dominic. Without judgment or fear. Are you going to extend me the same grace?”
That’s a hard pill to swallow. Sofia does keep showing up for me. She came back after we had sex for the first time. She came back after Vegas. She came back after my building was attacked. Yet none of it eases the hurt I’m feeling.
If anything, it makes it worse. Because she had so many chances to come clean. She could have chosen to trust me, but coming back to work isn’t the same, is it? She trusts me to sign her check, but not to know the most life-altering news of my life.
“You chose me?” The words come out colder than I intend. “You chose me, but you didn’t choose to trust me. You didn’t think I deserved to know I’m going to be a father.”
She flinches and it makes me hate myself, but I can’t quiet the anger inside of me.
“I was scared, Dominic,” she says in a whisper.
“If you’re scared of me, then what the hell are we even doing here?” I shoot back. “You invited me here to have sex with me, but you don’t trust me enough to tell me about my child?”
She stares at me incredulously for a moment before she looks down at my hands and realizes I’m still holding the vitamins. She snatches them from my hand and shoves them back into her purse.
“I was ready to build more trust,” she says firmly. “That’s what tonight was about.”
I shake my head. “You wanted to trust me without giving me the same courtesy. You had all the answers laid out in front of you and still chose to leave me in the dark. Trust goes both ways, Sofia.”
“Apart from this one thing, I haven’t given you any reason not to trust me,” she argues. “You, on the other hand…”
“It’s always going to come back to that, isn’t it?”
“Would you have been honest with me if you didn’t have to pull a gun on someone in front of me?” she hisses. “Or would you have kept me in the dark for the rest of my life?”
She’s got me there, and she knows it. I’m backed into a corner, and suddenly she’s in the right again, even though she lied to me. Fuck this.
“How long were you planning to keep the baby a secret?” I shoot back. “If I hadn’t found those vitamins, you could’ve kept up this lie for ages.”
“Believe it or not, Dominic, there is a time limit for hiding a pregnancy.”
I shake my head. “You would have found a way,” I accuse. “You’re always so damn cunning.”
She scoffs. “I’m the cunning one? You run an entire crime syndicate,” she whisper-hisses. “I was trying to protect my heart and make sure the baby was even healthy. I only went to the doctor a week ago.”
“You went to the doctor?” I ask. “So someone else besides me does know.”
She rolls her eyes at me. “Yes, Dominic, a medical professional who’s bound by HIPAA laws.”
“You don’t understand how dangerous this can be,” I tell her, shaking my head. “This is more complicated now. It’s one thing to take an at-home test, but doctors can be bought. Information can easily be shared. You’ve put yourself and our child at risk now.”
I start running through every implication. I look down the hallway of her building and hate how exposed she is here. This is no place to raise a child. Not my child, anyway.
“I didn’t know until twenty-four hours ago that I would have to consider my literal physical safety because you’re the father,” she seethes. “We can go around and around about this all day long, but we both lied, Dominic. Let’s call it even and try to find a way forward, please.”
That, at least, I can agree on.
“We need to get you out of this apartment,” I tell her. “You’re going to stay with me from now on. Pack a bag and I’ll send someone to get the rest of your things.”
She takes a step back from me and looks at me with horror.
“Excuse me? I’m not moving out of my apartment, Dominic. There’s trust and then there’s hyper-paranoia.”
“That doesn’t exist in my world,” I tell her honestly. “The danger is real and it’s lurking, so you will pack a bag and we will leave in the next fifteen minutes.”
She puts her hands on her hips and stares at me. “You’re out of your fucking mind,” she says.
Sofia rarely curses, so I know she’s pissed, but I don’t care anymore. Her safety matters more than sparing her feelings. She’ll see the truth of that soon enough.
I reach for the keys still dangling from her hand, and she takes another step back, holding them behind her where I can’t reach. I could overpower her easily, but that wouldn’t help this situation much.
“Sofia,” I say as calmly as I can. “I need you to be reasonable. The only way to ensure your safety is to keep you at my place. So let’s just pack a bag and go.”
She crosses her arms. “I want you to leave,” she says. “Right now.”
I shake my head. “I’m not leaving you alone now,” I say. “I can’t protect you well enough here. This isn’t a secure location.”
“I don’t care,” she shoots back. “I don’t care about any of your stupid mob shit right now. You don’t get to control me just because I’m having your kid. You should know me well enough by now to know that macho shit isn’t going to work with me.”
I groan. “We don’t have time for this, Sofia.”
She shakes her head. “Go,” she says. “Or I’m going to scream so loud, all my neighbors will come out and someone will call the cops.”
I narrow my eyes at her. “So you’re purposely being childish?”
She glares at me right back. “You’re the one trying to treat me like a child.”
We have a stare-off for several seconds before I finally throw my hands up in frustration.
“Have it your way,” I tell her. “I’ll stay here.”
“Like hell you will,” she shouts. “I don’t want you here right now, so you need to go. And if I feel like talking to you tomorrow, we can discuss it then. Although the odds aren’t in your favor right now.”
I turn on my heel.
“You’re fucking impossible,” I shout to her over my shoulder. “Do you know that?”
In response, she flips me off.
I round the corner as she shoves her keys into the lock. I’m obviously not going home. I’ll sleep in the damn town car if I have to. Hell, I’ll buy her whole building and evict her if that’s what it takes. If she thinks she can stop me from protecting her, she’s out of her fucking mind.
I’m not even to the elevator when I hear her terrified scream.
It burns away every trace of my anger and yanks me back toward her.
I run as fast as I can to her apartment, phone already in my hand to call for backup.
I don’t have a gun on me, but there’s one in the car. Bradley can be up here in seconds.
When I reach her door, I find it still ajar. She’s standing just a few feet inside, staring at her trashed apartment.