Chapter 56
SEVERAL MONTHS LATER
The smell of hospitals makes me sick to my stomach. Poorly concealed death. That is what it smells like. I’ve been pacing the length of the empty birthing room ever since they took Kendra into the OR. Her placenta had ruptured and now they are going to have to do an emergency C-section.
Fear grips my heart as they wheel her away.
All that matters is that the baby is safe.
Kendra can rot in hell for all I care, but I still can’t follow them.
Not after what happened to my first wife, Lia.
I watched her die giving birth to my daughter, Sestra.
It is why I never come to the hospital. Why I have my own private team of doctors, but even they don’t have the skills needed to perform this procedure.
Cazzo.
Nine months.
Nine fucking months is how long I’ve kept Kendra safe from those who seek vengeance against her. That list isn’t short, either. Much like Elias, Kendra lied and manipulated her way through society and now all her bridges are burnt and all she has is me.
Lucky fucking me.
Jesus. Being with her was a mistake. Even if that mistake gave me two beautiful daughters, I should have ended the affair long before they were born. But old habits are hard to turn away from.
I was drowning in grief at the loss of my wife, Lia, when it first started, and Kendra capitalized on that.
Lia.
I still miss her, even after all these years. I can say that Kendra seduced me, used her wiles against me, but I know I could have ended it at any time and I should have.
Hindsight is a bitch.
The scent of the hospital is getting to me, my vision blurring slightly as panic settles into my bones.
I can handle losing Kendra but losing the baby might just kill me.
It is a loss I don’t think I can deal with.
Armando and Sestra, my children with Lia, are waiting for me downstairs in the lobby.
The hospital has a policy about visitors during emergency surgeries.
They both suspected mine and Kendra’s affair growing up, but neither one has ever mentioned it. When I told them she was pregnant, they weren’t the least bit surprised or angry. I was afraid they would see it as a betrayal to their mother’s memory.
My phone rings, the shrill sound causing me to start slightly in my agitated state. Fucking hospitals.
Pressing the green button, I bring the phone up to my ear. “Yeah?”
“It’s me,” the voice on the other line sighs. He sounds exhausted and worn, like he has been up all night. “I’ve got her.”
“Maleah?” I question just to be sure he isn’t talking about Kenzi who disappeared without a trace several months ago after she nearly attacked her sister. If I ever get my hands on the arrogant asshat who calls herself Caesar—
“Yeah,” he responds tightly. “She’s in bad shape. Sick fucker had her strung from the ceiling. She’s got a dislocated shoulder, broken leg, several cracked ribs. Her body is wrecked with scar tissue. I don’t know what to do.”
Running a hand down my face, I groan in frustration. This is not what I need right now. “Take care of her,” I tell him.
I am met with silence. There was once upon a time that Neil was head over heels for the Ford girl, but rough times changed him as much as they undoubtedly changed her.
It doesn’t matter though.
The moment I laid eyes on Maleah Ford she became mine. My obsession and I am not going to stop until she is begging to be mine and only mine.
“I don’t know—” he trails off, no doubt hesitant about the job I am giving him.
There is a reason I tasked Neil to find her. He needs redemption and this is how I am going to give it to him. “You owe her this much, nipote.”
“Mr. Romano?” The doctor strides through the double doors holding a small bundle in his arms. I hang up on Neil without saying goodbye and shove the phone in my pocket as I approach the doctor.
“Congratulations, Mr. Romano,” the doctor hands me the infant, swaddled in a pink hospital blanket. There is a smile on his face, but it doesn’t reach his eyes, which are drawn with sadness and regret. “It’s a girl.”
I stare down at the bundle in my arms and my heart fills with a warmth that it hasn’t felt since the birth of my daughter.
That day, as happy as it was, is tinged with sadness.
Sestra still refuses to celebrate her birthday on that day, opting instead for a Halloween celebration each year instead.
The doctor’s next words barely filter through my ears as I continue to gaze at the baby girl I hold tightly to my chest.
Kendra is dead. There is no saving her.
It doesn’t matter.
No one will miss her.
“Congratulations, dad.” Armando walks into the room with a large smile on his face and the car seat in his hand with his sister trailing just behind him holding the hospital bag I pack.
“Papá.” Sestra places the bag on a chair and strides over to give me a kiss on the cheek. She looks down at her new sister and coos, “She’s so beautiful. Bella.” The infant in my arms yawns and opens her dazzling blue eyes, peering up at us curiously.
“Bella,” I repeat thoughtfully, and the baby coos.
Kendra didn’t bother to think up a name for her own child.
Over the past few months, she became withdrawn and frustrated at once again being pregnant.
She never wanted the child and originally planned on doing away with the pregnancy until it became the only thing keeping her alive.
I chuckle at the girl’s reaction. “Do you like that piccola?”
The bundle smiles.
“I think she does,” Armando chuckles as he leans in to catch a glimpse of her.
“Then little Isabella it is,” I whisper lovingly. “My beautiful girl. You will always be loved and cherished and protected.”
The siblings look up and smile at me.
“Forever.”
**Not ready to leave the world behind? Dig into the story of Vanya and Adrian. When she goes to her family’s enemy for help, he decides to take advantage and she soon finds herself captive to a man intent on selling her to take her family’s empire.