22. Eva
22
EVA
F or the first time in my life, I had a routine. Liam and I developed one with Olivia, and I wasn’t sure how I could claim that I was living before they came here.
Two months ago, I felt like I needed a job. I told Franco that I wanted a purpose.
Never in a million years could I have anticipated finding my purpose in the little toddler who seemed to grow quicker than I could blink.
And I wouldn’t change it for the world. Olivia tapped something in me. Something maternal and deep, like I didn’t have to hide as much as I had been. That it was okay not to be so defensive all the time. It didn’t need to be my default. Because getting to know Olivia and watching after her when Liam was working, it felt wrong to help raise her and teach her to always be on guard.
I understood why Uncle Dante raised me the way he did. He didn’t know better. He was a struggling single parent, doing the best he could with Romeo since my aunt passed away when he was a baby.
Uncle Dante had done his best with what he knew at the time. Raising a strong generation was a must, but by the time he softened his parenting methods when Romeo and I were teens, it was too late to change the course for me. Romeo grew up to be too serious. And I grew up to be icy and defensive, closing my heart to anyone.
So it wasn’t a shocker that Oliva and Liam could thaw me out. They had my heart, and I wondered if I was being too giddy and ignorant to trust that it could last. It seemed too peaceful, too easy, to become something like a second mom to Olivia. And that niggling worry of something bound to fall apart kept me slightly less engaged at lunch one afternoon.
“Your house was finished two weeks ago,” Uncle Dante reminded me.
I nodded and glanced at Liam. “It was. But it might not be the best place for Olivia.” Too many stairs. Too many floors. As a single woman, it suited me fine. But it wasn’t the homiest place for a family.
Liam’s slow and sexy smile melted my heart. He had to be thinking the same thing, that we were a little family unit.
I wasn’t sure how anyone could assume otherwise. I stayed in his guest suite. We slept together every night, woke up together in the morning except if he had to handle something for Franco. I liked watching Olivia, and no one questioned that I would. We were already acting like a family within a bigger one.
“Are you trying to kick me out or something?” I teased my uncle.
Romeo and Tessa had finally moved back to the house they were slowly renovating, but when we had late nights, they still stayed in their wing here.
“Never,” Uncle Dante promised. “But I understand the need for space.”
Liam chuckled. “Like there’s not enough of that here.”
“With the baby stuff. Livy’s older,” Uncle Dante said with a smile for her as she batted her spoon on her plate and fisted the food she was eating, “but it all adds up.”
Nina nodded. “It already seems like so much more space is lost with the bassinet and changing table and crib and…” She blew out a breath, exaggerating her run-on. “Letting Olivia have her own room would be smart. And while she can have a room here, wouldn’t it be helpful to let her acclimate to her room, permanently?”
I sighed, both hating this topic and appreciating her insight. I knew what she meant. Olivia slept on her own in her crib, but it was still so close to where Liam and I slept. Moving Olivia into her own room was a big step, and it would be wise to do so where she’d call home—if this mansion wouldn’t stay her place.
“Having privacy would be nice,” Liam quipped dryly.
Tessa groaned from across the table. “I walked in one time…”
Romeo shook his head. “No. I did too. I thought you took Eva and Nina with you to the yoga studio and went to talk with him.” He cleared his throat and looked anywhere but at me and Liam. “Again. I suggest you lock the door next time…”
Liam rolled his eyes. “Next time? You presume to enter without waiting for a reply again?”
Franco held his hands up. “Okay, okay. I think we’ve all made our points here. Some spacing out wouldn’t be bad with you all shacking up and getting busy. All I suggest is that we plan security in line with who’s living where.”
“What about you?” Liam asked. He wasn’t teasing or mean, but intrigued as he looked at Franco. “How come the family’s highest-ranking capo is still a bachelor?”
I kicked his leg under the table, hoping to warn him to shut up.
Franco smirked and looked off to the side. Romeo hissed, leaning forward to rub his shin.
Whoops. I kicked the wrong leg. “What the hell, Eva?”
“What the heck ,” Nina corrected.
Dante chuckled. “Nina, every baby in this house is going to hear things they shouldn’t.”
She pursed her lips. “That doesn’t mean we can’t try to tone it down.”
“What the heck!” Olivia exclaimed with a huge smile.
Nina gestured at her, triumphant. “See!”
“Heck hell,” Olivia added, thinking she was on a roll.
Nina deadpanned.
I leaned toward her. “Now say dang it , not damn ?—”
She laughed and elbowed my side. “Oh, stop.”
After lunch, without Liam or me making concrete plans to move anywhere, I walked Olivia back to his room to get her dressed for swimming. Uncle Dante found a swim instructor for her, and I only had ten minutes before the lesson would start. Liam was due to leave with Franco, but he caught up to me despite already having kissed us both good bye.
“Hey, wait up,” he said in the hallway. “Why was that such a bad question? When I asked Franco why he was single.”
I glanced at him, worried about being late. These swim lessons were Olivia’s favorite.
“It wasn’t a bad question, per se. He prefers not to talk about it,” I replied.
“Talk about what , though?” He frowned, helping me with Olivia as I reached for her bathing suit and swim diaper. “I’d like to think that Franco and I are becoming good friends. We talk quite a bit. He’s more than a supervisor.”
I nodded, agreeing, because I noticed that too. “I can tell. He is opening up to you, but he doesn’t talk about Chloe with very many people.” I huffed. “I bet Romeo forgot her name.”
“Chloe? Who is she? Or was she?” He cringed. “Was she killed?”
“No.” I shrugged. “I’m guessing she’s still alive. Franco was really serious about her back when he was young, but she didn’t want to stay with him, and that heartbreak never healed.”
“Damn.” He shook his head. “So it’s a bitter topic I should avoid then, huh?”
I nodded. “Maybe. Or let him bring it up to you.” It’d been years since Franco and Chloe were a thing, but it seemed that he really struggled to let her go. “When and if he wants to talk about it.”
“Thanks for the heads up.” He kissed the top of Olivia’s head, then gave me a longer lip lock. “As much as I enjoy the job security and I like this new gig, I value his friendship too. Tell me if I ever put my foot in my mouth again.” He grinned, mischievous. “Or aim for my leg when you’re kicking it under the table next time.”
I laughed, watching him leave.
The swim lesson was another success, and throughout it, I was so busy watching and helping Olivia that the conversations from lunchtime fell to the back burner. Once we left, headed back up to Liam’s room so I could change Olivia, I realized that having a pool—or pool s , one indoor and outdoor—would be a plus. Uncle Dante would always welcome us here, and he enjoyed swimming with Olivia too, when he had the time, but Liam was right. Privacy would be nice. Real privacy to solidify ourselves as a growing family.
Because if he ever thought about putting a ring on my finger… I sighed, smiling at Olivia toddling faster and faster ahead of me.
I hurried to catch up to her, distracted when the front door opened. Roberto, one of the house guards, furrowed his brow as he entered. “Miss Constella.”
I stopped, catching Olivia and holding her hand. “Yes?” I swung Olivia a little, the way she liked, just a back and forth swag of our joined hands. Then she leaped up to be held, and I carried her closer to the guard.
As he stepped inside, a woman appeared behind him. The tall redhead seemed so pale and thin that I wondered if she was ill, but she’d paid for some work to be done. Cosmetic beauty was nothing to shame, but my God, she could at least hire quality work.
“That’s my niece,” she accused, holding her head up high.
“Excuse me?”
I looked from this stranger to Roberto, trying to figure out why he’d let a stranger this far onto the property. He seemed confused but not intimidated. Diligent to his duties, he remained on alert and positioned himself between me and the woman.
“Who are you?” I demanded. Without an introduction coming from Roberto, I realized I’d need to demand answers myself.
Because there’s no way in hell you are Olivia’s aunt. She bore no resemblance to her. Liam said Pamela was an only child. And Liam didn’t have siblings. Not even a cousin.
“She showed up at the gate, insisting that she’s the legal guardian to Olivia.” Roberto frowned at Olivia, as though he worried that she’d be taken away.
“That’s bullshit.” I hugged her closer.
“This isn’t,” the woman sneered, waving a document in the air. “That’s my sister’s baby, and I’ll be damned if you try to kidnap her from me.”
I tilted my head, instructing Roberto to get the paper from her. I wasn’t inclined to hand over Olivia, not even if that birth certificate proved anything. Olivia was Liam’s daughter, and he would be her guardian.
“I don’t think so,” the woman snapped, wrenching the paper out of Roberto’s reach.
“Then fuck off,” I said without any attempt to be polite or patient.
“You can’t tell me to leave.”
“I just did. If you have any legal claim to this girl, then you wouldn’t be afraid to let us see your so-called proof on that document.”
“It’s legit.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Then why wouldn’t you let him see the paper?”
“How do I know if he’d rip it and destroy it?” she sassed back. “Regardless,” she said as she shoved the paper into her purse, “that little girl isn’t yours , is she?”
“Wouldn’t you already know that? If you’re claiming to be the sister of the mother?”
She opened and closed her mouth. “Hand her over. She’s not yours.”
By blood, no. Olivia wasn’t mine. I didn’t give birth to her. But we were strengthening our bond. I felt like a motherly figure to Olivia, and she came to me as though she trusted me as a parental person to rely on.
“Do you really think you are in any position to tell me what to do?”
Another guard arrived at the door, and I handed Olivia over to him as he strode into the house as backup.
Stalking closer to the woman, I let my defenses rise. The anger and protective energy that swarmed within me wouldn’t peter out anytime soon.
“Do you think you have any fucking power to walk in here and act like you’ll decide how things will be?”
She didn’t cower. She stayed right where she was, not budging, but I didn’t miss the nervousness she couldn’t hide. Her gaze darted around, as though she needed to mark an exit from my getting in her face. Her lips lowered as her haughty smirk weakened.
“Get the fuck out of here,” I warned.
“That child isn’t yours, no matter how much you want to pretend she is.”
“I’m not pretending anything.” I gripped her neck, forcing her to squawk in surprise. Her hands batted at my grip, but I didn’t care. Keeping my fingers on her neck, I pushed her to walk back out.
Even though she couldn’t have any right to Olivia, she knew about her. And anyone knowing Olivia was here was dangerous. No one should be targeting her as someone to take. No one should be using her as a pawn in some kind of game.
At once, I worried that this redhead was working for the Devil’s Brothers, but she was too polished. Did Stefan send her here to take Olivia as yet another way to attack us and strike against us?
It didn’t matter who she was working for. She wouldn’t get past me. Despite my protectiveness over Olivia, her words hit a mark. They sank in and irked me, but I refused to show it.
I wasn’t pretending anything with Olivia. We’d forged a connection. She trusted me, and I cherished her as though I would my own flesh and blood. But hearing someone suggest that I didn’t have a legitimate claim on her wounded me.
As though Olivia couldn’t belong here, with me.
“You can’t?—”
I growled, unable to keep my anger pent up and bottled in. No one told me what I could and couldn’t do. Especially not this stranger. And not over anything to do with Olivia.
“Get the fuck out of here,” I repeated. It was the last time I’d tell her. As I caught sight of Liam striding inside, serious and grim-faced as he caught the end of this interaction, I knew my backup was here. He would set this woman right.
Because he could testify that Olivia would never be leaving us. Nothing would break us up or stop us from starting a family.