Chapter 26 Thea
“Who told you about the rule?” Maverick asked, laying down beside me in his bed.
My arm was draped across his chest and his hand laid still on my ass.
We were recovering from round two. Once he finally came upstairs from the party, he fucked me two more times asking me to tell him who my old man was over and over.
To say he was ecstatic was an understatement.
I laughed at his question and told him, “The Old Ladies Club, you know, the one you called in for reinforcements last night.”
He chuckled and placed a soft kiss on my forehead.
“Damn straight I did, but I was expecting it to turn into you wanting to be my old lady.”
“Me neither,” I responded, honestly. “But, I love you, Maverick, and I’m tired of fighting that.”
“Me too, babe.”
I yawned and cuddled into him deeper. My heart rate picked up now that I knew the conversation we needed to have.
“Maverick, we should talk a little more about what this means.”
“I know we should, but you’re tired,” he said as he reached over and shut off the lamp near his bed. “We can talk about this tomorrow, sweetheart.”
“Maverick-,” I went to explain, but he cut me off.
“Babe, go to sleep,” he said and reached around my body to pull me close to his front. “We can talk about this tomorrow.”
“Okay,” I sighed. “Goodnight.”
Something didn’t feel right as I lay there. I suddenly felt like I made a mistake keeping this secret from him for too long, but it was too late now to fix it. I decided to listen to what he said and I laid there in silence until sleep finally overtook me.
***
The next morning, I woke up alone again.
This time, however, I wasn’t sad. I actually had a rather large smile on my face.
I got up out of the bed and did my typical morning routine.
Well, looking at the time on my phone that said 11:30 a.m., I realized I was doing my afternoon routine.
Looking in the mirror, I smiled seeing how my neck was littered with hickies on the left side.
Dirty bastard, I thought to myself, luckily, my hair was able to cover them for the most part, so I didn’t worry about putting makeup over them.
Not like the entire club didn’t see him banging me on the table the night before anyways.
After getting dressed, I walked down the stairs to the living room where Serena was sitting down on the couch and watching One Tree Hill.
“How did last night go?” She asked, not taking her eyes off of a shirtless Lucas Scott, and I didn’t blame her.
“Great,” I said with a bright smile on my face.
“I’m so happy, Thea,” she gasped. “We were already family, now I feel even more like family!”
I did feel even more like family with her. I felt a small pang in my heart as I remembered how rudely I treated her when we first met. I carried so much pain that I hadn’t dealt with, and I took it out on one of the sweetest people I had ever met.
“Serena,” I called out, as I took a seat beside her. “I’m so sorry for the way I treated you when we first met. You were only being nice to me and I was such a bitch on multiple occasions. I’m so sorry.”
She froze for a moment before reaching over and shutting the TV off. She turned her body and grabbed my hands into hers.
“Thea, sweetie, don’t feel like you owe me an apology,” she said, squeezing my hands. “You had every right to feel hurt and betrayed, but I promise you, the only regret that I have is that we couldn’t have become sisters sooner.”
I couldn’t help the tears that fell from my eyes as she pulled me in for a hug. I heard her sniffle a few times, too, as we held each other for a few moments.
“Enough of that, though,” she said as she let me go. “Do you want to come help me set a few things up in the baby’s room with me? I convinced your brother and Maverick to let us out while they’re on their run. Of course, we’ll have a prospect with us, though.”
“I’d like that,” I said, and it was surprising that I had actually meant it. Not too long ago, the idea of doing anything baby-related made me want to punch a wall, but I was starting to get excited that I was about to have a little niece or nephew on the way.
About thirty minutes later, we made it to Dav’s and Serena’s house.
I had no idea that they had one since they spent so much time at the club, but Serena told me that they were only staying there because Cage, the club’s vice president, was still in jail and both Crash and Ares had picked up more responsibilities in his absence.
Luckily, Cage was due to return about the same time the baby was, so they would be able to go back to staying at their house.
It was a cute house in the suburbs about twenty minutes from the club.
The neighboring houses had a similar style brick make-up with long driveways.
It looked exactly like the type of house you would want to start a family in and that made me smile.
Blake, the prospect who had driven us, opened our doors for us like a gentleman.
This surprised me because I was pretty sure that was the same prospect that I had threatened to shoot the first day I had arrived at the clubhouse.
Inside, the beautiful interior matched exactly like I thought it was. It was decorated like a home you’d see out of a magazine with beautiful artwork and paintings everywhere and unneeded couch pillows that made you feel at home.
“The baby’s room is down here,” she said and began walking down the hall.
I followed her until we walked into a room off of the left side.
It was beautiful in a minimalist kind of way.
Most of the room was neutral colors except a beautiful mural of a rainforest that was painted on the wall by the crib.
“Serena, it’s beautiful here,” I gushed as I continued to look around.
“Thank you,” she said, smiling brightly. “I’ve almost got everything ready now that I’m a month away, but I have some paintings that I wanted to hang up and need to finish organizing the closet.”
I followed her over to the closet and began helping her open several packages of clothes and various baby items as we put them away on the rack and the tiny dressers around the room.
We stayed like that for a while as we talked about her dreams for being a parent and how she and my brother met.
I was really starting to feel like I actually did have a sister and nothing could stop the warm feeling flooding my heart.
An hour had passed since we arrived and Serena and I were standing in the kitchen.
We decided to take a break for food and she had put a pizza in the oven.
Our casual conversation was interrupted by a loud sound at the front door.
Before we could react, the door busted open and we both ran to go see what it was.
I froze as I rounded the corner and saw Matteo Santoro standing there with a gun pressed to an unconscious Blake’s head.
“Dea,” his thick Italian accent flooded the room and I almost wanted to faint. “I finally found you, la mia gemma preziosa,” he said, calling me his precious gem.
“Matteo,” I said, faintly. “Please don’t hurt him.”
“I finally found you after two years and the first words you say to me are to beg for me to spare the life of another man?” I didn’t miss how his voice rose in anger. I couldn’t let him get angry, not with Blake and Serena in the room. I needed to make him leave.
“I’m sorry,” I said, tilting my head down to my feet. He smiled at the gesture of submission and tossed Blake on the ground with a thud. I grimaced, hoping he was okay, but quickly covered my worry as Matteo made his way over to us.
“Who is this?” A scared Serena asked from beside me. Fuck, she was so pregnant and she needed to get away from Matteo before he hurt her.
“Matteo Santoro,” he said, reaching out his hand. “And you are?”
“No one,” I said, interrupting his fake gesture of politeness. “She’s no one.”
“Was I asking you?” Matteo asked and I instinctively flinched, shaking my head.
“Serena,” she answered, and I shook my head at her to let her know not to engage with him. His temper was always unpredictable. It didn’t matter if I had been undeserving, he would still take it out on me with no warning.
“Pleasure to meet you, Serena,” he said and shook her hand. He looked down at her pregnant belly and an unrecognizable emotion flashed into his eyes.
“Where is my child?” He asked in a faint whisper, still not taking his eyes off of her stomach. I paused, trying to think of a response and screamed, “Where the fuck are they!” He jumped in front of me and aggressively grabbed my neck. I started shaking as I felt his gun press into my rib cage.
“I-I lost it,” I said, stumbling over my words. “I had a miscarriage.”
Tears welled in my eyes as he held my face tighter. He let out a breath and I almost thought I saw a look of grief on his face.
“That’s why I left,” I continued to explain. “I wasn’t strong enough for you.”
“My dea, you are strong enough for me,” he said. “I forgive you.” To my surprise, he aggressively pressed his lips to mine. He moved his hand from my neck to my hair and pulled my hair back to expose my neck.
He grimaced and used his gun to hit me across the cheek making my body crash against the wall. I heard Serena shriek.
“You’ve been fucking someone else?” He screamed into my face and I shook my head maniacally back and forth as the pain surged throughout my body.
“Puttana, how dare you lie to me?” (Whore.) He slapped me again with his gun and tears began to cascade down my face as all I could feel was pain. He proceeded to pin me against the wall by my neck, choking my neck, and fought hard to breathe.
“Stop,” Serena screamed. “Please stop! You’re going to kill her!”
Matteo let out a menacing laugh as he looked back at Serena. He let go of my neck and I fell to the floor, gasping for air.
“You don’t want to see me hurt her, sweetheart?” He asked, softly, as if she was a child. Serena shook her head as she fought back her tears. Matteo laughed before quickly turning around and kicking me directly in the stomach.
“Puttana,” he kicked again. (Whore.)
“Sgualdrina.” Kick. (Slut.)
“Come osi dare via ciò che è mio?” (How dare you give away what belongs to me?)
Kick. Kick. Kick.
“Stop crying, Cazzo!” (Fuck.) He screamed, turning his aggression to a weeping Serena. She had been begging him over and over to stop. I lay there crumbled in a ball, gasping for air. As he pointed his gun to her head, I fought to stand up.
“Matteo, please,” I pleaded.
“What, is she important to you? Maybe I should stick a bullet in her head to teach you a lesson,” he laughed darkly.
“No,” I lied. “I barely know her. You’d just be killing an innocent pregnant woman and her baby. Just like our baby.”
His eyes fell at my words as he dropped his gun and turned around. He grabbed me into his arms and held me.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant? I would have gone easier on you,” he said with a returned softness in his voice. His words disgusted me. He beat me before I could get the words out to him, but that didn’t matter now. What mattered was getting him out of this house and away from Serena.
“Please,” I whispered. “Just leave her alone.”
“Okay,” he said, letting out a deep breath. “It’s time to come home, Mia dea.” (My goddess.)
He pulled me towards the door and Serena screamed, “Thea, no!” But it was too late as we made our exit out of the house. He ushered me into his car and quickly shut the door. I recognized the driver as someone that I had seen from my summer before. I didn’t say a word.
“Thea? Like Athena herself,” he chuckled. “I always knew.”
I ignored his words and shut my eyes. All I could feel was the pain as the driver started the car. I felt us pull out of the driveway and that’s the last thing I remembered before it went all dark.