CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX #2
Cassia closed her eyes. She swallowed hard against the massive, suffocating lump in her throat. She didn't want to voice the fear, terrified that speaking it aloud might somehow breathe life into it, but the weight of it was too heavy to carry alone anymore.
"I am not afraid of the delivery, Dante," Cassia began, her voice shaking slightly, stripped of its clinical detachment. "I am a doctor. I know the risks, and I know the procedures. That doesn't scare me."
She turned her head, looking up into his eyes, letting him see the raw, unvarnished terror shining in hers.
"I am afraid of what happens if we don't make it," Cassia confessed, the words tumbling out in a rushed, desperate breath.
"I am afraid that something might happen to me.
Or to you. Or to both of us. Dante, I remember what it was like to be five years old and alone.
I remember the terror of realizing that there was no one in the world who loved me. That there was no safety net."
A single tear escaped the corner of her eye, tracking a hot path down her temple into her hair.
"The thought of our child growing up the way I did," Cassia whispered, her voice breaking on a choked sob. "Parentless. Alone. Forced to fight for every single scrap of safety... Dante, it haunts me. I can't breathe when I think about it. I cannot let that happen to them."
Dante listened in silence. He didn't interrupt her.
He didn't offer a quick, dismissive reassurance that nothing bad was ever going to happen to them, because they both lived in a world where violence and tragedy were very real possibilities.
He understood the foundational root of her anxiety without a single ounce of judgment.
He moved his hand, gently wiping the tear from her face. He shifted so he was leaning over her, his broad shoulders blocking out the shadows of the room shielding her.
"I swear to you, on my life and on my soul," Dante began, his voice ringing with a fierce, sincerity that vibrated in the air, "that I will do everything within my earthly power to ensure both of our safety. I am not going anywhere, Cassia. We are going to raise this child together."
He held her gaze, refusing to let her look away.
"But," Dante continued softly, directly addressing the core of her trauma, "even in the unthinkable scenario that the worst happens… If God forbid, something happens to one, or both of us... our child will never, ever be alone the way you were."
Cassia let out a shaky breath, her hands gripping the fabric of his t-shirt.
"You did not have a safety net, Cassia," Dante told her, his voice steady, pouring certainty into her fractured heart. "But look at what we have built. Look at the people sleeping in the floors above and below us."
He mapped out the reality of their world, drawing the perimeter of love that surrounded them.
"If we are gone, our child has a grandmother who will move heaven and earth to protect them," Dante reminded her.
"They have Fina and Isabella, who will fiercely guard their happiness.
They have Uncle Sal. And they have Zoran.
Can you imagine Zoran Valente letting a single soul on this earth harm a child of ours?
He would burn cities to the ground first."
Cassia let out a wet, fractured laugh at the image of the massive enforcer serving as a fiercely protective guardian.
"Our child will not be handed over to the state.
They will not sit in a cold room waiting for someone to choose them," Dante promised, without a single hesitation, his hand resting warmly over their child.
"They will be surrounded by an entire extended network of people who would treat their safety, their wellbeing, and their joy as their own sacred responsibility. "
He leaned down, pressing his forehead against hers, closing the physical and emotional distance.
"I promise you, Cassia," Dante whispered, the vow etched in stone.
"Our child will never know the particular, agonizing loneliness of being an orphan the way you had to.
Regardless of whatever the future holds, that specific pain will never touch our family.
They will be cherished beyond measure. They will be protected by an army of people who love them, no matter what circumstances arise. "
Cassia listened to the deep, resonant timbre of his voice.
She thought of Concetta, who already knit tiny blankets in the parlor.
She thought of Zoran, who had playfully threatened the medical staff to ensure Cassia got the best prenatal vitamins.
She thought of the loud, chaotic, incredibly loyal family that filled the Fazzari tower with life and warmth.
Slowly, gradually, the truth of his words began to settle over her.
The tight, suffocating grip of fear that had taken hold of her chest began to loosen, uncoiling in the dark. It was replaced by something different—something steadier, deeper, and peaceful.
It was the reassurance that came from knowing, truly and unequivocally knowing, that the isolated, lonely world she had grown up in was gone forever. She and her child would never face the darkness alone again.
Cassia let out a long, exhale, the remaining tension bleeding out of her muscles into the mattress. She lifted her arms, wrapping them securely around Dante’s neck, pulling him down to bury her face in the warm crook of his shoulder.
"Okay," Cassia whispered softly against his skin, her tears drying in the warmth of his embrace. "Okay. I believe you."
Dante held her tight, his hand resting protectively over her stomach, keeping the shadows at bay until she finally, peacefully, drifted back to sleep.