Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
Tony was currently paying the owners of the restaurant, as well as their frightened staff, piles and piles of money to keep this quiet. My men cleaned up, discreetly taking the bodies out the back and piling them into black SUVs with highly-tinted windows. My uncle was carried out last, still dignified in his three-piece suit.
I held Alessandro all the way back to the compound, where arrangements were quickly made with a few funeral homes and churches. My uncle, of course, would have his service at the Cathedral, but the others had families that frequented local churches of all shapes and sizes, so we left it to them to decide.
Tony made all the calls. I was too busy holding Alessandro and thanking God he was okay.
Becca ran out of the mansion, practically tripping down the stairs as she raced to get to Alessandro. I put out a hand to steady her, then handed him over. “I’ll change his diaper, I just didn’t want to waste any time at the restaurant—”
“I don’t care.” Becca covered Alessandro with kisses. “I’m just glad he’s okay.”
“Let’s go back inside,” I said, cognizant of the activity happening in the courtyard. Bodies were being carried out and laid side-by-side in a cool outbuilding.
Becca looked directly at what I didn’t want her to see and didn’t even flinch. “I’m sorry about your uncle.”
“He was a good man,” I replied. I felt cold hatred for Ronaldo, both for taking my uncle from me too soon, and for doing all of this in front of Alessandro. He was only a little over a year old, so of course, he was too young to remember, but on the off chance he ever did, I wanted Ronaldo’s head for it.
I put an arm around Becca and escorted this small part of my little family back into the mansion.
We went into her suite, and she laid Alessandro down on a Pack ‘n Play that had been set up to one side. The thing had everything—changing table that could be taken out to make a deep crib, even a place where a car seat could fit. I nudged Becca out of the way to change Alessandro’s diaper myself.
When I lifted his shirt, however, I saw blood.
“F*ck!” I tried to shield the sight from Becca, but she shrieked in alarm.
Layla and Tony both came pelting into the room. Tony leaned over the Pack ‘n Play while Layla’s hands flew over her mouth.
“It’s okay,” Tony said, lifting the shirt more. “It’s not his. Kid’s fine. Looks like they wanted to send a message.”
It was just blood stained a stained napkin tucked beneath his shirt. The message itself was smudged, but I could still make out the text written in bold black letters.
“’Enjoy it while it lasts,'” Becca and I read at the same time. “’R.'”
“I’ll clean him up a bit, then we need to give him a bath,” I stated calmly to Becca and Layla, throwing away the napkin. “Tony, you keep doing what you were doing. Thank you for the quick response time.”
“I’ve set up a team to track Ronaldo’s whereabouts,” Tony said. “He’s sure as hell not welcome here.”
“Agreed.” I cleaned up Alessandro with some wet wipes then handed him to Becca. Layla didn’t seem to be in any condition to be carrying the poor, bloody child around.
Becca, Layla, and I went to the nursery, where Becca put Alessandro in a little basin of warm water and began washing him.
Layla got more control of herself and went to check on a sleeping Dahlia before getting a onesie out for Alessandro. She arranged it carefully on the bed, then brought a small towel with a teddy bear hood on one corner over to Becca so she could swaddle him up while she dried him off.
I disposed of the pinkish water myself, then scrubbed the basin clean. I just wasn’t sure Layla was up to it.
By the time I got back to the two women, Alessandro was jabbering and kicking his feet on Becca’s bed, happy as a clam.
Layla had gotten out a small board book, “Pat the Bunny,” and was reading it to Alessandro and he kept bringing his little hands up to touch the different sensory elements inside the book.
“I… didn’t know they still made that book,” I said aloud.
Becca rounded on me. “Really? REALLY?! That’s all you have to say?!”
“I’m sorry, Becca. Alessandro never should have been there—” I began.
“No shit.” Becca paced and raked a hand through her hair. “God, what if he’d been older and witnessed that, James?”
It was the same thought that had occurred to me. It made my stomach turn. “I don’t know what you want me to say. I’m… angry. Hell, I’m about to tear someone’s head off…”
“Good,” Becca said, stopping in front of me and grabbing the lapels of my jacket. “I’m glad you’re about to rip someone’s head off, because I have a request.”
A request? “What request?” I asked.
“Kill Ronaldo,” she said.
Allison.
I was in the exercise yard when a guard I’d f*cked approached me. Maybe he’d come with more cigarettes for me to trade. I sat on a bench with my new little posse around me. I’d managed to become something of prison royalty while I’d been here. It was a hard-won climb up the ladder, but it was worth it. Prison could be fairly comfortable for those who knew how to work the system.
“Valentino,” the guard, Max, said. “You have a visitor.”
“Must be my lawyer,” I sighed to my girls. “Fat lot of good he’s doing me. I’ll see you later.”
I got up and walked with Max, whose name was really false advertising for his asset. He was the most “minimum” man I’d ever had the misfortune to sleep with.
“I’ve got more cigs for you. Think you can skip out on your work detail today? I’ll make you some excuse,” Max whispered, licking his lips.
I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. “Yeah, sure. That sounds great.”
Max made a lewd gesture, grabbing his crotch.
I gave him my prettiest smile, though my stomach turned in disgust.
The first thing that surprised me was that I was taken to a small interview room, not the line of plexiglass cubicles where I would be nearly shoulder-to-shoulder with other inmates. The second thing that surprised me was that, aside from my tatty public defender, there was another lawyer in the room.
The second lawyer was wearing a suit that was worth more than any car I’d ever owned, and since I had been with James during his early success, that was saying something.
“Allison!” Terry, my public defender said, rushing over and escorting me to a metal chair. “We’ve had a lucky break!”
“A lucky break?” I echoed, looking at the other attorney.
The other lawyer turned to face me and held out one well-manicured hand. “Good afternoon, Ms. Valentino. My name is Bruce Kensington III. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
I shook his soft hand, knowing from just that small handshake that he’d never done a day of manual labor in his life. This was a man of means—old money.
“I am representing Carter and Cecelia Cartwright in the matter of a custody dispute involving your grandson, Alessandro Valentino,” Kensington went on. “We would like to remove him from a Ms. Becca Woods’s custody and place him with his father’s family.”
Becca. Woods. That b*tch who had taken everything from me. “I’m in.”
Terry tapped his finger on the table. “Allison, you haven’t even heard the terms—”
“I don’t care. I don’t want that slut raising my grandchild,” I sneered. “I don’t give a good goddamn about terms. Sign me up.”
“It would involve you relinquishing any custodial rights…” Kensington explained.
I shrugged. “How would I raise Alessandro in prison, anyway?”