Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
Besides, it was nothing he didn’t deserve. I’d heard all about what he and his cousin did to the former Russians. They’d destroyed them in the most brutal way possible. He should’ve known that as long as one of them was still alive, they’d be after his head.
Lorenz gets his revenge and I get the position I truly deserve–that was a win-win scenario in my opinion. I knew how to be a good tool for men smarter and more powerful than me. And so long as I played my part, Olivia and my grandson would be safe.
All I had to do was keep up this facade and make sure nothing came unraveling until her husband played his part. He’d done everything I expected him to so far.
Now all he had to do was to die at the right time.
I told Livi I wanted to get along with him and that wasn’t a lie. He’d done everything I expected him to so far and for the sake of our future, I truly did want to get along with him.
Until the moment he had to die.
A half-lie was a technicality.
All the best lies were, after all.
*Olivia*
As the days passed, my anger faded the fall of the tide against the shore. Like the waning of the moon, a peaceful calm settled over me and my little life. My day usually went the same way, a constant routine that all the books said was good for Elio’s development.
Gio would often kiss me before heading to whatever work he had that day. Sometimes he’d leave for hours and I never knew where he was or what he was doing, but I didn’t mind. Truthfully, sometimes I didn’t want to know what he was doing.
I doubted the Don was heading out to plant daisies for kids with cancer.
After Gio left for the day, I spent my mornings with Elio. He’d gotten much better with sleeping later in the morning, and that allowed me a bit more time to rest before getting up for the day.
And after days of ignoring my problems, watching my son begin to walk on his own through the garden, gaining more of his balance each day as he paused to pick up the crunchy leaves on the ground, I realized something very important.
Elio ran over to me with a wide beaming smile, hanging me the orange leaves that had only just begun to fall from the trees.
I gently closed my fingers around the leaf, giving Elio a small smile as I stretched out my other hand and laid it on top of his unruly curls. I rubbed his head, a warm feeling creeping over my heart as I took in the wide, innocent, and hopeful eyes that gazed up at me.
“Thank you, Elio, you did such a good job.”
He giggled, stumbling into my legs and thrusting his arms up at me expectantly. I laughed, gently laying the leaf on the porch table and lifting my son. I hitched him on my hip and he curled into me, yawning under the afternoon sun.
His back and curls were warm from the heat and he smelled of the sunscreen I had put on him but I hugged him tightly, unwilling to let go for a single moment, in fear that I might miss a single memory of him growing up.
Like my father had.
I never wanted him to question his worth, to feel lost and lonely, or that he had to always be behaved to be loved. He didn’t. He would never have to hold back his emotions like I had.
Elio should be Elio and he should know that no matter what, I would love him until infinity ends.
“I love you,” I murmured into his curls, gently swaying with the soft breeze around us. I hummed a melody I didn’t quite know the name of, being here and present with my child.
“Mama.” He yawned, leaning on my shoulder as his little eyes closed and then opened as he startled himself awake. He did it a few more times, struggling not to fall asleep as he cooed at the swaying leaves in the trees, but eventually, his tired little body couldn’t keep up with his curious mind.
His breathing evened out and he fell asleep in my arms, clutching strands of my long hair. I smiled softly at him, gently rubbing circles along his back as I soothed him to sleep. He needed a nap before lunch anyway, so I kissed his forehead, bringing him inside.
I settled onto the couch in the suite, still holding my sleeping baby in my arms as I pulled my phone out of my pocket and glanced at it. There was a text message I had yet to answer.
From Sal.
I appreciated him giving me the time I needed over the past few days to figure out what I wanted to do, but today, I had finally made my decision. Without my emotions getting in the way and having significantly calmed down, I knew what choice I was going to make.
My father had missed my entire life. He barely had any memories of me from when I was a child and though it had been his choice to leave, I understood why he felt he had to. Could I have done the same if I had been in his place?
Would I have been able to leave Elio?
I sighed, laying the flat of my palm across my son’s back, feeling his every soft breath. It was reassuring and grounding to make sure he was still here with me. I could never have survived having to leave my child.
And maybe everyone was right.
Maybe the reason my father survived without me was because I was expendable, that he didn’t care enough to try to stay or take us with him. But I refused to believe that.
From the moment he walked into my life again, he’d been trying to prove something to me. He said he wanted a relationship with me. Gio said he wanted to get back at him, that my father was using him. My mother had no good words to say of him.
Even Dahlia was skeptical of Sal’s history but for some reason, I trusted him. The way he pleaded with me to understand why he left, how he respected my face even if it hurt him to watch me leave, he had to be telling the truth.
So I would believe him. I would continue to believe him until he proved me differently. And if I was wrong, I could get hurt. But It was a choice I had to live with. I had dreamed of watching him walk up the steps of our house since I was a kid, of him being there one day to wipe away my tears when I fell and comfort me after a nightmare.
His absence had left a huge hole in my heart growing up, and though I’d filled it with the love of the people around me, I still had a place for him right here. I wouldn’t push him away over things he couldn’t control.
I especially couldn’t fault him for being part of a crime family. Hell, I was married to the head of one, after all. How could I condemn him for doing the same thing and still look Gio in the eye?
I picked up my phone, shooting a quick text to Sal. ‘Would you want to come over for lunch today at the compound?’
I was surprised at how quickly he’d sent a reply, and I smiled at the few spelling mistakes he’d made in the rush.
‘Of course. Is noon or one okay with you? I can’t wait to see you, Livi.’
Just as I responded with a text to confirm noon, the door to the suite opened quietly. I glanced up, my phone dinging as Sal sent back a ‘See you then.’
“I invited Sal to lunch today,” I said casually, as if there was nothing weird in my statement.
Gio paused in the doorway, glancing at me with dark eyes. I couldn’t see any emotions on his face but his body was tensed, his fist clenched around the brass doorknob.
When his eyes flickered to the phone in my hand and then to Elio as he napped away, I almost thought he would say no, to try to tell me that I couldn’t invite my father over for lunch or that I couldn’t even see my father.
Instead, he said, “Okay.”
“I’ve decided to trust him,” I told Gio calmly. “Could you please try to do the same? I deserve to know my father and Elio deserves to know his grandfather.”
Gio pushed his hair back from his face, giving me a blank look before he shut the door behind him and made his way to the couch. He gently sat beside me, careful not to wake Elio, and threw his arm around my shoulders.
I let him pull me into him, scooting over to lean my head on his chest.
“Okay,” he said softly. “But for my peace of mind, please don’t go to his house, just in case you might be spotted by someone else who lives there or one of his bosses, okay?”
“Deal,” I murmured, smiling as I shut my eyes and breathed in his cologne. And I knew we would be okay.
Sal arrived for lunch exactly at noon, dressed in a well-worn suit with patches on the elbows and clearly not the best fit, but probably the best he had. He greeted me with a huge smile, even shook Gio’s hand, and asked to hold Elio as we led him into the kitchen.
“He’s so big now!” Sal grinned, thrusting Elio into the air above him. “Aren’t you, kid?”
