Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
Before Dahlia could catch me, I raced out of the kitchen and to my suite. I hummed softly that stupid song, hearing it echo down the hallway as I approached Elio’s room. I opened up the door, smiling brightly as I approached his crib.
“Elio,” I called out in a sing-song voice, glancing down at the crib.
My smile fell.
It was still empty.
“Olive,” I heard Dahlia call gently from behind me. “You know he’s not there.”
I did know.
But I kept forgetting. Or maybe I just wanted to forget, hoping that every time I came back to check, he’d magically be there, back where I could hold him and keep him safe… back when he’d play with his toy that had the song that drove me nuts.
God, I would give anything to hear his little laugh again, to hear him giggling at what sound the cow or cat made. ‘Meow,’ he’d say, waddling around on his little legs, pointing at every little thing as he cried it over and over again.
Suddenly that song in my head was unbearable, and I stared emptily down at my son’s crib, wanting nothing more than to burn it into pieces, to destroy every part of it until I didn’t have to look at it anymore.
Until it wasn’t empty.
“Come on, Olive.” Dahlia wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me away from the crib.
I kept my head down, leaning my weight on Dahlia as she directed me out of the room. By the time my consciousness came back from wherever it had gone, Dahlia was already sitting me on the couch in the living room.
“Dolly,” I whimpered, glancing at my best friend as she took the seat beside me, making sure to keep me close unless I took off to Elio’s room and actually made good on my threats.
But I needed the crib intact, for when Elio came back.
“Anyone know why there’s a frying pan coated in slime on the counter?” I heard a distant shout from the kitchen. “Dahlia?”
Dahlia rolled her eyes as Giovani appeared in the doorway with a perplexed look on his face.
“Don’t blame me. It was your wife,” she said, sassily, crossing her arms.
Being unfairly accused of such nonsense would probably do that to anyone normal, but right now, I was too completely out of it to be normal.
“Elio’s hungry,” I whimpered, glancing at my husband with wide, sad eyes.
He softened, letting the hurt and fear in his eyes show for a moment as he approached me.
“I know, carina,” he told me softly. “But we’ll get him back today. I’m going to go out with Gabriele to trail Lorenz if we can. And once we confirm that he’s not in the building, Salvatore will lead Tallon and Alessandro to Elio. He’ll be back before you know it, and then you can feed him something more nutritious than slime, okay?”
“Okay,” I muttered, softly.
He leaned over to press a kiss on the top of my head. “I’ll call you as soon as they find him or if something unexpected happens.”
I nodded. All I could do at this point as I watched Gio get to his feet to leave. He turned back at the last moment, giving me a worried look and I saw the tip of his fingers twitch like he wanted to reach out and never let go.
But his duty won out and he vanished down the hallway. Soon enough, I heard the door slam shut, leaving me all alone in the living room.
Time passed by slowly. Dahlia tried her best to cheer me up in whatever way she could, taking my mind off the situation with her bad soap operas, even showing me random videos she found on the internet with the hope that it might make me laugh, but nothing worked.
She tried to get me to eat, even getting Maria on my case, but neither of them pushed the issue when I refused. I didn’t mean to be difficult. I just couldn’t stomach anything at the moment.
It felt like my whole body was a ball of rubber bands, and each layer was another horrible feeling laced on top of one another–terror of what would become of my family, grief over the betrayal of someone I thought I could trust, despair over what we’ve already gone through and what Elio could possibly be going through now, and guilt over losing my son under my own watch.
The deeper I went, the worse it got.
Curled up on the couch, we waited for any sign of news until finally, my phone began to ring. I was the first to react, hitting my knee across the coffee table as I lunged for it.
“Hello?” I answered anxiously. “Gio?”
“It’s me,” Gio said, sounding winded. There was a grim note to his tone like he had bad news to deliver.
My heart sank.
“Where’s Elio? Is he hurt? Where are you? What’s going on?” The questions flew out of my mouth at a rapid speed.
“I’m fine and Elio’s fine.” Gio cut through my rambling, straight to the point as always. “We got him, Olivia. He’s here with me and he’s unharmed. We’re both safe, carina.”
I could hear the sound of babbling, sobs, and teary sniffles that I could recognize as easily as my own heartbeat–Elio.
“Oh thank god.” I collapsed onto the floor on my knees, my heart beating a thousand times per minute as the sheer relief filled me like an overinflated balloon. Tears burst down my face and despite hearing that they were safe, all I wanted was my son back home with me and in my arms.
“Olivia.” Gio hesitated, and I heard the sound of whispering coming through, probably Tallon or Alessandro. My husband sighed, and I knew something had gone wrong.
“What happened? Who’s hurt?” I demanded, trying to remain strong despite the overwhelming stress building up deep in my bones. I felt like I’d aged ten years in just these past two days.
“It’s your father,” Gio told me bluntly, with an apologetic tone. “He was shot, and there wasn’t enough time and everything happened so fast. I had to get Elio out of there. We had to leave him there.”
I opened my lips to reply but nothing came out.
I didn’t know how to feel. Should I be sad? Worried? Angry? I wasn’t any of those things at the moment. Perhaps, it just hadn’t sunk in yet, or maybe, my heart had been too burned to care. Maybe I was cruel. But then, hadn’t my father hurt me first? Wasn’t he just getting what he deserved? My head ached thinking about it so I didn’t.
But I needed to focus on my baby.
“I’m on my way now. We’re almost there,” Gio said. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” I murmured distantly, and the call ended.
“What happened?” Dahlia asked worriedly, seeing the tense look on my face.
“Elio’s fine. He’s safe and they got him out, but my father… Salvatore, he got hurt and they had to leave him behind,” I said so distantly that even I could hear the disconnect in my voice. “They’re almost here.”
“Olive… I’m so sorry.” Dahlia reached for me, intending to comfort me, but I shrugged it off.
“I’m not,” I told her bluntly, then headed for the front door. All I wanted was my family–my husband and my son. Everything else could be dealt with later.
My heart raced as I heard the lock turning and finally, I spotted a mess of curly hair tucked within the arms of Gio. He gave me a tired smile and silent tears ran down my face.
“He’s still a little out of it. They drugged him,” Gio warned me but I didn’t care.
I ran to them, immediately pulling my baby from Gio’s arms and into mine.
“Elio!” I cried, and his little head lifted up as I clutched him tightly to my chest.
