Sofia’s POV“My elbow, upwards.” I replied and blinked again. My lips parted unconsciously and my eyes widened as his finger dragged upwards, all the way from my wrist, slowly towards my elbow and I held my breath as a tingling sensation infused into the depths of my skin at that confusing touch.His finger lightly grazed over my elbow and my eyes fluttered, before glancing down instantly and sucking in a sharp breath just before a rush of pain flooded into my veins as his finger glided over a spot on my elbow where it was really hurting.“That’s the spot?” He asked and I nodded my head, feeling a weird kind of feeling gathering in the depths of my stomach.It was most definitely fear.I was, after all, scared of him.He continued his journey and I puffed out a tiny breath when his finger continued, the touch light as a feather as he grazed another injured spot on the edge of my shoulder.“Ow.” I whispered on a quiet puff when he passed another spot a tiny space away from the previous
Sofia’s POV “I’ll be on my way now,” Luca suddenly said beside me and I glanced up at him immediately and nodded my head, not knowing if the feelings suddenly floating through my veins were that of relief or something close to disappointment.It has got to be disappointment, because for some unexpected reason, I was kinda enjoying his presence here with me.It’s probably because we’ve barely exchanged words since we got married, until today.“I’ll see you later.” He murmured quietly as he stared down at me and I nodded my head slowly, my teeth tugging on one side of my lower lips one sidedly.I watched as Luca turned around and faced the doctor who was staring at Luca and I from the top of the sheets he was obviously pretending to be going through.“How much is everything?” Luca asked without taking his eyes off me and my lips moved in protest immediately. “But um, I can pay myself. I have my card with me.” I mumbled quietly in disagreement and flushed in embarrassment a moment l
Sofia’s POV “It feels numb, I can barely feel it so it’s pretty good that way.” I answered Ryan after a little while and at the same time bit on my lower lip as I pulled my fingers off my skin in the very next moment before I could proceed.Just what was that? A quick image of Luca running his finger against my skin flashed in my head for a fleeting second and I shook my head to get the image out of my head as I slowly pushed myself to my feet.I’m not going to think about that anymore.It was just him trying to figure out where I was hurting, and nothing more.“Did you want anything, Ryan?” I asked once I was standing on my feet and sliding my feet carefully into my fluffy, warm slippers.“Oh, no I didn’t. I just wanted to check how you were faring.” He replied and I felt a small smile tug at the corner of my lips. “I’m doing just fine, there’s no need to worry about me.” I dismissed his worry immediately even though it has warmed my heart that he has cared enough to still come
Sofia’s POV “It’s alright, I guess.” I replied to her before turning back to Ryan who had an unreadable expression on his face. He always had this same expression on his face so there was no way someone would be able to figure out what he was thinking or how he was feeling by just glancing at his face.“Um, how about tomorrow? It would be really nice if the both of you could have dinner here, so when you leave here at almost midnight, you wouldn’t have to get dinner again.” I proposed to him and watched as he leaned against the kitchen’s door before replying.“I am afraid that won’t be possible, ma’am. Mr Ricci wouldn’t be cool with it.” “Why not? There’s no harm there, is there?”I demanded, flabbergasted by the amount of unspoken rules that were in the mafia.“I don’t know, ma’am. It’s kind of a disrespectful act from us to you if we eat together.” Ryan explained and I gaped at him unbelievably for a few seconds.“Are you kidding me?” I demanded before turning around to glance
Luca’s POV I walked out of the hospital room and closed the door quietly behind me, the ever distracting facial expression of Sofia when I had informed her that I was leaving, and the look she had worn throughout the small conversation that occurred between us before the doctor came in, was still brightly imprinted on the front of my mind. I inserted my hands deep into my pants pockets and glanced at the roof of the hallway of the hospital, directly staring into the security cameras located on the four corners of the roof.I got into one of the empty elevators and sighed silently when someone placed his foot in between the doors, stopping it from sliding close, and it slid back open after a fleeting seconds to reveal the face of someone I’d rather not see at the moment.“Good day, Luca.”“What are you doing here, Richie?” I sighed out in a voice void of any emotion a few minutes after he had made his way into the elevator to stand on the other side of the elevator, keeping a wide
Luca’s POV “I gave it to Sofia.”James eyed me from the corners of his eyes and remained silent for a while longer before turning his face around to look me properly in the eye.“You gave your suit jacket to your wife?” He inquired, sounding almost shocked and confused… even I was starting to rethink that particular gesture of mine now that it was starting to sink in.“Yes, I did.” I replied and turned away from him, staring straight at the dark glass demarcation with half lidded eyes.“Why?”“She was feeling cold, so I decided to give it to her.” I explained, having no idea why it slowly started to feel like I was defending myself for what I did.“That’s a very intriguing information.” James mused in a throaty voice and I absentmindedly scrubbed my right hand over the material of my suit pants.“Oh, shut up.” I drawled out and James barked out a small laugh.“What? Did I say anything?” James demanded as he picked up his phone from on top of his pants when it started to vibrate agai
Luca’s POV “Which reminds me, I met Richie today, at the hospital.”The car finally came to a stop and I breathed out a sope and long sigh as I lifted my head from the car’s head rest and turned my head around for a few seconds before proceeding to quickly dig my fingers into my left shoulder cord which felt stiff and cramped up as fuck.“The fuck was he doing there, he spoke to you?”“Yeah. We rode the same elevator down and as I was leaving, he informed me that he needed my help with something.” The car door got pulled open by the guard and I stepped out of the car with my phone deep in my pocket once again. I didn’t shove my hands into my pocket this time and instead allowed it to drop on my sides as James came to stand beside me, his suit jacket completely unbuttoned, and his undershirt first few buttons currently undone.
Luca’s POV Taking another huge gulp of the vodka and letting the chilled liquid to slide down my throat and into my lungs, I placed the bottle on the counter once again and reached for the knife and chopping board on the other side of the counter before laying it on the table along with the knife. And then I began to slice the sausages into small dices but not into too tiny shapes. Once I was done, I scraped it all into a small bowl and pushed it aside before rinsing the red peppers with warm water and proceeded to chop them into extremely tiny pieces, and scraped it all into a smaller plate once I was done.The water was already boiled and so I opened the lid and inserted the two noodles into the steaming water, adding a few seasons and covering it to start boiling once again.I reached for my bottle of vodka and chugged in two mouthfuls before fishing around in one of the cupboards for onions.
Sofia’s pov The kids had been bursting with excitement, which only meant one thing. It meant more headaches for Luca and I.“Baby, we talked about this, didn’t we? You can’t check the presents until it’s Christmas.” I murmured to Aria while holding her against my chest. She was clearly unhappy about this tiny rule because her frown deepened at once.“But it’s so far awayyyyy! No one is gonna know if I take a peek.”I chuckled as I let her slid down. “Daddy is gonna know.” I reminded her and that seemed to make her have a change of heart.“Oh.” She hesitated a little. “I guess I can wait a bit more.”“More like one more day, honey cause it’s tomorrow!” I gushed out and a grin split out on her face.“Really?!” She demanded and after getting another confirmation, she went off to find her brother, leaving me to myself. I sighed as I watched her leave with a fond smile on my face while massaging my forehead. I called out to her to be careful before I got back to what I was doing before.
FOUR YEARS LATER Sofia’s pov “Be careful, honey!” I called out at once, but I doubt she heard me as she hurriedly raced forward till she was standing before James, a glass of milk carefully clutched in her hand.“Here it is, Uncle James!” She called out enthusiastically and a familiar feeling of fondness swelled in my heart as I watched as an exaggerated look of awe got plastered on James’ face as he accepted the glass of milk.“Thank you, Aria! You’re so hardworking.” He complimented as he took a few gulps of the milk because a tiny sip wasn’t gonna be accepted by Aria who’s clearly still waiting for more compliments.“It tastes so nice and fresh, wow.” James gushed and I listened as Aria’s pleased giggles filled up the room. She began to bounce on her toes when she began to speak. “If you noticed, uncle James, the glass wasn’t totally filled up this time because mommy said that’s how it’s supposed to be to avoid it spilling from the top, and I listened to mommy because she’s alwa
Luca’s POV The bouquet of flowers I had gotten on the way home was a mixture of lilies and tulips, and I paired it with a bunch of balloons and a wrapped gift on the side. It’s a little past six and I couldn’t wait to be home already. I couldn’t wait to get home to my wife and our babies.Work has been quite stressful for the past month, the mafia aspect, to be specific. After news of my wife giving birth circulated around, I already knew that the amount of enemies I have was automatically gonna triple, and in order to keep my family safe, I was gonna have to be more at alert. The mafia clan had thrown a party in celebration after the birth of our babies, and I had purposely attended it alone, keeping my wife and kids far away from a gathering like that because it was filled with dangerous people from top to bottom.“Your enemies are gonna start attacking you even more now that you have a successor. People who have hoped to replace you if you ended up dying without an h
Sofia’s pov TWO YEARS LATER “I look ugly and bloated.” I blurted out while eying my reflection in the floor length mirror in the walk-in closet. Luca, who had been running a comb through his hair, paused for a moment before throwing me a glance, and then a smile bloomed on his face.“Of course you don’t! How can you even think that when you look like a goddess right now.” He murmured, discarding his comb and heading in my direction. I pouted at my reflection, not at all impressed by what I was looking at.“Now you’re just lying cause I’m sure goddesses don’t look this bad. My face is swollen and I literally feel like I’m gonna die.” Luca who had now eased up behind me let out a chuckle into my hair as his hand slid around my waist to carefully cradle my large stomach from the sides.“You still look very gorgeous to me. I don’t think your face is ugly, neither do I think you’re no longer sexy, because you still are. Did last night not explain that enough?” He chuckled at the end of
Luca’s pov It was clear as day that this particular topic has been troubling Sofia for a while now. I could tell from how she was wringing her fingers. I lifted her fingers and brushed my lips across it, and then I let out a long sigh.“If I’m gonna be honest, I haven’t actually thought about it. I just assumed you don’t want them and I was cool with that.” Her eyes widened comically as she whispered. “But… I want children.”I hummed. “I see that now.” “You don’t want children?” Sofia asked after a few moments and I slowly shook my head.“I don’t think I do, cause I don’t actually like the thought of bringing a child into a lifestyle as dangerous as my current one, and leaving the mafia is completely out of the question cause the past would end up catching up with me no matter what.”“Oh.” She whispered while chewing at the inside of her mouth.“Yes, love. But, that aside, I love babies. They’re always so cute and clueless of all the evils in the world.” Sofia laughed at th
Sofia’s pov TWO YEARS LATER*** The sounds of soft laughter filtered through the screen of the television I was currently staring at and a small smile tugged at the side of my lips as I averted my gaze and took a glance at the wall clock situated at the top of the wall here in the room. It was past eight in the evening, which indicated that Luca was almost home, and an excited feeling coursed down my spine. It doesn’t matter that Luca has almost returned home to me every damn day, that giddy feeling still engulfs me every day.Which is the best thing ever, said my therapist when we stumbled on that topic. It’s been over two years and till date, I’m still yet to stop seeing my therapist. She, a Middle aged woman, has made me feel so much love and comfort than my mother has done for me throughout the past two decades that I’ve been alive. The sounds of cute giggles emitting from the television screen grabbed my attention and once again, I focused on it. This time, my bre
Sofia’s pov The weeks flew by faster than i could keep up with.Healing was slower than I anticipated, and I hated almost every second of it, if I was being honest, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t willingly take another bullet for Luca if I could, because I will. Luca had gotten extremely displeased when I offhandedly said those same words to him, and he made me promise to never, ever do that again.I stayed in the hospital for months, because Luca wanted me to be completely healed before getting discharged. The flowers that got sent to me by every well wishers had gotten thrown out more than three times because at a point, they all began to rot.A little gathering was thrown in celebration of my release from the hospital. Everybody was there waiting in the house as entered the house, from Kayla and her husband, Travis, to Armani and his girlfriend, Nala, to James and his fiancée, Blair, to Angelo. It was relieving to finally be home and be surrounded by so much love right now ma
Sofia’s pov ‘Was this how it feels to float?’I asked myself over and over again, the more time I spent in that same unending loophole. It felt like I was stuck in a fluffy space, but instead of sinking, I remained afloat.Muffled voice could be heard coming from multiple sides at once but I couldn’t make any word out, neither could I tell each voice apart from the other.I limbs literally felt nonexistent because I couldn’t wait use of them no matter how much I tried. It’s almost weird how it’s pitch dark in this fluffy space, preventing me from making anything out.Or perhaps, I was the one who had my eyes closed throughout, I realized when I discovered that I could feel my eyelids twitch a little. I tried to get my eyes open after that, but ended up giving up after trying over and over again to no avail. I drifted straight into an unconscious state after that.When I came to once again, I felt warm fingers around mine. The fingers felt familiar in a way, and with everyth
Sofia’s pov The scream that left my mouth this time was completely silent as I watched as the kneeling man who was apparently working with Ryan, fell to the ground face first after being shot by Ryan. That sent a more terrified feeling down my spine, because not only was Ryan crazy, he was clearly also heartless as hell. Seeing how he could effortless kill off his own partner made it more obvious that it wouldn’t be hard for him to kill me if he wants to, and that he wasn’t just bluffing by threatening to shoot me.“Fuck, man, you really are a freak. Your own partner?” Angelo mused with an unimpressed look on his face. Luca snorted and leveled Ryan with a look. “That’s not something a Ricci would do, you know?”“Well it’s a good thing I’m not a fucking one, okay? And now that I’ve killed my partner myself, you clearly don’t have anything to threaten me with, I have nothing to lose in this situation unlike the rest of you.” Ryan responded haughtily, sneering as he tugged on my hair.