JUDE POVWe waited six more weeks before we announced the pregnancy to them at the dining table one evening.For a moment, both of them only watched with wide eyes. Then they began to cheer. They didn’t know what a baby meant: babysitting and diaper changing duties.Isadora laughed in relief.Simona jumped up from her chair and rushed over to Isadora , throwing her arms around her.“Careful,” I said. “Your mom has a baby in her belly.”Simona nodded wide-eyed and stared at Isadora’s still flat stomach. “Can it hear me?”“Yes.”She leaned down. “Please be a little sister. Boys are annoying.”“Hey! You’re annoying.” Daniele had talked with his mouth full and a few noodles fell out when he spoke.Simona wrinkled her nose. “You stink.”Daniele swallowed and let out a burp. “That stinks.” “Ewww!”“Enough,” I said firmly. “We’re having dinner.” Daniele nodded, but he kept his eyes on Simona.Simona stroked Isadora ’s belly as if it was a magic lamp and would grant her a wish before she retu
ISADORA POV"Okay,” Jude said. In the background, I could hear male voices. “I love you,” he said quietly so no one but me could hear.“And I love you.”I hung up, more resolved than before. Elia regarded me closely. “Is there anything I should know?”“No.” I softened the word with a smile. It was bad enough that Mansueto had told my father. Knowing him, he’d probably already passed the news on to Mom and Christian. It was only a matter of time before it spread like wildfire. I didn’t even want to imagine what it would do to Daniele and Simona.I fell asleep after a while. Elia woke me when we pulled up in front of my old home. He got out and held the door open for me.Mom and Dad waited on the porch, both of them beaming like a kid on Christmas morning. I wished it wasn’t because of something that could destroy the people I loved most in the world.I headed toward them and hugged them briefly. Christian waited behind them for his turn. “You’re growing bigger every day.”“That’s not s
ISADORA POV“Don’t waste your time,” I said before I closed the door. There was only one person who could guarantee my parents’ silence at this point. The man my father feared like the devil, and not just because he was his Capo.“Is Luca still in Philly?”Elia frowned. “I think so. The meeting is supposed to go late. He won’t return to New York until tomorrow morning.”“Find out where he is and take me to him.”Elia cut his gaze to me. “You can’t just go to the Capo.”“Said Capo is also my cousin. He can make time for family, right?”“What is going on, Isadora ? You can trust me, or Jude wouldn’t have chosen me as your bodyguard.”“I trust you.” I looked out of the window. Elia was a good man, and an even better soldier and bodyguard.“But you won’t tell me what this is about?”I leaned my forehead against the glass. “I can’t.” Elia was Jude ’s soldier first. He was loyal to him. He’d tell Jude the truth the moment he found out.“Because Jude isn’t supposed to know.” A hint of suspic
ISADORA POVI stumbled to my feet and staggered toward Luca, grabbing his arm. I didn’t care if his expression brought grown men to their knees or if he was one of the most feared men in the States, only rivaled in his cruelty by the monsters in Vegas. Luca wouldn’t kill his pregnant cousin, but he might kill the father of an unborn child. “He was broken up over Josephine, out of his mind from pain and anger. He didn’t know what he was doing.”Luca’s expression didn’t change. Maybe my words only made things worse? If Luca thought Jude acted on impulse, spurred on by his emotions, he might remove him even faster.Bile traveled up my throat. “Andrea might have been a rat anyway. I don’t know.”Luca pulled his arm out of my grip. “I’ll talk to Jude, and he’ll explain everything to me.”I stared up at him. “You won’t kill the father of my unborn baby.” It was meant as a question, but somehow it came out as a threat, and for a moment I wanted to laugh at the insanity of the situation.“A m
JUDE POV“I expect you to tell me when there’s a traitor in the family.” “Andrea was a rat.”“Was he? Or was he just the man who fucked your wife?”With anyone but Luca, I might have attacked. I stifled my fury. “He was both. The Vice President of the chapter of the Tartarus MC in Philadelphia that I dismembered told me they had a contact, and the description fit Andrea.”“Did you press a confession out of him?”“It’s what I should have done,” I admitted. I held Luca’s gaze. “When I came home after attacking the clubhouse, I found my naked, heavily pregnant wife riding my brother-in-law—her half-brother—under my roof with my little son downstairs, thinking they were playing some game. When I confronted Andrea, he bragged to me about fucking my wife from the first day of our marriage and that my children weren’t mine. I beat him to death with my bare fists, broke every fucking bone in his body, smashed in his cheating face until his eyes popped out, and I would do it again.”Luca nodd
JUDE POVI was angry at his disregard for my wishes and absolutely livid that he wanted the truth out so badly that he told someone like Felix. Both wanted to see their unborn grandson as an underboss. That was all it took to turn men who hardly tolerated each other into allies.I didn’t want to imagine what it would have done to Daniele and Simona if they’d found out. Our circles wouldn’t have looked kindly upon them. The result of cheating and incest. No matter how brutally I would have reacted to people’s gossiping, I doubt I could have convinced my men to accept Daniele as their boss one day.I wasn’t sure if I wanted to face Father again. He’d risked Daniele’s and Simona’s future. That wasn’t something I could forgive. Luca must have called him today because Father had tried to reach me, but I turned my phone to silent mode. I didn’t want to talk to him.As if my thoughts had conjured it, my phone flashed, but it was Mia. The fact that she was awake at this time of the night was
JUDE POVI wrapped an arm around Isadora, steadying her. I was so nervous; for once in my life, my hands weren’t steady. After helping Isadora get dressed, calling Elia, and telling Daniele to take care of Simona, I drove us to the hospital, all the while whispering words of comfort. I wasn’t even sure what exactly I said; I barely noticed the street ahead of us, but I got us there safely.I’d never been present during a birth. Josephine hadn’t allowed me to witness this moment of a baby being born. I hadn’t insisted because I wanted her and our baby to be safe during labor. I didn’t want her arguing with me.This time was different. In every regard, Isadora wanted me by her side and needed me. I held her hand through every new wave of pain, felt her body convulse under the force of it, and marveled at her strength and her ability to gift me with her beautiful smile whenever she got a respite. Seeing her in agony was the worst thing I could imagine, but I was grateful that she allowed
JUDE POVIn the past, I’d visited my family’s beach house to find inner peace and remind myself of the beauty in life. I’d gotten up early to stand on the porch and watch the ocean roll over the white beach, to listen to the calming whooshing of the water without being disturbed. I often brought work with me.Today, I slept in. Something Isadora had taught me. It was already past nine when I stepped onto the porch. Isadora and the kids were already up. Laughter drifted up to me from the beach, not the quiet of the past. I didn’t miss it. I hadn’t come here to find inner peace or see something beautiful. Inner peace had found me when Isadora stepped into my life. I didn’t have to drive hundreds of miles to seek a beach house for that. Now I only had to come home to my wife. Too beautiful for words—inside and out.I closed my eyes, tilting my head up to the early morning sun, letting it warm my upper body and face. Many aspects of my life remained dark spots of brutality, but my home ha