ALONSO POV "The NFL has decided to suspend you until after a thorough investigation has been done regarding the pictures." I faintly hear Uncle Kevin's voice over the white noise ringing in my ears, and I take another swig of my father's expensive cognac that I swiped from his alcohol display. I gather he has enough money to replace it. The bottle is abruptly grabbed from my hand. "I'm not going to stand by and watch you kill yourself." My mother takes her own swig from the bottle and then slams it down on the table. "For fuck's sake, Alonso, this is not the end of the world." I shrug nonchalantly. "Might as well be." There's a hole where my heart used to be. My career is literally being flushed down the drain. All the hours I spent in the gym, all the plays I studied, the millions of game tapes I've watched. I've always loved to party, but I always only had two light beers. I could've been fucking it up, but I was so focused on that one dream. Then Juliet came al
AMELIA POV Nana brushes my hair while she's humming a melody under her breath. She's the only one who can get me to eat and take a shower, so the rest of the staff and household haven't been bothering me. "Did you know that you and your mother got this beautiful golden hair from your grandaddy?" Nana smiles wistfully. "He was such a handsome man. Stubborn as all hell, but he looked just like a movie star. All the girls wanted him, and then he picked plain old me." My eyes go to Nana's reflection in the mirror where she's standing behind me. Her hair has gone grey, but she's still a beautiful woman. "You're anything but plain." She pats my cheek lovingly before she resumes the brushing. "Your mother was the true stunner. I knew I was going to have my hands full with that girl the moment I held her in my arms. She had eyes for one boy and one boy only, no matter how many times I told her to explore a little." "My dad?" Nana scoffs. "No." That makes me frown. "I t
ALESSI POV Summer's leg bounces nervously as we wait outside the gynecologist to call us. I knew the kid inside her was mine, I've known it in my gut since I found out that she was pregnant. Just like I knew Bailey's son wasn't. I lay my hand on her leg, and it quiets, but not before she gives me a scathing side look. You could say I have taken over her life ever since those blood tests came back. I moved her things over to my apartment without asking her and succeeded in confiscating all her keys and hiding it from her. I also paid the rest of her lease so she doesn't have those expenses anymore. Morettis take care of what is theirs. And maybe she hates me a little right now, but sooner or later, she has to forgive me. Even if it's just for the sake of the baby. That's what my good conscience says. It says I should take care of both Summer and the baby without expecting anything in return, but fuck that. I'm making her mine. She just doesn't know it yet.
ARCANGELO POV I glance at Cassie sleeping on the couch, and then I check the time on my phone. It's already past nine, and Lola is still going at it in the booth hours later. I wait until she finishes another take before pressing the intercom button. "Wanna call it a day?" She looks at me like I've personally offended her, hurriedly taking a sip from her water bottle. "What, no! I'm not satisfied with the song yet." I glance at Cassie again. "Cassie is out." I see the guilt in her eyes, and it's as if I feel it inside my soul. I don't want that look on her beautiful face ever again. "I can take her with me if you want." I say hesitantly. "I have to drop by my parents', she can sleep in my old bedroom if that's okay with you. You can just call when you're done, and I can come get you, or the driver can drop you at my parents'. I'll take care of her, I promise." Doubt and confusion cloud her eyes. I know what's going on in her head. You don't trust anyone in t
AMELIA POV Being back in the city that holds so many bad memories to me feels both suffocating and freeing. Suffocating, because I swore I would never come back here ever again. Freeing because the two people who made my life a living hell are both dead. When I received the phone call that the man who I thought was my father, was murdered in a mugging gone wrong, I was on the verge of yet another panic attack, but then I realised he no longer held any power over me. I wasn't the vulnerable teenager he could abuse anymore. My relationship with my real parents might be in shambles right now, but I know what they're doing comes from a place of love and protection. It might be stifling, but I know they'll never abandon me. The hotel suite we're staying in is a far cry from the apartment I grew up in, and I'm still shocked that Eric Monroe still had me listed as his next-of-kin. His own family wanted nothing to do with him after he got married to Raquel. I can't blame them. They pr
AMELIA POV I've never been scared of Charles Astor. To the world, he exudes this heard exterior, but with me, he has always been soft, almost like a teddy bear. Yet he is the same man who told me nobody messes with his family, and he sure has proved that over and over. He's proved it by succeeding in putting Alonso in the public eye for all the wrong reasons, and he succeeded in killing Eric Monroe without any repercussions. He did warn me, but I never thought that this would be the length he would go. I fear Charles Astor now, not for myself, but for Alonso. Who knows what he might do next if Alonso and I don't stay away from each other? I already know what I have to do, and I keep stealing glances to my father while we're meeting with the funeral director. He's calm and in charge, orchestrating the funeral of the very man he killed. And even though my mother knows what he did, what he's capable of doing, she's by his side in her classy self looking like nothing is wrong he
ALONSO POV I'm restless as I wait for any kind of news from Amelia. We've already been in Seattle for a day, and it's been radio silent. Apart from a small news article about the murder of Eric Monroe, there hasn't been any news about funeral arrangements. I'm even scouring social media to see if anyone hasn't spotted the Secretary of Defense out and about, but nothing. "I hate to tell you this, son, but maybe she doesn't want to see you right now." Dad claps my shoulder as I search various news sites for any information about a burial. I shake my head without saying anything. I know that's not true. There's no way I could crave someone the way I crave Amelia, and she doesn't want me. It's just impossible. I definitely didn't imagine our connection. "Maybe we should go home." He squeezes my shoulder. "There's a PR nightmare to deal with, and Kevin wants you in training." "No." I immediately get up from the table and walk over to the vast windows overlooking the river.
AMELIA POV There are barely any people at the funeral. It's just me and my family, the Millers, and what I assume are a few drink buddies of Eric. I don't understand the pitying glances they send my way. I feel nothing for the man in the casket. Once upon a time, I feared him, I hated him, but never as much as I hated the Morettis. My heart clenches at the thought of Alonso in this fucked up city I don't want to be in. I don't want him tainted by its darkness. Even now, I'm not feeling sad because of my former father, but I'm sad because of what I have to do. After everything happened with me trying to get revenge on the Morettis, I thought I could finally live happily ever after. But my life wasn't meant to be easy, and I have to make another sacrifice. Eric will be cremated, so the service is short, and I breathe a sigh of relief when it's over. A chapter closed forever. I'm not going to lie and say that I'm not grateful. Maybe not for the way that he died, but that I'm fi
ALESSI POV In my life, I have never seen something more perfect than my twin daughters. Love like I've never experienced before took a hold of me when these two tiny little girls were born. I've always been my brothers' keeper, the one with the solid head on his shoulders. I think those titles were just preparing me for this role. A father. "Are they supposed to be that small?" Alonso peers through the glass of the incubator. "Are they sick? Why are they in the baby growing thing?" Arc joins Alonso to peer through the glass to the perfection that is my daughters. "It's just procedure." I enlighten them. "They were born on thirty-seven weeks, but they're healthy and perfect." Utterly perfect. They look like their mom, but babies' faces change every single day. "Dude, you have to tell me how do I get Summer to marry me."I tell Alonso. He managed to bag Amelia, even with all the shit that was going on at the time. "You just ask her." He tells me without
AMELIA POV What was supposed to be the happiest time in my life has become one of the worst. Alonso is lying with his head in my lap, my fingers running through his hair as we're waiting for news from the doctors who are operating on Arcangelo. Bailey striked again. This time, she got caught, and her fucking parents can't get her out of this one this time. The shooting is on every social media site, it's trending on the internet. Videos are circulating around from fans. I feel so sorry for Lola. She's still wearing the dress she performed in, clutching Cassie to her chest as if she might lose her, too. They gave her something to wipe the blood from her arms, but there's a faint streak of it left on her cheek. The world would be a worse place if Arcangelo died. I kiss Alonso's cheek, and his eyes flutter open, sorrow in the swirl of green and brown. Alonso would not be the same person if he had to lose one of his brothers. They're all an extension of each other, and I pra
ALONSO POV I'm in seventh heaven. I know the bomb will explode very soon, but right now, I'm blissfully holding my wife in my arms as she's coming down from another orgasm. My wife. I fucking love the sound of that. It's not the way I wanted to do it. She deserves a big wedding with a designer dress and a big, fat diamond ring, and I promised her that I would give her all of that, but she said our wedding was the best. I thread my fingers through hers and kiss the diamond wedding band on her finger. I've already arranged appointments with jewelry designers for her engagement ring, and then I will do it the right way. "I fly out tomorrow afternoon with the team." I reluctantly tell her. "I want you there, but I also don't want you in the open where Bailey can easily get to you." She sighs and nuzzles her face in my neck. "I know. Maybe I'll arrange to see my parents while you're not here." "No!" I say definitely. "We face them together, I'm not sending you into the lion
ARCANGELO POV I must have died and gone to heaven. I have the girl I've been pining over up against a wall with her full, succulent lips eagerly moving under mine. She was a vision tonight in the elegant black dress with her dark curls spilling everywhere. Her lips were painted a fiery red that enticed me the entire time, and I just couldn't stop myself anymore. I tried being respectful because she has a child. My plan was to make her fall so irrevocably in love with me that by the time I did kiss her, she wouldn't be able to resist me. I wanted her to trust me implicitly, to make her feel that I would never let her down, that I'm solid. I hope I did enough because just this one taste of her is making me addicted, and I don't think I would be able to stop touching her now. She groans underneath my mouth, opening those lips like a flower, and I take that opportunity to plunge my tongue inside. She tastes like mint and desire, and a groan rumbles from my chest. I think I might
LOLA POV I don't exactly know what is going on with my life right now. It's like I'm in a twilight zone, part of a family in an instant. Arcangelo refuses to let me and Cassie go back to the label's apartment, and at first, I felt slightly awkward being at his parents' house, but everyone else handled it like it was completely normal. I understand that Alessi's ex-girlfriend apparently almost killed Alonso's girlfriend a few years back, so everyone who might be in danger right now has to stay here. But I'm not even his girlfriend. I'm just one of the artists he signed. Right? Wrong. I've never experienced anything that I feel for Arcangelo. The sexual tension is brewing underneath the surface whenever we touch. It's in the songs that we write together, in the way we gaze into each other's eyes when we think nobody is watching. Every night, after a big dinner, and I've given Cassie her bath and taken a shower, we climb into his bed. About an hour after when Cassie is f
ALONSO POV I can't believe one girl has the power to have all of us on our toes. I, for sure, never thought the sweet girl that we grew up with would turn out to be some obsessed psychopath. Apparently, Evan and Sammy Micheals have Bailey's son. They took her son from her when she was starting to talk about us again over the phone. My parents are pissed because they weren't even warned. Let's just say that the friendship between the Morettis and the Micheals would never be salvaged again. "What's with the security?" One of my teammates asks as we finish up at the stadium. "You good man?" Fuck, I love this team. We're new, and certainly the underdogs, but we're becoming a family. They've been concerned about me ever since the allegations of sexual assault. It's dfficult being in the public eye, and they all know how it feels to be under such scrutiny. "I'm good, but there's someone who's a bit too obsessed, just being cautious." "Be careful out there." He claps me on the s
AMELIA POV "Bailey Micheals has been sighted by Alessi Moretti yesterday." I hear the words coming out of my father's mouth, but it's like it doesn't register at first. I blink rapidly, trying to make sense of what he just said. "You said she would never set foot in this country again!" My mother jumps from her chair in front of my father's desk. "You promised!" "She didn't come in with her real passport. We're scouring security footage to try and see which airport she came through." My heart starts beating rapidly after it missed a few beats. Fear rushes through me in an instant. Bailey is going to kill me. "You don't have to worry about anything." Dad looks at me. "There's no way she'll be able to get to you here." Just another reason to keep me locked up in my gilded cage. I can't do this anymore. It feels like I'm going fucking insane. Even when I'm strolling in the garden, I can feel eyes on me like a hawk. I know I said that this is what I have to
ARCANGELO POV I'm in bed, and Bach is playing softly through the surround sound, but I can't fall asleep, my mind on the dark-haired petite beauty that is in my building. Lola is on my mind twenty-four-seven. She's the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning and the last person in my thoughts before I close my eyes. Working with her has been nothing but astonishing. We've been writing music about love, loss, happiness, hurt, and so entwined in our own little bubble that the assistants have to remind us to eat. I have never met someone who understands how I make music like she does. It's like she was always tethered to my soul, and I just had to find her in the cosmos. Even Cassie crept under my skin. She calls me her prince charming, and I'm not mad about it. I wonder what they're doing right now. Cassie is probably asleep already, maybe Lola, too. What would it feel like if they were here? Would Lola listen to classical music with me while I run my finge
ALESSI POV I feel slightly guilty for being this happy, but fuck, I can't help it. My internship is coming to an end. I still have the two-day assessment coming up before I'm officially a resident, but I've been working for this all my life. I'm prepared and ready. Then I have this gorgeous woman roaming my apartment with my babies in her belly. Granted, she's currently shooting lasers at me while I'm calmly sipping my coffee before I have to leave for my shift. "You don't get to decide if I work or not, Alessi!" Summer shouts at me, pink blotches appearing on her cheeks. "You're completely taking over my life! First my apartment, and now this!" I might have told her supervising nurse that she will probably have to hire another nurse soon, seeing that Summer might quit her job. "I was just thinking about the future." I shrug. "You're mine, and I have to take care of you. Carrying twins is not going to be easy on your body, you think you can work the shifts you do being se