Emilia's POV.I woke up with a start and found Riley and Isabella on either side of me. It took about one second for me to remember what had happened. "I need to go," I said immediately and tried to get out of bed. Riley held me down. "You are going to stay in bed, Emilia." "Excuse me? My daughter is out there somewhere. She is alone with that crazy bitch and you are asking me to stay in bed? Are you being real?" "Riccardo is already out there trying to find her..." "And I should be out there with him trying to find our daughter. She is my daughter too for fuck sake. I can't just sit down here and do nothing." "What do you plan to do then?" Isabella asked. I got out of bed faster than I had ever done. "I don't know but I won't just sit down here and do nothing." "You should think about the baby, Emilia. This is..." "The baby is fine. I am fine. I was just shocked earlier and that is it." I said. "I have to go find my daughter." I started heading for the door and Isabella qui
Riccardo's POV. I would probably dwell on the fact that I just signed my divorce papers if I didn't have a daughter to save. I tried to wave it off but I knew something wasn't right. It is impossible for things to just go haywire like that. She has had the papers for a while? Like hell. I just signed the fucking papers to make her happy for now. After I have this whole was sorted out, I will get to the bottom of things. After I have brought Aria back home safe and sound. If she thinks she can just put an end to our marriage because she wants to then she should think again. I have every intention to win my wife back. "Riccardo..." Enzo called softly. He was probably feeling bad for me or something but I trust him not to mention it. "Do we have anything yet?" I asked him. He nodded. "I got a code. I am just going to get it interpreted." "Okay." We are close. I just need Aria to be safe. "Are you okay, Ric?" Enzo asked. "I am fine. Let's find Aria." It took him another ten minu
Emilia's POV. 7 months later... I waddled down the stairs for dinner. I was supposed to wait for Riccardo to come and fetch me for dinner but I was done being treated like an invalid even though I feel much like an invalid. My stomach was already four times its usual size and I felt like I was going to explode very soon to top it all off, I couldn't even see my feet anymore. I got to the dining room and it was filled with my family and friends chatting away and laughing. It has been 7 months since that incident happened. Aria was thankfully oblivious to what happened. Gabriella had drugged her and the doctors had to flush the drug away from her system. Speaking of Gabriella, her father apologized profusely for what she had done even though apologies could not solve anything. She did not only attempt to kill me and my daughter. She killed the parents of the man she claimed to be in love with, people who cherished her, and she also killed poor Dante. Riccardo told me all about how D
Riccardo's POV. "You might want to go straight to the point, Massimo. I do not have time to play these games with you right now." It wasn't hard to tell that I was already getting pissed off. It was only a matter of time before burst out in anger and just so you know, it is not always a pretty sight. We have been in this meeting for more than fifty minutes now if my time is accurate and these people have been saying the same thing over and over again in twisted words. None of them has gone straight to the point. "What we are trying to say, Riccardo is that you need an heir and you need it fast." That was Roberto, the eldest man in the entire Italian mafia and my late father's trusted advisor. He has always been and will always remain that one person that doesn't cower in my presence. "Correct me if I am wrong, Roberto, you want me to get a heir?" I asked softly. I couldn't raise my voice at him now, could I?"Yes." He answered. I nodded slowly pretending like I was interested in t
Emilia's POV. "I don't want to go to school today mummy." My five-year-old daughter, Aria said from where she was safely belted in the back seat of my car. I honestly do not have the strength nor the time to do this with her right now. We have been at this for the past week now, it has suddenly become one of her favorite things to do. She comes up with different reasons and excuses to not go to school and I always end up bribing her with either extra chocolates or promising to let her stay up for extra thirty minutes after bedtime. "What is this about again, baby?" I asked softly cause God forbid I raise my voice at her at this very crucial moment. I pulled over in her school's parking lot and turned in my seat to face her. She had her face turned down and she kept twirling her hair around her tiny fingers. "Aria baby, Tell mummy what is wrong. Why do you not want to go to school today?" I asked her. She mumbled a few words in response but I couldn't make out what she was saying.
Riccardo's POV.It has been a while since I used the gym room so I woke up today and decided to do a little workout before I attend to the shit that has probably piled up on my table. I have been at it for close to an hour now or more, I can't tell cause I lost track of time already and I was enjoying myself a little too much to care. Four days later and I am yet to hear a word from Enzo. I trust him to be doing his work and I am not going to admit that the silence on his end is a little bit deafening. I want to get this task over and done with. How hard can it be to find a woman anyways? It couldn't be that heard. There is also the fact that I haven't heard from Roberto since the day he dropped that bomb on me, he just disappeared off the face of the earth and that is disturbing too but you won't see me admitting that either. I increased the speed of the treadmill in an attempt to clear my thoughts. I have better things to do than to be thinking about Roberto's empty but not-so-emp
Riccardo's POV. "Congratulations Amico. You have a daughter!" That can't be right. I have a daughter, one that is this grown up and I had no idea that she even existed. I still find it hard to believe that. How is it that I have a daughter somewhere on this earth and I don't even remember...creating her?"No...that can't be right," I mumbled under my breath but Enzo heard anyway. "I knew you would be in denial even after seeing her picture and that is why I ran a paternity test." He said proudly and he does appear super proud of himself. "How did you even get that done?" I asked him. He shrugged. "I pulled some strings." He answered before bringing out the test result of that multipurpose bag of his. I took the result from him and opened it, my eyes immediately went to where it confirmed that she was indeed my daughter before her name caught my eye. "Aria." I read out loud. "Aria Salvatore. She is five. She lives with her mother in NYC. She was born April 11, 2027, and her fa
Emilia's POV. I have been trying to get Aria ready for our date with Aiden but she wasn't having it. She has rejected every single dress I have picked out for her. It was either too tight or too heavy or too itchy. All of a sudden she seems to have different excuses to not put on her dress. She even claimed her favorite dress was too boring. I went into her closet again and picked out one of my favorite dresses of hers. It was purple and had this huge bow thing at the back and tiny sparkling diamonds on the sleeves and the neck side. I believe this dress is not too heavy, itchy, or too tight and it wasn't tight either. Although I am looking forward to the excuse the little chit will come up with this time around. I walked out of the closet and found her typing away on her phone. "Put down the phone and come try this dress on. I am pretty sure you will love this one." I tried to infuse as much excitement as I could into my voice. She put down the phone and walked up to where I was