CLARAAt this point, it was safe to say that sleeping in the hospital after you’ve just given birth was an impossible feat.What with the nurse coming in at odd hours to take the baby for routine tests, or me jerking awake at intervals to confirm whether my baby was still breathing. Yeah, I guess you could say I had a fitful sleep.Also, whoever wrote that they felt relieved after they took their first shower after giving birth in those pregnancy books was a huge liar.The shower was painful and uncomfortable. In fact, I still felt uncomfortable and I was wearing an adult diaper because of my discharge and bleeding which the nurse said was normal for the next few days.My stomach had gone down a bit but not by much. I looked like I was in my second trimester. But regardless of it all, nothing could dim my happiness at all.I finally filled out all the paperwork regarding the baby this morning, along with all the discharge forms. The nurse was giving me some aftercare instructions whe
MATEOThe joy on Clara’s face was palpable and for some reason, I felt a sense of satisfaction seeing her that happy. Like I have been holding my breath and now I could finally breathe.She loved the gifts, especially the car seat and crib. When no one was looking, I gave a slight appreciative nod to Lily for setting it all up within the short time frame and she smiled in return.“What’s his name?” Mom asked.The girls smiled at each other before Lily said, “You are so going to love his name.”Mom stared at Clara expectantly till she finally said, “His name is, Alessandro Antonio.”My breath hitched at her words while my mom gave an audible gasp, tears already filling her eyes.“Please don’t cry,” Clara pleaded.“How do you expect me not to cry when you named him after me,” Mom said.“I thought it would be fitting. You have already done so much for me and I don’t know how I’m ever going to repay you,” Clara said.“We’re family, dear. You never have to repay me for anything but I feel
CLARAI loved my son. With my whole heart, I’m grateful every day that I have him. But sometimes, I wished he would just sleep through the night because I was so close to losing it.My little bundle of joy was a hellion in the night and I was so over it. I was so tired and I couldn’t remember the last time I slept through the night.I had been healing nicely after birth and I was enjoying every part of motherhood.Well, almost every part, if only he could just shut up at night then all would be blissful.Luckily, I had Mrs. Antonia and Lily to help me sometimes with the midnight feeding and I couldn’t be more grateful for them. In fact, Mrs. Antonia relished those times with him.All I had to do was feed him and hand him over to her. Sometimes, she took charge of the feeding since I had begun pumping my breast milk and storing it in the freezer.Without them, I would be a certified crazy person by now. I even went as far as calling the doctor when I found it hard to put him down for
CLARAI stared in shock at him while Mateo was glaring at me.How long had he been standing there?And most importantly, how much of our conversation had he heard?From the look on his face, I could tell that he had heard more than enough.Still, I was going to act dumb until he proved otherwise.“Uhm… how long have you been standing there?” I asked.“Long enough,” he replied curtly.“Well, you scared me,” I said choosing to ignore his tone.“You would have noticed if you weren’t lost in your phone call,” he said.“It was an important call I must make,” I said.He nodded. “I can imagine,” he said sarcastically then asked, “Who were you talking to?”“Oh, it was just Lucaa,” I replied.“Hmm,” he said and began stalking towards me. “I don’t believe you.”I moved backward the closer he got until my back hit the wall. He looked so pissed that I wondered what exactly was the matter.I held my phone towards him. “You can check the call logs if you don’t believe me. There’s no way I would hav
CLARAMateo followed me out of the chapel and we walked side by side towards the house but he stopped abruptly as we got close.“What’s wrong?” I asked.“I have to go,” he replied.“But I thought the whole point of you being here today was because you didn’t have much to do,” I said. For some reason I couldn’t understand, I didn’t want him to leave.“Well, life is unpredictable and things come up when we least expect them to so I have to go,” he told me.I sighed. It’s not like I had the power to hold him here against his will anyway. “Okay, then.”“Tell my mother something came up so I can’t stay for lunch,” he said, already walking away so I didn’t have the chance to reply to him before he got to his car and drove off.I stood there until his car was out of sight before I headed towards the house.Walking into the dining room, I found Lily and Mrs. Antonia, already seated. She was cradling Ale to her chest and singing a lullaby to him.Hmmm… he must have woken up in my absence and I
LILYNo, no, no.This can’t be happening. Just when things were finally going in the right direction, Alina just had to crawl out of whatever hole she was hiding in, and now things were complicated. Worse, how the hell was I going to make this right?Wait, why did this have to be my problem?This was Mateo’s mess, and he was going to have to clean it up. I just have to limit the damage.If only Mrs. Antonia didn’t say anything when I introduced Clara as a guest, but I knew deep down that there was a slim chance of that happening.Alina was the epitome of the kind of woman she couldn’t stand and there was no way she was going to be quiet while Alina acted like the grade A bitch she was.The surprising part was how calm Clara was taking everything that was happening. I had expected her to go off on Alina, especially after the demeaning way she addressed her but she ignored her and was currently helping herself to a serving of the pasta we were all about to eat.If there was anything Al
MATEO“Would that be all?” I asked, handing Dominic the rest of the documents.“Yes, I think we’re good for now. I’ll let you know if there are any other documents that require your attention,” he replied.“God, this is fucking exhausting,” I said.Dominic smiled. “The cons of running a mafia empire but you love it and dare I say, you’re fucking good at it,” he said.Well, I fucking knew that already. Why else would I be waging war against, Renzetti?Still, it didn’t mean that I had to like it. Running this business involved jumping through so many hoops you won’t even believe.Not to talk of having a legitimate business to act as a cover. Then, I have to run the said, legit business while also handling my other not so legit business.“Let me know once the money has been cleaned and our taxes have been handled.”“I’m already on it,” Dominic said. “When do you think we would be needing another shipment?”“Let’s hold off on that for a while. Bruno is still not back from his trip but luc
MATEOI walked into my room and like Lily said, found Alina lounging on my bed as if she belonged there.What’s worse, she was laying on Clara’s side of the bed and I immediately saw red. She was also on a call and the moment she saw me, had the good sense to end the call.“Hey, baby. You’re home,” she said, giving me what I’ve come to recognize as her manipulative smile.That might work for an unsuspecting idiot, but not me, and she better have a good explanation for this nonsense.“What the fuck are you doing in my room!?” I growled.She was taken aback by my tone but she recovered quickly and pasted the smile on her face again.“Come on, baby. Where else did you think I would be? And is that the way to welcome the love of your life whom you haven’t seen in a while?” she asked and I couldn’t help laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.“Did I say something funny,” she asked, looking confused.“Yeah, you did. It’s very funny of you to think that you’re welcome in my house not to th
MATEODid I leave unreasonably early for work today?Yes, I did.Was it because I was trying to avoid, Clara? As much as I’m ashamed to admit it, the answer was yes.I don’t know what came over me last night. I just blurted out that I didn’t care about the contract, which raised a lot of questions for her. These are questions that I didn’t have the answer to. So I did something I’d never done. I ran away. From a woman nonetheless.Damn, if Dominic knew about this, he was never going to let me live it down, which means he must never know. I was keeping this embarrassing bit of information to myself.The only downside to me leaving way early was I couldn’t send, Alina on her merry way but I was hoping my words sunk in well enough and she got the hell out of my house as soon as she woke up.Alina was trouble, and I wanted absolutely nothing to do with her spoiled ass. Even my mother was angry with me because of her, and I still haven’t figured out how I was going to get myself back into
CLARAI froze in shock at Mrs. Antonia’s words. I knew she couldn’t stand, Alina, but that was the last thing I expected her to do, and it seemed I wasn’t the only one shocked by her.“That better not be me you’re referring to as trash,” Alina said to her.“You’re the only trashy person I can see here, and it pans out because it’s the trashy ones that refuse to admit that they actually are trashy,” Mrs. Antonia fired back. “I’ve had enough of your nonsense, and since my son has failed to handle you, I don’t mind doing the job for him. You’re not welcome here.”“If anyone is unwelcome here, it would be this nobody and her kid!” Alina screamed, pointing at me. “I’m going to be your daughter-in-law. You can’t treat me like this.”“I already have a daughter-in-law, and you’re looking at her. Even if she wasn’t in the picture, there’s no way my son would ever end up with someone like you because as annoyed as I am, I like to believe that I raised him right and he can discern good from evi
CLARAMateo and I didn’t get to talk.Christopher told me that he left for work really early in the morning before any of us woke up.I was disappointed because all I could think about all night was the statement he made in his office and what he actually meant by it.I guess I’ll just have to wait until he gets back home. Luckily, I had some of mine and Ale’s clothes in Lily’s room so there was no need for me to go into the master bedroom.Alessandro was fed and bathed, looking like my little bundle of joy. It turns out that Lucaa was right, I was being paranoid for no reason. There was no way my son would be scared of me. He was literally my whole heart and even though it was too soon. He had to know that.Today, Mrs. Antonia had the bright idea to take, Ale to the park. I was against it at first because he was still so young to fully experience a kids’ park. All he was going to do there was sit in his stroller while she fawned over him.Besides, I didn’t want him to have his first
CLARAAfter everything that happened earlier today, I had expected Mateo’s mom to ignore me because pissed was an understatement to describe how she felt or in this case, was currently feeling. To my surprise, she didn’t even going as far as moving me and Ale into her room because in her words, it was just another opportunity for her to bond with her grandchild, like she wasn’t doing enough of that already.I was also aware of the fact that Mateo was home but what I didn’t expect was him barging into his mother’s room.I couldn’t hide the shock from my face. Wasn’t he supposed to be with his girlfriend?“Don’t you know how to knock?” his mother asked. “I know this is your house but that doesn’t give you the right to barge into my room unannounced.”He didn’t respond to her slew of angry words. Instead, his eyes zeroed in on mine before he settled his gaze on me.“Can we talk?” he asked, not taking his eyes off me.“You can see that we’re busy. Why don’t you go back to your whore and
MATEOI walked into my room and like Lily said, found Alina lounging on my bed as if she belonged there.What’s worse, she was laying on Clara’s side of the bed and I immediately saw red. She was also on a call and the moment she saw me, had the good sense to end the call.“Hey, baby. You’re home,” she said, giving me what I’ve come to recognize as her manipulative smile.That might work for an unsuspecting idiot, but not me, and she better have a good explanation for this nonsense.“What the fuck are you doing in my room!?” I growled.She was taken aback by my tone but she recovered quickly and pasted the smile on her face again.“Come on, baby. Where else did you think I would be? And is that the way to welcome the love of your life whom you haven’t seen in a while?” she asked and I couldn’t help laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.“Did I say something funny,” she asked, looking confused.“Yeah, you did. It’s very funny of you to think that you’re welcome in my house not to th
MATEO“Would that be all?” I asked, handing Dominic the rest of the documents.“Yes, I think we’re good for now. I’ll let you know if there are any other documents that require your attention,” he replied.“God, this is fucking exhausting,” I said.Dominic smiled. “The cons of running a mafia empire but you love it and dare I say, you’re fucking good at it,” he said.Well, I fucking knew that already. Why else would I be waging war against, Renzetti?Still, it didn’t mean that I had to like it. Running this business involved jumping through so many hoops you won’t even believe.Not to talk of having a legitimate business to act as a cover. Then, I have to run the said, legit business while also handling my other not so legit business.“Let me know once the money has been cleaned and our taxes have been handled.”“I’m already on it,” Dominic said. “When do you think we would be needing another shipment?”“Let’s hold off on that for a while. Bruno is still not back from his trip but luc
LILYNo, no, no.This can’t be happening. Just when things were finally going in the right direction, Alina just had to crawl out of whatever hole she was hiding in, and now things were complicated. Worse, how the hell was I going to make this right?Wait, why did this have to be my problem?This was Mateo’s mess, and he was going to have to clean it up. I just have to limit the damage.If only Mrs. Antonia didn’t say anything when I introduced Clara as a guest, but I knew deep down that there was a slim chance of that happening.Alina was the epitome of the kind of woman she couldn’t stand and there was no way she was going to be quiet while Alina acted like the grade A bitch she was.The surprising part was how calm Clara was taking everything that was happening. I had expected her to go off on Alina, especially after the demeaning way she addressed her but she ignored her and was currently helping herself to a serving of the pasta we were all about to eat.If there was anything Al
CLARAMateo followed me out of the chapel and we walked side by side towards the house but he stopped abruptly as we got close.“What’s wrong?” I asked.“I have to go,” he replied.“But I thought the whole point of you being here today was because you didn’t have much to do,” I said. For some reason I couldn’t understand, I didn’t want him to leave.“Well, life is unpredictable and things come up when we least expect them to so I have to go,” he told me.I sighed. It’s not like I had the power to hold him here against his will anyway. “Okay, then.”“Tell my mother something came up so I can’t stay for lunch,” he said, already walking away so I didn’t have the chance to reply to him before he got to his car and drove off.I stood there until his car was out of sight before I headed towards the house.Walking into the dining room, I found Lily and Mrs. Antonia, already seated. She was cradling Ale to her chest and singing a lullaby to him.Hmmm… he must have woken up in my absence and I
CLARAI stared in shock at him while Mateo was glaring at me.How long had he been standing there?And most importantly, how much of our conversation had he heard?From the look on his face, I could tell that he had heard more than enough.Still, I was going to act dumb until he proved otherwise.“Uhm… how long have you been standing there?” I asked.“Long enough,” he replied curtly.“Well, you scared me,” I said choosing to ignore his tone.“You would have noticed if you weren’t lost in your phone call,” he said.“It was an important call I must make,” I said.He nodded. “I can imagine,” he said sarcastically then asked, “Who were you talking to?”“Oh, it was just Lucaa,” I replied.“Hmm,” he said and began stalking towards me. “I don’t believe you.”I moved backward the closer he got until my back hit the wall. He looked so pissed that I wondered what exactly was the matter.I held my phone towards him. “You can check the call logs if you don’t believe me. There’s no way I would hav