A Truth and a Lie

by V. Sousa

  A new wave of tears started flowing when she began to sing the lullaby she used to sing to Sammy and me before bed. By the end of the song, I felt my eyelids getting heavy, and it wasn’t long before I was asleep.

  I grabbed a tray of food from the kitchen to bring to Lorenzo and found him in bed, struggling to sit up. I frowned and instantly felt guilty for allowing myself to fall asleep without checking on him first.

  “Need some help?” I asked from the doorway.

  He looked up at me and huffed. “Have they gotten you a new bodyguard yet? I can’t protect you in this state, Rosie. What if there’s retaliation for you killing Vincent?”

  “Trust me. I don’t think anyone in the world will be mad that I offed him. If anything, they’ll thank me. Besides, I’m going to be right here with you twenty-four seven. We can protect each other.”

  He went to reach for the water on the nightstand and winced.

  I rushed over to him and gave him my arm so he could pull himself up easier.

  Once he was finally in a sitting position, I handed him his water and then placed the food tray on his lap.

  I felt terrible for Lorenzo. He had always been the protector, and now that he could barely move, he looked miserable.

  After seeing him get shot, I thought I was going to lose him. He was lucky enough to only get hit in the shoulder and thigh, so it wasn’t deadly, but the last thing I wanted to happen was for him to overexert himself and rip a stitch open, causing him to bleed out or something.

  “I’m going to go change, and I’ll come back after to see if you need anything, okay?”

  “You don’t need to worry about me, Rose. I’ll be fine.”

  “Oh, shut up, would you? Let someone else take care of you for once.” If he weren’t injured, I’d punch him for being so stubborn.

  He chuckled and waved me out. “Bye, Rose.”

  When I got into my room, I stripped off all my clothes and noticed there was blood on some of them so instead of putting them in the washer, I put them straight in the trash.

  I took a quick shower, and once finished, I examined my belly in the mirror.

  It was crazy to think that I would have a baby to care for in a few months, and even though it wasn’t an ideal time, I was kind of excited.

  I was rubbing my belly, looking for differences, when my door burst open, and Claire walked in, frantic.

  I quickly moved my hands, but I mustn’t have been fast enough because her mouth opened and closed, then opened again and closed again.

  “What were you doing?” she finally asked.

  I contemplated lying, but then again, she was going to find out eventually, so what was the point?

  “I’m pregnant,” I blurted out before I lost my courage to tell her.

  “Oh, shit,” she said, sitting on my bed. “Who’s the dad?”

  Seriously? “Who do you think? I have literally never slept with anyone else. Do you really think I’m going to start now? When I’m married?”

  “You have a point. So when’s your due date?”

  “I have no idea. I have an appointment in two weeks to find out.”

  “Are you happy?”

  “Honestly? I really am. I was surprised at first, but the more I thought about it, the happier I got.”

  “Are you scared?”

  “No,” I responded confidently.

  I wasn’t. I knew I was still young and that everything had gone to shit, but I would do right by my baby. I wouldn’t allow the past to get in the way of me being a damn good mother.

  When she didn’t say anything else, I looked up to see that she was crying.

  “Hey,” I said with a frown.

  She looked up at me, frantically wiping the tears.

  “It’s going to be okay,” I reassured her.

  “I’m happy that you’re happy, and I’m glad you’re not scared, but I’m fucking terrified,” she replied, looking up.

  I was about to go on a tangent about how everything would be okay, but the distant look in her eyes stopped me. “You’re not talking about me, are you?”

  With fresh tears building in her eyes, she slowly shook her head. “I’ve known for three months already, and I don’t know what to do. I’m not as confident about this as you are. My mom’s going to disown me, and I don’t know if I can do this by myself.”

  Taking a seat beside her on the bed, I took her hand in mine.

  “And before you ask,” she continued, “my baby’s dad will not be in her life.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” I lifted her face to look at me. “It doesn’t matter because you’re one of the best people I know. And that baby? She’s going to love you no matter what, and that’s all you need.” Wrapping her in a hug, I let out a heavy sigh. “It’s okay to be scared, but you are definitely not alone. No matter what, you’ll always have me right beside you.”

  Twenty-Seven

  Rose

  I’d been busy for a while helping Lorenzo out with everything, but now he was basically back to normal. I didn’t plan on going back to work anytime soon, so for the past couple of days, I’d had a lot of time on my hands, time that I’d spent overthinking everything that had happened following that dreadful day.

  I’d asked Lorenzo how everyone was doing a few times, but he was usually very vague about his answers, and I didn’t want it to seem like I cared too much, even though a part of me wanted to grab his head and shake it for some more information.

  At least today, I had my first obstetrician appointment to keep my mind off things. In the two weeks since I’d found out, my belly had grown super-fast.

  I still hadn’t told my parents about me being pregnant. I couldn’t stand the looks of pity they gave me every time I walked into the room, so I could only imagine the kind of looks I would get if I told them that not only had I left my husband, but I was pregnant too.

  “You almost ready?” Lorenzo peeked his head into my doorway.

  “Yeah.” I made my way out of the room and gave Lorenzo a quick hug. “Thank you for taking me and for not telling anyone. I really appreciate it.”

  “No problem, Rose.” He smiled at me and nodded his head down the stairs. “Let’s go before you’re late.”

  “I don’t like this place,” Lorenzo declared as we took a seat, and I started filling out paperwork.

  “What are you saying? We just got here, and it’s one of the top-rated doctors’ offices in the area. What don’t you like about it?”

  “Well, for starters, there’s not even a thing to drink water from. What am I supposed to do if I get thirsty?”

  “You are a different breed, Lorenzo Moretti,” I answered with an eye roll.

  “Rose Rossi,” a nurse called from the hallway.

  We got up to follow the nurse, but when she saw Lorenzo get up with me, she gave him a stern glare.

  I looked from the nurse to Lorenzo and raised a brow at him in question, but he just shrugged at me.

  On the way to the room, we saw what looked like a break room with a water cooler inside and a bunch of nurses standing around it.

  “So that’s where the water is.” Lorenzo tsk-tsked. “All those people out there, and here they are, harboring the water for themselves.” All the nurses looked over, and Lorenzo shook his head. “Disappointed,” he yelled to them.

  I burst out laughing, and the nurse leading us to the room turned around and gave Lorenzo another dirty look.

  “Right in here, please,” she said with a hint of annoyance.

  Five bucks said he slept with her or maybe one of her friends, and she thought I was his pregnant wife who he’d cheated on.

  “The doctor will be right in,” she said as she walked out.

  I put my stuff down, and Lorenzo turned around so I could take off my pants and get under the sheet.

  “You might want to sit as close to my head as possible—unless you want a sneak peek at my goods.” I laughed when his face turned red.

  “Yes. Of course
, sorry,” he stammered, pushing his chair back.

  A knock on the door made me jump, and seconds later, a man poked his head in.

  “Hello, Rose, I’m Doctor Johnson.” He smiled at me and shook my hand.

  Hot damn, he was one beautiful man. Tall and muscled, with golden skin and dimples. Fucking dimples.

  I was expecting someone older, but he had to be at the most in his early thirties. I half didn’t mind the fact that he would be the one all up in my business.

  The doctor turned to Lorenzo and stuck out his hand. “You must be Dad?”

  I shook my head, and Lorenzo made a gagging sound beside me.

  “Oh, my apologies. Well, first things first, I’m going to ask a few questions, and then we can do an ultrasound to see if we can find that baby of yours.”

  After what felt like eighty questions, a nurse rolled in a cart with a screen and a bunch of wires.

  I pulled up my shirt and pushed the sheet down a little, and the doctor squeezed the gel onto my belly. I turned to Lorenzo and saw him watching the doctor’s every move.

  Lorenzo had never trusted others, but now that I was pregnant and I’d killed one of the higher-ups in New York, he was extra paranoid.

  The doctor moved the wand around a few times and let out a soft “Huh.”

  We were all looking at the screen, but he hadn’t pointed anything out, so I had no idea what I was looking at.

  “Why did you just ‘huh,’” Lorenzo barked at him.

  “Well, it looks as though you’re having twins!”

  The last thing I heard was “Shit” from Lorenzo before everything turned black.

  On our way back from the doctor’s office to my parents’ house, I could feel Lorenzo’s gaze constantly searching my face to make sure I was okay.

  After I’d come to, the doctor ran some tests and concluded that stress mixed with the lack of water had made me pass out. He also told me I was due around the beginning of November.

  I’d made another appointment for a month from now to find out the gender of the twins.

  Twins. I was having twins.

  The doctor had managed to get a few pictures, and he handed them to us on the way out.

  I guess now was as a good time as any to break the news to my parents. I felt like if I didn’t talk about it, I was going to explode.

  Lorenzo walked in before me and stopped short, causing me to crash into him and the pictures to fall onto the floor.

  “Warn me next time, would ya? Precious cargo.” I peeked around him to see what had made him stop so abruptly, and I sucked in a breath when I saw that it was Emmett.

  He wasn’t looking at Lorenzo or me, though. Nope, he was looking right at the sonogram pictures that had fallen on the floor. He must have been here for a meeting because my father came walking out of his office but stopped when he saw me.

  “Rose, I didn’t know you’d be back so soon.” His words trailed off, and he followed Emmett’s line of sight. My father was confused at first. I could tell he was trying to figure out what exactly he was looking at, but I saw the exact moment when the realization hit because his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

  Emmett snapped out of his stoic state, and his eyes shot in my direction, first looking at my belly then up to my eyes.

  “What’s that?” he finally asked.

  “Don’t play dumb, Emmett. I think you know exactly what that is.”

  “How long have you known?” He had this crazed look on his face, staring at me dead in the eyes, and he hadn’t even blinked.

  “A few weeks now. The day before I found out you killed my brother, actually.” I think every person in the room, apart from myself, flinched from the cold, harsh tone of my voice.

  Emmett went to open his mouth, but it was my father who cut in.

  “Sweetheart, I think it’s time I tell you what happened. Can everyone come into my office?” He held his hand out to his office, and Lorenzo started toward it but stopped when he saw that I wasn’t following.

  He knew.

  My father knew what happened, and he still had me marry him.

  I gave Emmett and my father a withering glare. “The time for talking has come and gone. This conversation should have happened years ago.”

  “I think it’s imperative that you know, Rose.” My father exhaled loudly. “I promised Sammy I wouldn’t tell you unless I had to, and I think the time is now.”

  He knew the mention of Sammy would change my mind.

  “Fine.” I huffed at him. “I just have one question before I move forward. Who’s taking Vincent’s place? I’ll be damned if I allow my children to be brought up in such a disgusting environment.”

  “I don’t know yet,” Emmett chimed in, “but it’s not going to be me.”

  With a huff, I picked the pictures up off the floor and walked into the office.

  Everyone took a seat, and for a few minutes, no one said anything. Finally, my father took a deep breath.

  “I took Sammy with me to New York to finish up a deal. It was supposed to be easy, shake a few hands and exchange a few things, but it was a setup. A few weeks before the meeting, Vincent was in Chicago and had made a comment about how he didn’t mind you and Emmett dating because he loved seeing a young thing prancing around. Sammy didn’t like what he was insinuating and pulled a gun on him, threatening to shoot him in the dick if he ever heard something like that come out of his mouth again.”

  He took another breath and continued. “Well, when we got to New York, we weren’t there long before we were ambushed. I hadn’t brought many men with me because it was supposed to be a clean-cut deal, so I was blindsided. Vincent tortured us for hours, Sammy getting the worst of it, and we thought we were going to die there—until Emmett showed up.”

  Twenty-Eight

  Emmett

  Nineteen Years Old

  I hated leaving Rose. The sad looks and puppy dog eyes always made me weak.

  She begged me to stay home because it was her birthday, and it was bad enough that Sam and her father weren’t there to celebrate with her. But my father had demanded I go to him or he was coming here, and I didn’t want him anywhere near Rose, so I had to go.

  Hopefully, I could just go there, see what he wanted, and leave.

  I opened the door to the warehouse and looked up to see my best friend and his father tied to a chair with blood running down their faces. Sammy was unconscious, and Mr. Romano looked like he was almost there.

  “We’ve been waiting for you.” My father came out of the shadows and poured water on Sam. “Now we can have some fun.”

  Sam woke up and looked around, probably trying to remember where he was.

  “Now that everyone’s here and awake”—my father picked up a gun from the table beside him and threw it to me, then pointed to Sammy—“kill him.”

  “What the fuck? No.” I narrowed my eyes at him.

  “See now, that’s what I thought you’d say.” He started laughing and pulled out a phone. “Don’t worry, though. I’ll get what I want.”

  He smiled and faced his phone toward us. “Now shoot him, or I’ll have my men that are following sweet little Rose shoot her instead. Regardless, one of the Romano twins is dying today.”

  I pointed the gun at my father, and he laughed even harder.

  “I thought you’d try this, too, but if my men don’t hear from me in the next”—he looked down at his watch—“ten minutes, not only will they kill her but rape her first.”

  “Why are you doing this? What the fuck is wrong with you?” He was sick. Mentally ill or something. He had to be.

  “Well, you see, Emmett, respect goes a long way. And Samuel here needs to learn that there are consequences to actions. Now, him or Rose. You pick, but just know that time’s ticking.”

  He faced the phone to us again, and I saw a video of Rose and her friend sitting at one of Rose’s favorite coffee shops. It took every ounce of power in me to not put a few bullets in my father’s
head.

  I looked to Mr. Romano, hoping for a signal or something, anything to show me there was a way out of this, but he wouldn’t even look up. I knew he was conscious because I saw him tense a few times.

  I looked back at Sam and shook my head. “No, I can’t do that.”

  “If he touches my sister, I’ll kill you and him myself,” Sam growled at me, trying to jerk his arms out of their hold.

  “Six minutes,” I heard my father whisper.

  “Just do it, Emmett,” Sam yelled, turning to his dad. “Don’t tell Rose unless you have to. I know she’ll feel guilty, but it has to be me.”

  “Five minutes,” my father said.

  Mr. Romano finally picked his head up and gave me a look of defeat. “It’s okay, Emmett, just do it.”

  “Three minutes.”

  I wished everyone would just shut up so I could fucking think for a minute. There had to be a way out of this. A plan or something, I just needed a little more time. If only everyone would just shut the fuck up.

  “Emmett,” Sam yelled at me. “Fucking do it.”

  “Two minutes.”

  “Emmett,” Sam yelled at me again.

  I turned back to Sam and nodded my head at him. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Take care of her,” he told me before turning to Vincent with a smirk. “I’ll be waiting for you in hell, Vincent.”

  I numbed myself and pulled the trigger.

  The shot that rang out echoed through the warehouse.

  I heard my father’s voice talking to someone. “Everything’s all set. You can clear out.”

  He grabbed my shoulders, and I jerked out of his grasp. “Don’t fucking touch me,” I spewed at him. “I will never fucking forgive you for this, you sick piece of shit.”

  “Oh, but you will,” he responded. “You don’t have much of a choice now.”

  I untied Sammy, threw his body over my shoulder, and slipped a knife into John’s hand so he could get himself out.