I walked into the nursery and saw Angelica holding Livia while Anya was sitting next to her just looking at Livia in pure adoration. At this moment, I didn't regret what I had done to Maria. I deserved to be a father to at least one of our children. I was thankful that Maria and I had been given two children. She got to keep our son who would carry on her father's legacy and I had a daughter that would grow up to be strong and fierce like a Romanov. My mother walked in after being away for months traveling to stay away from my father and his mistress. "You know, oddly that little girl looks so much like you, Nikolay." She kissed my cheek and handed me an envelope and a small box. "This was sitting in the foyer on that awful table, I thought you might like to see what's inside." She smiled and walked away.
I quietly opened the letter and it was a single line.
I know it was you.
I opened the box and in it was the key to the house in the Hampton's. Maria knew. How the hell did she find out? What did she find out? Fuck.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Maria
We had gotten home from the hospital about a week ago. I'm not allowed to move around much with all of the stitches and how sore I am still from all of the injuries. I tried to sit up in bed by myself but as soon as Paolo saw me struggling, he ran to my side to help me. "I can do it myself!" I screamed at him. Paolo still continued to help me sit up because he knew I couldn't do it by myself no matter how hard I tried.
"Maria, stop being so stubborn, please. I am trying to help you. The doctors gave orders that you don't do anything that re-open one of your wounds." He scolded me like a child. Perhaps he was right in doing so. After all, I was acting like a child. I had been nothing but terrible to him since we got home.
I felt tears rolling down my cheeks as he sat down in the bed next to me and held me closely to him. He stroked my hair and kissed my forehead softly a couple of times. "I'm so sorry for the way I've acted." I slowly looked up into his warm brown eyes as he moved his hand to my face to wipe away my tears.
"It's been hard on both of us. I'm sorry for being so suffocating and treating you like a child who can't do anything for herself." He softly placed his lips on mine and for a moment things began to feel normal.
"I've lost a piece of my soul and piece of my heart," I whispered.
"I know, love. Aria may not have been my biological daughter but she was mine nonetheless. My heart aches for her and for you. I hate that I didn't push the doctors hard enough to save her. I hate that I couldn't protect our daughter. I hate that I couldn't protect you. I swear that Vincent will never get hurt under my care." I saw tears softly falling from his eyes. I reached up, just like he had done for me, and wiped away his tears.
"I shouldn't have gone out there. It was my fault. I put our babies in danger. I was the one who did this. You did everything you could to protect me. you gave up everything to protect me when you didn't even have to. I know you won't let anything happen to Vincent. When he grows older I know he will be your little shadow. He will aspire to be just like you. You're his father, Paolo." I kissed him passionately. Vincent started to cry and Paolo darted across the room to him. I couldn't help but laugh at how quickly he got to Vincent.
Paolo picked him up slowly and carefully and wrapped him in a blanket then handed him to me as he rejoined me in bed. Vincent's eyes were wide open and staring into mine. I felt as though he saw my soul. He reached his hands up to my face and all my heartache and pain subsided. "You will grow strong, my little love. You will grow to be fierce and brave. You will grow to love and have no fears. You're Papa and I will make sure of it. Won't we Papa?" I looked up at Paolo but he was out cold. He had barely slept between caring for me and caring for Vincent. Vincent cooed and blew little spit bubbles as we just looked silently into each other's eyes.
Paolo
I woke up to find Maria and Vincent asleep. I picked up Vincent and laid him back in his crib carefully so that I didn't wake him up. Maria was asleep soundly. She looked so peaceful when she slept. I checked the time on my watch and realized that it was 4am. We had slept the entire day away again. We seemed to continually do that every day. We had fallen into a routine effortlessly. I carefully moved her to a more comfortable position and tucked the covers around her. I needed to get something to drink before I joined her again.
I walked downstairs and saw Xavier sitting in the living room. I grabbed a glass from the bar and some ice, pouring myself a glass of whiskey. I joined him and sat on the couch opposite. "You okay, Xavier?" He glanced up from where he was staring at the floor.
"I shouldn't have let her go out there, Paolo. I should have told her to stay inside." He sighed and took a gulp of his drink.
"She doesn't blame you. She blames herself more than anything." I took a sip from my glass.
"I shouldn't be alive. It should have been me who got hurt, not her."
"It was a targeted attack. It was the Russians. They would have taken you out if it had been anyone else out there with you. Somehow they knew she would go out there. I think we have another breach in security, Xavier."
"Another breach in security? That's not possible. We haven't had any issues since Marco was taken out." He took another sip.
"The man that Belle brought to the funeral. I think he's sunk his claws into her and pretty damn deep too. The way she talks to Maria anymore and the fact that she moved out and told her father to go to hell for trying to make her stay makes me all the more suspicious." I stood up and poured myself another glass.
"Uncle Gio never said she moved out. He actually hasn't been around since the funeral. You think Belle's gone behind our backs and is making moves against us now? All because Maria called her out for bringing a date to the funeral?"
"I think that's the most likely case. No one else wants to cross Maria. The late Don may have been ruthless but she's more calculated. She will destroy the people who cross her or make her feel threatened. She wants to destroy the Russians after what happened. She's hell-bent on making them pay by killing the Russian council and the wives of their men. She doesn't know that I've overheard her talking to the council members. She's almost ready to strike, Xavier. We have to stop her from making things worse than they already are." I chugged down the rest of my drink and stood up.
"You won't be able to stop her, Paolo. She'll hate you for it if you try. This is her closure. They killed your daughter indirectly but killed her nonetheless. If you try and stop her...she will never forgive you. If you try and stop her...her heart will shatter all over again because this time she'll lose you. She'll lose the only man that I have ever seen actually care for her and choose her every single time. Don't stop her. They killed our mother. They killed our father. They killed your child. Don't stop her." I couldn't hear anymore. I quickly walked upstairs and into Maria and I's room. She was still sound asleep. I crawled back into bed and carefully pulled her into my arms and held her close to me.
I inhaled the smell of her hair and sighed. I had a life that I had never imagined that I could have. I had never wanted a woman to go through what my mother went through. Maria knew that and she understood it.
I ran downstairs to help my mom make dinner. It was my favorite time of the day. Mom always made the best food ever. She loved to cook. Dad said she should have gone back to culinary school after they had my sister. "Paolo, baby, what do you want for dinner tonight? You're sister and dad are going out to celebrate her passing her drivers test. So it's just us tonight." Mom smiled as she sat at the kitchen table sipping on some tea.
"Can you make that soup that Gramma taught you to make when you and dad went to Tuscany last summer?" I grabbed a glass of water and joined mom at the table.
"Of course, baby. Gramma's soup it is!" She stood up and kissed the top of my head. The phone started to ring and she answered it. The look on her face was forever ingrained in my mind. Glass shattered all over the floor and she dropped to her knees. I rushed over to her as she started to cry and scream.
"Ma
ma, what happened?" I asked as I tried to clean up the glass.
"It's your father and your sister. That was Don Vincent. They got a call from one of our doctors."
"Mama, what happened? What about Dad? What about Liliana?" I took her hands in mine.
"Your father's dead and your sister is missing. She wasn't in the car when the police arrived. Don Vincent is going to come and get you. You're going to go hang out with Maria for a bit while I take care of this."
I flashed back to reality when I felt Maria kicking and thrashing. She must have been having a nightmare. I shook her a bit, "Maria, wake up. Wake up, baby." She opened her eyes and tears were streaming down her cheeks.
"Paolo..." She spoke softly.
"What is it? Did you have a nightmare?" I wiped some of her tears away and pushed her hair back behind her ears.
"It happened again. Over and over and over." She must have been talking about what happened to her. I held her close in my arms and rocked her back and forth. It wasn't helping her much so I picked her up gently and walked with her in my arms to the bathroom. I sat her on the chair that she used to sit in to do her makeup before the attack. I ran some warm bath water and put some lavender oil in the water. I undressed her carefully and gently set her in the warm water. I undressed and slipped in behind her so that I could hold her close to me.
I felt her instantly relax as she leaned backward and rested the back of her head on my left shoulder. "You don't have to talk about it anymore, baby. Just breathe. Just relax and breathe." I wrapped my arms around her and kissed the back of her head softly.
"I love you, Paolo." Maria spoke quietly. She said it. She said she loved me.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Nikolay
I sat in the nursery holding my beautiful baby girl. She was wide awake and cooing as I rocked her back and forth in the chair. "You look so much like her." I felt a few tears fall down my cheeks. I would never get over her. I tried to but not matter what I did, Maria would forever hold my heart. I heard soft footsteps coming towards the door. I wiped away my tears and stood up from the chair and placed my darling Livia in her crib. The door opened and I turned to face whoever was walking into the room. It was Angelika. "Hey baby, what're you doing up so late? I thought you were asleep?" I pulled her into my arms and kissed her forehead.
"I woke up and you weren't there so I figured you'd be in here." She wrapped her arms around me but she felt tense.
"Are you having those nightmares again?"
"It's not a big deal."
"It is a big deal. Angelika, what happened to your parents and with how young you were...it should have never happened. My father should have done more." I held her tighter.
"He did plenty." She pulled away and walked out the door. I stood there confused. What just happened? I dialed her cell multiple times but it went straight to voicemail. I texted Demitry and asked if her had seen her or may have known where she had run off to and she said he didn't have a clue. I figured the next logical person to ask would be my father. He was basically a father to her so he had to have known where she went. He texted back and said he'd find her and bring her home. At least I knew she was safe.
Angelika
I grabbed my keys and headed to my car. I couldn't be there. Things were starting to piece back together after the last round of Nikolay's father reminding me that he owned me. I didn't have a choice. Anton had told his father everything and in turn his father had told me everything. He had gotten the Italian Donna pregnant shortly after they had met and she had their children. She was playing pretend with a fake husband and Nikolay had faked their daughters death so that he could have at least one of their children. I could hardly look at him after his father had told me.
I pulled into the cemetery and turned the car off. I was forbidden from seeing my mother's grave but I needed to see it and talk to her like we used to. I missed everything that I had before the accident. The Russians took everything from me and forced me to lie and do things that I had never imagined. Nikolay's father owned me in every way. When I turned eighteen he would loan me to his friends for whatever they wanted. He treated me like his personal sex slave. Nikolay didn't know everything that his father did.
I walked up to my mother's grave and knelt down. "Hi Mama, I'm so sorry for everything that happened all those years ago. I wish that night had never happened. I wish I hadn't passed my drivers test and that daddy and I hadn't gone out to celebrate. He would still be here and so would you. Mama, right now I need you. I need your guidance. I wish things were so much different." I felt the tears rolling down my cheek. I heard leaves rustle behind me and I started to panic. What if someone had followed me? I got up quickly but it was too late. There was a tall man in a black coat walking towards me. He had something in his hand, was it a gun?
"Who are you and what're you doing here?" I froze.
"I'm sorry. I got a little turned around." He got closer and I saw that he had a bunch of flowers in his hand.
"Who are you?" He spoke softly.
"My name is...I'm visiting a friend's grave." I couldn't let him know my name.
"Your name is what?" He was standing in front of me and when I looked in his eyes everything came back.
"Mama! Paolo's pulling on my hair again!"
"Mama! Paolo took my dolly!"
"Mama! Paolo won't play with me!"
"Mama! When is Paolo coming home?"
"Mama! Where is Paolo?"
"You...you're..." before he could finish I dropped to my knees and cried. He fell to his knees too and pulled close to him.
"Paolo..." I hugged him so tightly. My brother. My brother was alive.
"Livia! Oh my sweet little sister!" He squeezed me and held me in his arms for what seemed like hours. I had forgotten what my name used to be. Nikolay named his daughter after me…
"How is this possible? You're dead. Does that mean I'm dead too?" He wiped away my tears as we sat at our mother's grave.
"I'm alive, Livia. You're alive. You were thought to be dead after we spent the past ten years looking for you. Where have you been?" I snapped back to reality. The Russians. Nikolay. His father.
"I can't be here. I shouldn't be here. They'll know I've been here." I started to hyperventilate.
"Calm down. We'll protect you. Maria and I will protect you from whoever it is that you're worried about."
"Maria? The Italian Donna?" I looked at him with wide eyes.
"Yes, Livia. What made you so scared?"
"She can't protect me. He'll find me. He'll finish what he started. They'll send him." I got up and ran to my car. If I didn't get back they'd send someone to look for me. They'd send Anton. He'd kill Paolo and then finish off the Italian Donna and her son.
"Wait!! Livia!!!" I slammed on the gas and sped back to my apartment. Nikolay would think that I'd needed space and that's what I would run with. It took my thirty minutes to drive to the apartment and when I got there my door was unlocked. I slowly pushed open the door and saw a single lap on and there he sat. My captor. My worst nightmare. Nikolay's father.
"You've been out, my little pet." He stood and held out his hand for me to walk towards him.
"I needed some space to think. I apologize."
"So you went somewhere that you know you aren't allowed to be?" He knew. I should have known better. I did know better. I didn't answer. It was better that I kept my mouth shut and to just take whatever punishment he deemed fit. He waited for a response so I answered.
"I didn't mean to. I...I had a terrible dream and that was the only place I knew I could breathe. I'm so sorry." He grabbed my wrists and pushed me into the wall that was beside the chair.
"You knew that you weren't allowed there. Yet, you went anyways. You knew, Livia. You knew better." He pulled me from the wall and into my bedroom. I knew that I didn't stand a chance against him. I tried to fight him last time and I ended up with a broken nose and bruises.
"Please, please don't do this. I swear it won'
t happen again. Please!" I screamed at the top of my lungs as he pushed me onto the bed.
"You belong to me and my word is law. You deliberately disobeyed me and you know the price for that. How will it feel to tell my son that you're carrying my child? My son is falling for you and you'll have to tell him that you're carrying his father's child. He'll hate you and you won't have a safe place anymore, Livia. After all he named his daughter after the little girl he overheard me and his mother arguing about when I brought you here. He wouldn't know it was you unless he saw your beautiful blonde hair again. I did like you blonde but I prefer you like this." He bound my hands with his belt and tied my restrained hands to the post of my headboard with his tie. He pulled my pants off and pushed my shirt up.
I closed my eyes but that didn't stop the tears from flowing. I tried to block out what he was doing. This wasn't the first time and I knew it wouldn't be the last. I felt him enter me and I screamed out in fear and hate. "Please stop!" He put his hand over my mouth but I continued to scream against it.
"Shut up! You're going to cause a scene. That's the last thing you need right now, whore." I sobbed and tried to fight him. I knew I wouldn't get anywhere but I had to try.
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After he had finished and I laid in my bed sobbing he kissed my forehead and threw money at me and left. I got up and went to take a shower, trying to avoid looking in the mirror. I didn't want to see how bad the cuts and bruises were this time. I ran warm water and stepped in. The water stung against my skin and I began to cry again. I leaned backwards into the corner of the shower and slowly ended up sitting on the floor, sobbing. I finished my shower and got out, wrapping a towel gently around me. I absentmindedly looked into my mirror and what I saw was much worse than what he had done to me time and time before.
Dangerously In Love: Mafia In Love Series, Book One Page 12