Roses & Ruin

Chapter 13 (Anthony)

My cousin has a loose maternity shirt on, and of course she was dressed stylishly either way. She's a mafia princess through and through. I could see her eyes were red rimmed, but I honestly expected to open the door to a blubbering mess, so at least she was composed.

        My cousin is a pretty girl. She's got really long dark hair like the Italian girls do and caramel colored eyes like her brother and her niece. Before all this she maintained a good body that always had my buddies looking, keeping me and Enzo busy knocking skulls together. She's still got her long legs, but her body is just like a baby beach ball under a designer top.

"Hey G," I opened my arms to her and let her fall into them. She immediately tucked her face into my chest, which means she's more upset than I first thought. She's done that since we were kids, but only when she was really sad. 

Giana stayed there a minute and I rubbed her back waiting for her to say something.

"Come on, come inside and sit somewhere. You hungry? I made you something" I told her. Somehow that made her start to cry. "What'd I do?" I was confused.

        Giana pulled her head away from my chest and clutched her round belly. "Nothing, you're just too good to me. I don't know where I'd go if I didn't have you" she was hiccuping and sniffling. "Alright, alright. Calm down. Let's talk" I led her to the sofa. I'm dying to know. I needa know who the fucking father is.

When Giana sat down I got her some tissues and sat on the coffee table in front of her, instead of beside her on the sofa. 

"Well?" I asked, since she wasn't forthcoming with the information. "It was a disaster" she started. "What happened? Tell me everything" I nodded for her to go ahead. She sniffled, but fixed herself on the sofa ready to tell me.

        "We all showed up, but we can't be in a room together anymore without there being a problem. Dom's so mad at me. It just puts so much more stress on me. Trying to figure out where to live, whose who, and what's what," she huffed, wiping her nose. 

When Giana moved to Italy 6 months ago she forfeited her lease. So she technically doesn't have her old apartment anymore.

"They embarrassed me at the appointment. Arguing and cursing. Alessandro showed up with a black and blue face and Dom's knuckles were purple. I know Dr. Greco was judging me. I pray he doesn't speak to daddy. It's awful. Maybe God is punishing me" she started to sniffle again.

"G, I think if God was real he'd be busy punishing the actual bad guys. You aren't bad. You fucked up a little bit, but you aren't bad" I patted her arm for support then waved for her to continue. She didn't get on with the results, instead she circled back to Dom. I could tell it was eating at her.

        "He yelled at me so much for lying to him and hiding that I was still pregnant. He said it wasn't right to lie about terminating, but I told him it wasn't right that he fucked me while picturing his stupid girlfriend, then gutting an Irish underboss in a blind rage. That shut him up" a little bit of her spitfire finally shined through.

"You're killing me here. Who's the father, Giana" I huffed that I even had to drag this out of her. "Oh, we don't know yet" she deadpanned. My head did a double take. "What do you mean?!" I stayed slack jawed in confusion.

"They took the paternity test, but the results don't come right then and there. The lab results will come back within the next few days hopefully. But the guys are asking me to keep this on the low until we find out for sure who's kid it is. Basically they don't want everyone in an uproar. Or in Dom's case, he's panicking that Mia is gonna dump his ass again," 

Giana started grumbling the last part.

        "Fucking hell...I thought you knew. I've been anticipating an answer" I slapped my own forehead. "I would be more of a wreck if I had the answer, don't you think?" She tipped her head at me, and I was glad to see a little bit of her natural attitude coming through. I don't want her all sad and shit. It can't be good for the baby.

Giana tipped her nose up and sniffed the air. With her hand rubbing her big belly she looked around.  "Did you say you made food?" She asked me. I chuckled and helped her up off the couch so she could head to the table. She's at that stage in pregnancy when you can't really stand up on the first try. Like a Rollie pollie, but I won't say that to her or she'll probably cry about it. 

Every time I face timed with her while she was living in Italy she complained she was fat, so.

        "Enzo called me, ya know" I beat around the bush a little bit while I served her a plate. She peeked up at me, but was already digging in. "For what? He's an asshole too. Every man in my life is a complete shit head except you, Anthony" she smiled at me for once. 

Kissing ass is what it is, because she knows my ass is too damn tall to sleep on my sofa, but I'm doing it anyway so she can have my bed tonight.

"He's worried about you, whether he wants to show it or not" I defended her brother, only a little. "If he cared he shouldn't have forced me to go to Italy in the first place. He's the one who wanted me to hide it, you know. Him and Dad, that whole thing was their idea because I brought shame to the Rizzo name" she spat the last part.

"Like you idiots don't shame the Rizzo name every day when you're out there committing crimes and fucking whores" she waved her fork around in enthusiasm. 

        "Hey, I'm not an idiot," I defended her general accusation of the Rizzo men. "Kinda, not as much as everyone else, but definitely a little bit" she teased me. I think it was teasing. Probably not. "Listen, all that shit is behind you now. Just chill out today. Eat, take a hot shower, and go lay down for a while. It'll be good for you. Nobody's gonna bug you here" I promised her. 

I hope not at least. If my uncle comes over here starting problems I really don't wanna fucking deal with it. I don't think he will though. He just doesn't know what the hell to do about this whole situation.

"I will, but, um, can I have a little more?" The expecting mother feeding for two peeked up at me like a kid asking for a second scoop of ice cream. "It's all yours" I waved over to the pan on the stove. Well...I guess we gotta wait to know who the father is. This weeks most anticipated answer. 

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Author's Note: Did you guys think you were about to find out who's the baby daddy? lol