"Check mate!" I exclaimed with a huge grin on my face.
"Oh man," Riccardo muttered sadly. "I need a break and I'm hungry."
Riccardo stood up and walked out of the room and I heard him go down the stairs, he probably was going to check the fridge.
My brother had come four days ago and we had had so much fun even when I still can't leave my bed. He got several board games, cards, and brought almost his entire collection of video games.
I had never played chess before because no one bothered to teach me how it was played, Riccardo was patient enough with me and after four days I finally won.
My parents had gone back to Italy but they promised to come back soon, I had to be honest with them and told them they were stressing me, so the following days they just came for a few hours and instead of worrying about me like they had been doing we watched TV or talked about stuff that had been happening lately.
Riccardo wasn't supposed to come yet but he bought himself the ticket and got here without telling our parents, he still needed to go to school. My parents called the headmaster and told him Riccardo had gotten a very bad virus but he was going back to school next week, which was a complete lie.
Things had also been improving. I had two other check ups, one was six days after the one I had when my parents were here and everything seemed okay, so the doctor recommended us to keep waiting and the other check up wasn't in other six days, but ten.
I had another check up scheduled eleven day after that one, so in six days, that's if I still have to get it. Despite everything that happened and against all odds, I'm now only eight days away from my due date, but the baby could come any time now. The day was approaching really fast.
Even when things were improving and the doctor was being positive, I wasn't allowed to get out of bed yet. The doctor thought it was for the best, I'm almost done with this pregnancy anyway, so I could do this for another week. Especially now that my brother is here and entertains me really well.
Eight days ago Fiorella, my cousin's daughter turned one. She organized a big party for her, in the whatsapp group we have for the family many pictures were sent. One was of Fiorella and Natalia, they both had gotten so big.
The next day Fiorella's grandmother, so my aunt Valentina and aunt Veronica had their birthdays, one was turning forty-eight and the other forty-one.
And only three days ago my cousin Sabrina gave birth to a boy. Both of them are still in the hospital, but Bianca had sent a picture on the whatsapp group and that boy is just so adorable. He has very light blonde hair, it seems white, and apparently his eyes are blue. He is also a very big boy, he weighed more than Tomasso's kid and Uncle Gianluigi's.
So now, Uncle Fabrizio and Aunt Valentina have two grandchildren. A girl who just turned one, only five days before the boy was born. Both are very different though. Fiorella is a brunette and has grey eyes.
The name of the baby was Camilo Martin Fausti, we actually considered Camilo for ours but I guess that was out of the question now, we could maybe use it as a second name, though.
So, I was next. Everyone expected me to have a boy because so far three boys had been born. Leopoldo, Samuele and now Camilo. Last year only girls were born, Fiorella and Natalia, so I guess this year was for boys.
Sabrina's fiance, Cesare, yes, they had gotten engage, he owned a small sport club for kids. There was karate, tennis, a swimming pool, ballet, badminton and gymnastics. He was thinking about building more so he could offer more sports. I actually thought he had a great job, I wouldn't mind owning a sport club, especially because I love sports.
"Do you really think your baby will be born on February 29th?" Riccardo asked me once he was back, he had brought three plates with a lot of food on a tray, plus he had gotten some bags of junk food and sweets.
"You will make me poor, kid."
"One plate is for you," he told me. "So, you're welcome."
"It's not time for lunch yet."
"Yes it is, look."
Riccardo showed me his phone and indeed, it was lunch time. Antoine was in the study, trying to finish getting the crib together but this time he asked for Enrique's help.
"You never answered me," Riccardo said as he sat on my bed and started eating. "Do you think the baby will actually be born on that day?"
"Not really, it might be born earlier. Any day now actually... even today. It would be cool if it's born on that day though."
"Will you celebrate its birthday every four years?" Riccardo asked with a chuckle. "That will suck! Presents every four years, that will be hard."
"Hmm, yeah. Might be brutal... but seriously, in that case I don't know what I would do. Celebrate it on the 28th or the 1st of March. I've got no idea. We'll see."
"Are you nervous?"
"Yeah... I try not to think about it because the stress is not good but yeah, I'm terrified. The date is approaching and every day I wake up even more anxious and just scared that something might go wrong. There is already a tear so anything can happen, even the doctor told me that it might be a complicated birth."
"Then, wouldn't it better to get a c-section?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"But Margie, you shouldn't worry so much because I know everything will be just fine. I have this feeling and I know it. Things might get rough, I won't deny that but at the end everything will be alright."
"Thanks," I whispered, trying not to burst into tears. "I haven't told Antoine this but I feel so guilty, every day."
"Why?"
"I never, ever, wanted to have kids, I just... I just didn't. So I feel like I provoked what happened because of that, because I sort of alwaus had some rejection feelings and I just wished I could change it... not be pregnant. So I almost killed both of them."
"You didn't do that. Things like this happen, you didn't kill the other baby. You got beaten, that man killed it. And what happened days ago... you didn't do that either. You have stayed in this bed since you got out of the hospital. I don't even know how you do it, I would have gone crazy and jumped out the window. If that's not love, then I don't know what it is, especially you, who just can't stay without exercise for more than a couple of days. You care... maybe you didn't want this at first but you would never do anything to harm a baby. You even stopped exercising all those months ago, which is what you love the most. You knew that you had to make sacrifices for its safety and health. I would agree with you and blame you if you had smoked, drank, exercised even after the doctor said no, or done anything bad but you haven't."
I didn't even know what to say to my brother, he seemed more mature than me right now. I was so shocked by his words. So all I could do was nod as some tears fell down my face.
"Oh now what?" Antoine said as he walked inside the room.
"Pregnant women," Riccardo exclaimed with a shook of his head. "She got emotional because she finally won on chess."
I chuckled and nodded as I wiped my tears. Antoine chuckled too and called me silly as he walked to the bed and hugged me and wiped the new tears.
When I calmed down, we continued eating and this time Antoine joined us. He said he was almost done but he needed some food.
Antoine hadn't left my side ever since I ended up in hospital, I understand that he wouldn't want to go play the matches to other cities and countries but he had asked permission to not go training as well.
I wanted him to go out of the house and just release the stress and have some fun but he said that anything could happen while he was away, I could go into labour or I could start bleeding again and he claimed he needed to be with me if that happened.
We have also put a stop to the trials for now. We had one in January but with the bed rest and me, having to avoid stressful situations, had no choice but to tell my lawyer I couldn't go to the trial. The judge had decided to move the trial's date until the end of March or even early April.
That also gave the detectives and lawyers some more time to gather more information on Mohammed, he was the leader and was the one who beat me, the one who broke into my house and the one who caught me again when I escaped.
I had even refused to talk to my lawyer because I wanted to forget about it all for a while. I got Antoine to tell him I couldn't talk to him for now, Antoine explained what had happened to me and things were delicate. So my lawyer told the judge and he was the one who got the date change.
Even if I wanted to go, I couldn't leave my bed on doctor's orders. If I did, I would put the baby and me on danger.
"Why don't you stay here for a bit and we can play monopoly or something like that?" I said to Antoine as I grabbed his hand to stop him from leaving the room.
"We played that only two days ago."
"Yeah but when you are in bed all day long for around a month you eventually run out of games to play," I told Antoine, giving him a look. "We can play cards too."
"Alright, let's play monopoly."
We were playing the Europe version of the game, back at home we had one of only Italy, I also had one of Harry potter and there was one of the World Cup 2006, I got that one. Uncle Gianluigi bought it for me.
The first country I bought was Italy, I made Riccardo really upset by that but then he bought France, which Antoine wanted.
"I'll buy Spain then," he said with a shrug. "I'll make you sell France to me, eventually."
Almost every country was bought now and I had almost no money left when my phone vibrated. My smile disappeared when I saw the ID. I ignored the call and threw the die, I ended in Holland, which was Antoine's. I paid him and continued playing, I was getting poorer and poorer.
I got some money when Riccardo landed on Switzerland, which was mine and then Antoine landed on Luxembourg, it was mine too. But I lost that money later, I gave almost all my money to Riccardo.
Neymar called again and Antoine noticed I wasn't answering my phone. The third time my phone vibrated he couldn't help but ask.
"Who is it? If it's your parents then..."
"It's Neymar."
"Why is he calling you?" Antoine asked me, confused.
"Who knows? Maybe something about the trial, about Mohammed, I just don't know."
"Has he called you before?"
"The day after Mohammed broke in, he was scared."
We continued playing but without noticing Antoine got my phone and when Neymar called again, he answered the phone. Riccardo and I just stared at him as he spoke.
"Neymar hi, how you've been?... You wanted to talk to Margie? She's sleeping, so you can tell me what you wanted and I will tell her when she wakes up... no, really, tell me what's up...Oh okay, the trial, yeah. We don't know the exact date but some day around the end of March... Yeah, there were some complications with the baby."
I looked at Antoine, he had refused to put the call on speaker but I could hear Neymar's voice. He sounded nervous and he was stuttering a lot, he obviously didn't expect my boyfriend to get the call instead of me.
"Of course... Oh and Neymar, please don't call her again, even if it's about the trial. She's in a very delicate condition right now and she doesn't need any kind of stress, even our lawyer is not allowed to talk to her right now. I know this concerns you too but just talk to your lawyer and we will go to the court soon... So please, don't make things worse for her and don't call her anymore. Thanks a lot."
Antoine handed me the phone and sat on the bed again and grabbed the die as if nothing had happened. He was upset, I knew it, but he was hiding it. I also knew Antoine wanted to tell him so many things but he was extremely polite to him for me, he wanted to make everything seem okay so I wouldn't even bother with that call.
"Thanks," I told him. "I really didn't want to talk to him."
"Why does he have your number?"
"I don't know. I didn't give it to him, maybe the lawyer... I don't know."
"If he keeps calling, we'll change it. He has to understand he is not our friend and he is not welcome here. The only reason we see him so often and we talk to him now is because we have no choice, he was kidnapped too and we have to discuss it with the lawyers and go to trials, we have to work together if we want to win this. Our enemies now are those men but as soon as all that is over, he will become our biggest enemy again we won't ever talk to him again."
"I think he knows that. He always lowers his head when you are close."
"Well, he should. He should feel embarrassed for what he did. I hope it eats him at night and..."
"Can we just keep playing?" I said to Antoine as I gazed at my brother, who looked really uncomfortable, Antoine realized that and nodded. "So, it's my turn, right?"
Antoine ended up winning the game. I lost first, I lost every property I had bought, all my money and eventually I couldn't keep up. Riccardo was doing good, until he had two bad throws and landed on Antoine's countries, he lost almost everything. They kept playing for five minutes until Riccardo gave everything to Antoine.
As he promised he got France at the end and he was proud about that, he also got Italy from me when I lost.
Antoine pecked my lips after he put everything inside the box and then he walked out of the room, he needed to finish the crib.
"I'm sorry about earlier," I told my brother.
"It's okay," he said with a shrug. "It's not cool that dude is calling you. Is it true, though?"
"What is true?"
"Has he just called you that one time?"
"No," I said with a sigh. "He has called me more times. Before and after the Mohammed incident. He even got another number because I blocked him."
"Why is he calling you?"
"Because he still loves me... even when I tell him to back off."
"Why haven't you told Antoine? Maybe he can do something."
"He has so many stuff to worry about right now. And I don't want him to think he's calling me because I want him to, I don't want him to think we are talking or something like that. I wouldn't blame if he thinks that, though. I cheated once, it's understandable if he doesn't fully trust me yet. And I don't want Antoine to make something stupid."
"Like what?"
"Like going after Neymar and punch him when he sees him, we just see him for the trials... he would go straight to jail if he did that in there."
"He wouldn't be so stupid to do that in a court room."
"Angriness makes you do all kind of stupid things. I'm not going to risk it. I can tell him after the trials are over."
"Then he might just punch him during a match."
"And then he will get a red card, another reason why I haven't told him. But that would be best than being arrested."
"It's complicated, they have to see each other at least twice a year."
"Usually more."
"Well, let's not talk about this anymore. What do you want to play now? Chess, checkers, cards? Or should we change to video games now?"
"Let's play chess, I bet I can beat you again."
"In your dreams."
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Hi guys! In like 15 minutes I'm going on a short trip so I could barely post this! But I hope you liked it! I doubt I will have internet where I'll go so you will hear from me in a few days!
Please comment your thoughts! And Happy Ney Year everyone!