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"We're pulling ahead."
His eyes are flashing at me. "Do you mean to tell me – "
“Yep. Ivy’s going to be a big sister.”
“Congrats,” he says with a grin. “This is a contest I don’t mind losing.”
I take a big bite of a cookie. I’m starving. "Now why is one of the Rossis here, and what was Aria doing all night?"
Mikhail looks thoughtful. "You guys should get dressed and come downstairs. Probably better for us all to talk at the same time."
Huh.
A few minutes later, we go downstairs. As soon as Polina sees Ivy, she sweeps her up in her arms and sits her on her lap and hands her a bottle of juice shaped like a Disney princess. They make the strangest things for kids.
“Alright, what's going on?” I pour a cup of coffee for Harper before I pour myself a cup. Wordlessly, I slide two sugars and two creams in it, then hand it to her. She smiles and nods her thanks.
"Impressive," Nikko says.
"What?"
"You know how she takes her coffee. You got hers first. Who are you?”
"A happily married man. Shut up. Are you going to tell me or what?”
The door to the kitchen opens and Mom comes out arm in arm with none other than Marialena Rossi. I haven't seen her in ages, not since we visited Boston years ago.
“Marialena! Harper, this is Mario’s sister Marialena. Marialena, this is my wife, Harper.” It’ll never fail to make my chest swell with pride calling her that.
Harper smiles and extends her hand. “Nice to meet you."
"Oh, my God,” Marialena says, staring at Harper with wide, beautiful, brown eyes. "Nikko showed me the footage of you shooting. You are amazing. I've never seen anything like it, even in the movies."
Harper blushes a little bit.
"Sheisamazing," I say. “What are you doing here?"
Aria enters next, holding a laptop. Her glasses are perched on her nose, and she looks like she just woke up, her clothes all rumpled. "Marialena happened to be in the area, she's going to a convention.” She turns to Harper. "The Rossis own a little boutique in Boston, and sometimes they come here to New York to source their wares. She was here this weekend and I needed to talk with her. I needed to delve into family history.”
Family history. What the fuck?
Aria purses her lips at me. "You should check your texts once in a while, Aleksandr."
I narrow my eyes at her.
"Can’t I sleep in for once in my life?”
"No,” they all say in unison. I throw my hands up in the air.
"Go on. What were you gonna tell me?”
“The Bianchi family has a long history with the Rossis. You know that the Bianchis don't like the Rossis, but the reason is because the Rossi family invested quite a sum of money in Harper's dad's business, and when it went up, they lost everything they invested." She turns to Harper. "What do you know about your dad's business ventures?"
She shakes her head. "Not much. My father is Italian mafia, he came up under the belief that women didn't have anything to do with business, so we were left ignorant about all of it."
Marialena laughs out loud. "Girl, you and I need to have a chat.”
Harper smiles. "Maybe we do."
