Page 52 of Entangled

“I’m not too polite, you fucking ass.”

She was grateful that her aunt and uncle had been sweet enough to pick out a nursery set for her, as once she was no longer able to hide the fact she was pregnant, they were the first people she had told. She had told her brother second.

A whole lot of questions followed, from both ends. To be fair, Tommas asked a whole lot less questions than her aunt and uncle. Questions about the father, or the fact she was just a few months off graduating. That led them into the fact the baby would come soon after, or shortly before, graduation. Then, even more questions about the baby’s father.

Cara supposed the questions were normal, given her circumstance. She chose not to answer specific ones, while she gave vague answers for others.

She rubbed a hand over her twenty-eight-week pregnancy swell to soothe the jabbing elbows of her unborn son driving into her organs. Inside her apartment, Cara found her aunt moving a few pieces of small furniture out of the hallway to make it easier to get the crib inside what had been Lea’s bedroom.

Cara finally got around to cleaning it all out.

She had a reason to now, after all.

“The rest of the nursery set will be delivered,” Daniele said, “so at least for the rest of the furniture, you won’t need someone to carry it in.”

Cara agreed. “Thanks for all of this, Zia.”

“No need to thank me, Cara. You work hard and I know you’ll be a good mother, so you deserve all the help and whatever else you can get, believe me.” Daniele went back to her work, randomly asking, “Of course, you could get lots of help by way of the baby’s father.”

Cara side-eyed her aunt, trying not to be too rude when she replied, “Zia, I am sure he will help, but right now, I am handling this on my own. And I am okay with that, as I have told you many times. The father is my business. Please respect that.”

“I worry about you, Cara, that’s all.”

“I’m perfectly fine, Zia.”

“Yes, yes, I know. You keep saying that.” Daniele waved a hand at her. “Go check on your uncle, and make sure he hasn’t had a heart attack in the stairwell.”

Cara set her purse and phone on the couch, before going to do as her aunt wanted. Just as she reached the end of the hallway, Claud was finally pulling the large crib box through the stairwell door.

“See, I managed just fine on my own,” Claud muttered.

“Huffing, puffing, and red-faced the whole way,” Cara agreed.

Her uncle shot her a dirty look, but didn’t respond.

“I think just setting it in the bedroom will be good enough for today,” she added with a smile. “No need to put you through the torture of setting the crib up today, too.”

“Who will do it for you, Cara?” Claud asked, pulling the box down the hallway toward her apartment. “Gian? His brother, perhaps?”

Cara froze, her back turned to her uncle. “What did you just say?”

“Nothing. I was thinking out loud. It was nothing.”

She slowly turned around. “It was not nothing—you specifically said a name, not that I have given you a reason to use that name, so why did you, Zio?”

Claud wiped a hand over his face, effectively removing the sweat from his brow at the same time. “Word travels in this business, between us made men, I mean. I happen to know you get occasional visits from the boss’s men, and I also know you were seen out and about with him last year before your trip to Chicago.”

“So?”

“I also know you had a visit with him in the jail a couple of months ago, Cara.”

She grinded her teeth in an effort to stay quiet.

It didn’t work.

“Zio, this is not your business,” she said firmly.

“You’re right, it isn’t. And your brother told me that, too, when I called him to chat about your current predicament.”