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“You are giving me a headache, Luce,” Verona said with furrowed brows. “Please sit down.”
“Sit down?” I asked with wide eyes. “I cannot sit down, Verona. I am a few minutes away from a heart attack.” Fighting with Verona was not a good idea, but I was not in the mood to care right now.
Bianca put a hand over my arm. Her eyes were soft. “Luce, you should really calm down.”
“I can’t!” Being rude toward Bianca felt worse since she was only trying to help, but I was a volcano ready to erupt. It had been too long.
I couldn’t breathe.
Today Valerio was bringing Elsie here to Chicago. When he first told me, I couldn’t believe it. I cried from happiness. I wasn’t expecting him to act so quickly, but he told me we lost enough time already. Elsie had to be here with us. I completely agree with that.
I was not very happy when he told me the news, though. He was going to basically kidnap Elsie. Tommaso was going to make her stay over, and Valerio was just going to take her. After that, Tommaso was going to make up a lie about how Valerio took her by force. I was worried it was going to cause problems, but Valerio assured me that my father couldn’t do anything because Elsie was my daughter. He was her legal guardian, but Gino Borelli was definitely not going to let the police get involved in this, and the community was going to support us in taking Elsie.
It was not a kidnapping. She was my daughter. I trusted Valerio and got myself to believe no problems were going to arise when Elsie was here.
It didn’t erase all my worries, though, because something could still happen when Valerio was bringing her here. Maybe someone made my father aware of his visit. He was there without my father’s knowledge, and that was definitely not good. He could ambush Valerio.
He was supposed to text me when they got on the plane, and he still didn’t. He was supposed to take off about fifteen minutes ago. I was about to lose my mind. I shouldn’t have let him go alone. He was so damn convincing with his calm tone and sensible facts that I agreed to stay back. I didn’t want to cause any inconvenience.
Now being away was slowly killing me. I just wanted to know they were okay.
If Verona and Bianca were not here, I would probably cry. I did that a lot these days. I cried out of frustration and happiness. Now I would have cried because of stress, but I was not going to cry in front of people. I only cried in front of Valerio now. That was different.
Verona took out a cigarette and lit it as I kept pacing. Bianca groaned at her. “Please, you don’t start as well.”
She shrugged. “What?”
The smell of nicotine filled my lungs. I reached out and ripped the bud from her hands. “Give me that.” And took a deep inhale.
“Hey,” Verona said but didn’t try to save her cigarette. She must have understood I needed it more.
“Luce.” Bianca wrapped an arm around me and pulled me to the couch. “You are only hurting yourself. Nothing bad is going to happen. You trust Valerio, right.”
“Of course,” I answered. I trusted him more than I trusted anyone. I let him go there alonebecauseI trusted him. I let him tell everyone my secret. I let go more than I ever did in my life, and to be honest, it felt so fucking good when I was not hyperventilating with worry. I just needed him back here, and all was going to be okay. As long as I had Elsie and Valerio, I wouldn’t need anything else in the world.
“He won’t mess up,” Bianca assured me while her hands rubbed my arms. Honestly, it felt good. “I know Valerio can be spontaneous, and he likes danger, but he has Elsie with him. He knows how much she means to you and already sees her as his own daughter. He is not going to do anything to endanger her life. He won’t let anything bad happen to her.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded. My heart rate calmed a bit thanks to Bianca’s words, and I actually felt warm and fuzzy. I never needed to ask Valerio if we could bring Elsie here. I never had to ask him if he could accept her. He just did all of that himself.
It felt ridiculous now when I remembered I was so nervous he was going to leave me because I had a kid. Valerio didn’t joke when he said we were partners. My kid was his kid. He didn’t need any encouragement. He straight up said Elsie’s place was here because we were her family.
Even thinking about it burned my eyes. I didn’t think I deserved someone like Valerio, but I knew Elsie definitely did. No one was going to be a better father for her than him.
Suddenly I realized happy thoughts replaced my horrifying scenarios. I took another drag from my cigarette and looked at Bianca. “You are fucking good at this.”
She smiled smugly. “I know.”
I put my head down on her shoulder and kept smoking my cigarette. For some reason telling Valerio my secret made me a bit more relaxed. I was not a rigid ice queen all the time anymore. At least I wasn’t around Valerio’s family or Bianca. I didn’t want to tell them myself, but I made Valerio do it, and as he told me, no one reacted badly. They were surprised, but they were not shocked. Apparently, Verona just said, “Okay, cool.” And Bianca said, “I assume you are bringing her here soon.”
That made me feel a little closer to them, especially Bianca. We were still not the best of friends, but she visited our house more often, and kind of stayed on my side during it. I could understand why she was Valerio’s best friend. I wanted to improve my relationship with her, but first, I had to have Valerio and Elsie here.
I also felt more accepted by his family. I didn’t exactly see them after he told them about Elsie, but the fact that no one reacted sourly made me happy. I was happy that Elsie was going to grow up surrounded by people like them.
A smile blossomed on my face. Elsie was going to grow up around them. She was going to grow up here by my side. I always dreamed of that, but it never seemed realistic. Now Valerio was giving me my dream.
Just when I was lost in a haze, my phone vibrated on the coffee table, and I jumped, cigarette leaving my hand. Bianca bent down to save our carpet from a burn, but I didn’t give a flying fuck. I took my phone and answered a Facetime from Valerio.
Smiling Valerio and Elsie filled my screen. “Hello, Kitty,” he said to me while hugging Elsie to his chest.
