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God. How mortifying.
"How is she?" my mother whispers from somewhere in the room with me.
"Waking up, based on her heart monitor," Roberto replies smoothly, sounding amused. "Are you awake, cutie?"
"If she needs to rest longer, let the girl rest," another voice scolds—his father, I realize.
Hold on. His father, Roberto, my mother, and I. All in the same room. That doesn't make sense.
I'm further confused when I hear my father murmur something I don’t quite catch, and finally, I pry my eyes open and blink at the spacious, dim hospital room.
Roberto is beside the hospital bed, holding my hand and giving me a blinding, relieved smile when my gaze meets his. He kisses my fingertips. "There's my girl."
I blink at him and then at our parents. They're all here in the room with us, not contesting what he just said. Not even a little bit.
In fact, his father and my own are talking quietly and peacefully, standing near the window, and my mother is sitting on the couch. She gives me a prim but relieved smile when she sees me staring.
What the fuck?
"This is the Twilight Zone," I croak, frowning and trying to clear my throat.
Roberto chuckles, and horror of all horrors, the gorgeous mafioso leans forward and kisses me slowly and gently, right on the lips where any of them can see. If I wasn't slightly drugged and completely confused, I would leap up and knee him in the balls again for his display of PDA in front of our parents, who should be feuding.
Why aren't they feuding?
"How do you feel?" my mother asks, standing to move closer. She gives Roberto a narrowed-eyed look when he reaches out to twist one of my curls around his finger, but otherwise seems unperturbed.
I just look between them pointedly. "Why haven't you killed him yet?"
She tenses. "Should we? Was Parisi telling the truth about—"
"No," I cut her off with a scowl and try to sit up, ignoring Roberto's fierce protests and the pain flaring to life in my shoulder as I scoot to a seated position. "Dante Parisi is a lying asshole."
My father looks over from the window, apparently having heard me. He moves closer with a pensive look on his face. "Yes, he was."
Was?Shit, how long have I been out?
Roberto sees my confusion and steps in. "One of the other mafioso families reached out to yours with solid evidence that Dante was the one who killed your cousin. He did it to frame me, and it's not the first time he's killed a Russo. He was inciting violence for years, setting up ways to profit from all the Five Families. The Russos offed him.”
I let that all sink in and nod. I knew Dante had a bizarre amount of money and a shady background, even amongst mobsters. I can't say I'm sad he was taken out, especially because he tried to kill Roberto.
"But…why the hell are you all in here?" I hedge. "Making small talk and not ripping each other to shreds?"
Roberto and his father look equally amused, and my mother pats my hand and says quietly, "We've decided to let go of the past for the better future we've all been working toward. The doctors said you should have bled out, and they're not quite sure how you made it, despite the fast response time of the ambulance. But they did find trace amounts of something they couldn't identify in your system."
"TheVitalenyou've been taking as a supplement," Roberto offers.
She nods. "They said it was a miracle, darling, and you and the baby will be just fine."
Me and…the baby. That she knows about. I swallow and look between all of the parents. My father looks a tad like he wants to sock Roberto in the face, but otherwise, no one is threatening or arguing or at each others' throats.
"So because I publicly declared my love for this incorrigible dickhead," I point at Roberto, who grins crookedly. "And because I'm pregnant…you expect me to believe everything is water under the bridge between the Russos and the Giovannis?"
They all exchange glances, and finally, Roberto's father speaks.
"It will take time for the heartaches caused by the feud to heal on both sides. It probably takes a long time for real peace. But no one wants to continue the cycle of vengeance—us least of all. After all, we all want to be a part of the child's life, and that can't happen if we fall back into our old ways."
What he says makes sense. It's also a massive relief. I fight the emotion that tries to claw up my throat and look at Roberto. His warm brown eyes trail over my face, and he leans forward to kiss my forehead.
