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With an indignant look, Father started inspecting the property.
“Won’t they find us here though?” I asked. My thoughts went to the last time that we were found out here, and it was an obvious place to return to.
Jack smiled. “They already visited a few days ago. I may have invited a military crew spend their vacation here. Let’s just say that the Kings and the Reeds got what they deserved.”
It was too good to be true. Jack was the perfect man, one who could make anything happen for me. I was finally ready to relax. But the thought that anyone could find us was upsetting, especially considering that my father’s money was tied with the mafia. Jack didn’t seem too worried about it. He went inside, and we followed. He laid down on the sofa, which was large enough for all three of us to lounge on it. I sat next to Jack, who was already trying to go to sleep. My father wandered around the house, looking at every inch of it for anything that wasn’t to his liking. I laughed at my father, and so did Jack.
“What sorcery are you doing to make this work?” I asked Jack.
Jack laughed. “No sorcery. Aaron’s pretty awesome.”
“So are you,” I said, placing my head on his chest. We kissed, and my father returned from one of the bedrooms.
“Which room’s mine?” he asked.
“None of them,” Jack said. “You can sleep in any of them except the master. But you better believe that—” Jack yawned. “This house is mine and your daughter’s.”
I loved how Jack was being direct with my father. What I loved more was how my father couldn’t argue with it. As Jack slept, I reflected on my tumultuous relationship with my father. Father had tried to control every aspect of my life, and Jack had completely turned that around. Father couldn’t control me any more, and Jack had done the impossible. He had made it so that my father could be with me without having any influence over me. There was still one thought that was heavy on my mind, however. I still didn’t feel like we were completely safe, but Jack’s heavy sleeping assured me in that everything was ok.
* * *
Months later,I was getting ready to have my baby. Jack had successfully set up everything, and I didn’t have to worry about a thing with my medical care. Even though my father was hard to trust, Jack had actually befriended him, but he did parade the fact that he was the father of my child. Daddy would always try and get me to take his side whenever he said something about the baby, but Jack would shut it down.
Daddy was powerless and he hated it.
Jack saw this too, and I think he felt some compassion for him because he let my father have an active role in the pregnancy. What warmed my heart the most was that I was starting to feel like I actually had a real family. All that was missing was our child, who was going to be born any day.
It was early morning when my water broke. I was in the kitchen getting a snack when I felt a slight popping sensation. At first, I didn’t know what to make of it, and when it dawned on me, I yelled. “Jack!”
Both my father and Jack got up, and I felt blessed that my two favorite men were there for me. While it was true that my father wasn’t always the best of character, he was still my father. Family was family, and I wanted nothing more than for us all to get along. I could tell by how they both worked together to make sure we were prepared for the baby that they both cared about living a better life.
I don’t know what it is, but I think a child brings out the best in people. It’s true that not everyone gets this experience, but I can say that I felt loved as I underwent the most difficult experience of my life.
Jack held my hand in the hospital room where we had been rushed once I told the doctors my water broke. Jack also had a hand in making sure we were attended to. People listened to him, no matter who they were.
As I felt the most intense pain of my life, I could hear the miraculous sounds of my baby’s crying.
“It’s a girl!”
Father’s eyes were wide and teary as the doctor brought my baby girl to me, and I beamed with pride. There was a surge of love in me, and I couldn’t have been happier. I looked forward to the future, even though it remained uncertain.
We were discharged that same day, and I had the most beautiful baby girl. More importantly, I had love all around me, and there was nothing more important to me than those I care about. My father was surprisingly tender, and for once, he didn’t seem to mind when I asked him for a favor. He and Jack were finally a team, and I was glad that things in my life had finally calmed down.
2 MONTHS LATER
I loved that Emma was fitting into her role as a mother like a duck on water. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for our baby girl. Getting along with Lane had become surprisingly easy with a common goal: love my daughter, whom Emma had named Esther. Esther was now babbling in my arms and Emma was out with her father.
I’d had to explain to Emma exactly why I wasn’t worried about anything: my friend Aaron had done a stellar job of helping me get us out of the mafia, partially because of his connections with the CIA. I was fairly sure they had been the ones who suggested that the TKB take over the King complex. They were on their way to taking over the rest of Chicago’s shady underworld, effectively making the Kings and Reeds powerless. For that, I was grateful that the plan had been executed successfully. It was the perfect idea, one that had all but guaranteed my future without the mafia. It hadn’t taken me long to realize that Emma didn’t deserve to have a child raised by the mafia. Now that we’d gotten out, I could move on with my life.
Lane was reason enough to never want to deal with mafia life, let alone the obscenely violent Braden Reed and Frank King. I was lucky enough to meet Emma, and it was that kidnapping that changed my life forever. I didn’t want the violence that came with the mafia life; I wanted a real one with my new family.
I cooed at Esther, and she laughed that baby laugh with her toothless mouth wide open. I was already dreading her teething phased, and I searched daily for a new tooth. Luckily, the three of us were more than prepared to take care of our girl.
Lane had changed quite a bit. He was no longer concerned about his money “growing,” and I found it hard to imagine he would have given up his daughter less than a year ago. It was Emma that hadn’t given up on him, even when he didn’t deserve her love. Love, however, isn’t about what you do or don’t deserve. Emma had made me realize it was about sharing life with people and watching out for them with unconditional care. The most important love we had was for Esther, because her birth had brought us together. Her love was so powerful, blessed by the ever diminishing fountain of youth, that even Lane and I were becoming friendly.
Lane had gotten so close to me that he even apologized for the forced wedding one day.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Lane said. “When you came back for me, I knew that there was something better in store for me.”
