Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
“Why?”
Wouldn’t most fathers want their children with a safe man?
“I suppose,” Roland drawled, “because you know how to keep what’s yours, don’t you? That’s the whole point of your ... business.”
“Something like that,” Lucian agreed.
Roland pulled out his wallet and flipped it open. He turned it for Lucian to see a picture of a dark haired, blue-eyed baby smiling back at the person taking the picture.
“I keep her close,” Roland said. “I have always kept her close.”
“I keep her closer,” Lucian replied quietly.
“I hope so.” Roland replaced his wallet and asked, “Would you send me an update from time to time? About her or whatever is going on in your life? I’d like to know.”
“You have a phone,” Lucian replied.
“And I’ll use it whenever she wants me to. But I need her to use it first. From a distance, it’ll be better. I might not agree with my wife on her opinions and actions, but I have two other children to think about, too. I don’t want them to grow up separated from me like Jordyn did, so I make my wife happy however I can.”
“I can’t understand that, or empathize.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Lucian said.
“Thank you.”
*
“Ugh,” Jordyn grumbled, tossing her purse onto the bed.
Lucian walked out of their master bath with a grin. “Tired, bella?”
“Exhausted. No more road trips. Not anytime soon.”
“You like driving.”
“I do ... but this time was just too long.”
Or maybe it was something else.
“Come have a bath. I’ll draw it for you.”
Jordyn made a face as she fell back to the bed. “Can I sleep instead?”
“After you have a bath and relax.”
“Sleeping is relaxing.”
Lucian pursed his lips, holding back his knowing smile. “Jordyn, get in the damn bathroom.”
Pushing up to her elbows, Jordyn eyed Lucian with a quirked brow and annoyance writing lines on her pretty features. “Excuse me?”
“I promise something good if you just listen and play along.”
“Play along, huh?”
“Mmhmm,” he hummed.
Sighing dramatically, Jordyn pushed up from the bed and kicked off her heels. “You’re impossible.”
“I am fucking wonderful.”
“That, too.” Jordyn pushed past him in the doorway to the bathroom. “And you better make sure there’s lots of bubbles, Lucian, or I swear to—”
Lucian turned, watching his wife’s gaze fall on the pregnancy test on the counter.
“Oh,” Jordyn whispered.
“Oh, is that all?”
“Well ...”
“Well?” he pressed.
Speechless was a good look on Jordyn.
Lucian laughed as she kept staring at the test, lost for words. “Take it. I’ll wait outside.”
“Take it,” she echoed.
“Are you .... Okay with this?”
Jordyn nodded slowly. “I think so. Just surprised, mostly. Really?”
“Yeah. Things were adding up.”
She glanced up to the ceiling, her lips moving silently. “Things add up.”
“We’ve been busy.”
“So busy.”
“I’m happy,” Lucian informed. “In case you were wondering. I am more than happy.”
“I didn’t wonder,” she replied. “I know you want children.”
“But if it’s a boy—”
“We’ll name him Johnathan,” she interrupted quietly.
Yeah, perfect.
She was perfect for him.
Their life was like a home, he realized. Walls from the past, present, and what would be had already set them up. They were just starting to make their own.
New walls.
This was just another one to hold them strong.
Tiny Marks
“You’re not serious,” Lucian said, his hand resting against the wall as Jordyn jiggled the handle for the upstairs bathroom. “Bella, tell me you’re not serious.”
Jordyn flicked him with a look. “Is this something you think I would joke about?”
Well ...
Not really.
Dio, he hoped not.
“Didn’t we use shit for this? Or, you got that weird looking thing put in a few years back, right?”
“Sometimes, they fail. Besides, this could have been avoided had you just went in and got—”
“Not happening,” Lucian interrupted his wife quietly. “No one goes near that area but you and me.”
Jordyn smirked, shook her head, and then pulled a bobby pin from her hair to poke inside the lock on the doorknob. Their two daughters had a terrible habit of locking themselves in the bathroom for however long they felt was necessary to feel like they’d done their faces and hair up for the day.
At eleven and nine-years-old, his daughters Cella and Liliana were without a doubt, two of the most diva-like females Lucian had ever come across. They could throw a right tantrum, they knew fashion like nobody else, and they scared the hell out of him on a daily basis. They were the proper Marcello principessas.
And Lucian didn’t know how to handle that.
He figured at their ages, and with their kids being as old as they were, any more kids were out of the question. Besides, he had two daughters and one son. They kept trying after Cella was born just to see if they would have another boy. Then Liliana came along.
Lucian was terrified of having another girl. Another woman to grow up and have boys chasing after her. Another little girl with eyes of la famiglia all on her and her family, waiting to see who she would choose, or if her family would choose a husband for her. Another daughter for Lucian to give away.