Page 65 of Promise to Break

"Go wash your face. My bedroom is on the first floor, the door on the left. I'll take you to her."

She doesn't say a word, as if all the fight has been drained from her. I send messages to Raven and my mother as Maricela gets up from the floor as if in a daze.

"The bike will be faster. Let's go." Any other person would have asked me to take the car, but not her. Maricela just takes the helmet I give her and waits for me to sit on the bike.

"Don't worry. She'll be okay." Maricela nods, then climbs on and wraps her arms around my waist.

I've never had the need to console someone before. I'd think an empath would know how, but I don't. Still, I want to console Maricela. I want to be the person she counts on. And it's that need I don't linger on, not now.

I care little for people, and allowing myself to care about them would only make my life a lot harder, anyway. Serena isn't a person I care for. She's just another addition to my brother's games. Maricela, however, cares deeply. She couldn't hide it even if a bullet was aimed at her head. And her only family member is going through the only thing my little girl is terrified of. Giving life to another person.

It takes us forty-five minutes to get to the hospital, and the second I stop, Maricela jumps from the bike, tosses me the helmet, and starts running. She's fast, too.

"You don't even know where she is," I call out before Maricela can get too far away. "Let me call my mother." After a brief call to Isabella, we both get to the maternity ward. My mom sits there alone. As expected, Franco Fierro will be coming to witness the birth of his first grandchild. It's a girl, after all.

"Isabella, where is my sister? Is she okay? Did something happen? What triggered her labor?" The questions fire from my little girl's lips one after the other. I look at my mother, searching for signs of worry or fear, knowing very well that a woman like her knows how to hide from the world what's really happening around her. I see none. Isabella looks happy. Her bodyguard, Dario, stands by her, all ears and eyes. I would love to remove him. I don't trust Dario not to hurt my mother at the demand of my father. I don't trust anyone with her.

"She's absolutely fine," Isabella replies, patting Maricela on the hand. "It's normal. Her water broke when she came down for luncheon today. It's probably the stairs that brought it on. We have a lot of them, and Serena likes to walk a lot. The same thing happened to me with Killian."

Not precisely. Like my future niece, I also came into this world prematurely, but unlike Serena, my mother didn't go into labor because of too many stairs. No, Franco, the bastard, decided that I would be weak because of how I made my mom look. According to the capo, women should suffer during pregnancy because that shows that the child inside is taking from his mother to be strong. I didn't. So, my mother was pushed down the stairs. When I survived, the first words out of my father's mouth were, "You are my son, after all. Only a Fierro can survive death." And that was that.

"We have a bad history with our family." Maricela plays with the hem of her shirt.

"Child." My mother takes her hand with compassion in her blue eyes. How this woman has managed to keep her humanity intact all these years is a mystery to me. "She'll be fine. Preeclampsia can be hereditary, but your sister was under very strict supervision during her entire pregnancy. I assure you, she will be just fine."

Maricela doesn't speak for the longest time, and I don't like it. It's not like I'm the person that she wants near her, but I want to be.

Julian comes running down the hall with Raven right behind him. "Mari, estas bien? I came as soon es papa told me. Todo va a estar bien," the fucker says as he comes to a halt and pulls my little girl into his embrace as he asks if she's okay, promising her that everything is going to be all right.

Who does he think he is?

I had the chance to learn a little bit of Spanish via audiobooks, and all I want to do is push this fucking pretty boy to the floor with my foot on his face.

I decide to direct my anger at whoever I can without looking like a fucking freak and look around to find my target.

Liam? What is that fucker doing here? I glance at Raven and then back at Liam. He promised.

"Don't worry, mate. I remember. Not a day before marriage," the Brit says as he sees the accusation on my face. A blink is all I get from Raven. I guess it will suffice for the moment.

"Don't push me, Liam. Not with her."

I don't wait for an answer. Maricela needs one, or she will lose it. I can't let it happen. No one else is permitted to make my little girl go crazy except me. I catch a nurse who looks too fucking young to be here by the hand, startling her.

"Where are Santino and Serena Fierro? I need to speak with the doctors." The nurse gapes as if I'm an alien from some eighties movie before she shakes her head. Great, another one.

"I'm sorry, sir. I can't give any in—"

"Look," I begin, checking her name tag. "Greta, you don't want to make me mad. The baby about to come into this world is the next heir to the Fierro clan. I'm the uncle-to-be. I need to speak to the doctor in charge now."

"Leave my nurse alone, Mr. Fierro," a man in his fifties says with a fatherly voice. He doesn't look like a pushover, and I don't give a shit. "The father of that baby already has this hospital shaking in its boots."

I ignore the jab about Santino. He can be too much, I know, and so can I. "How is Serena?"

"The mother is absolutely fine, and so is the baby. Look, I know you're powerful people, but please stop making the lives of my staff hell."

"How long will the birth take?"

"She's with the midwife now. Your brother refused to let me inside the room."

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