Page 32 of Secret Baby for the Mafia Don

I turn onto my mother’s street and try to decide how much to tell her about my current predicament. She is an essential part of all of our business dealings, and the situation with Kate is actually a business deal in its own way.

I hate to have to admit to her that I let Kate get kidnapped as soon as I found her again, but I don’t see any way around it. She deserves to know what is going on with the Baldini boys, even if she will probably lecture me about my stupidity.

I pull up to the front gate of the cozy stone house that I grew up in. We had had enough money to invest in a huge, sprawling mansion like the Baldinis, but my mother insisted that we live like a normal family.

We still had security around the clock, and an electrified fence around the yard, but the house was modest.

The little bit of time that I had just spent in the Baldini mausoleum made me realize just how much I would have hated growing up in a home that felt more like a hotel than a place for a family.

“Good evening, Mr. La Rosa,” the security staff member at the gate says to me.

“Evening,” I say as he opens the gate.

I drive through the gates and look in the rearview mirror to ensure that he has closed it behind me. Our security team has been managed by the same family for all of my life. This has prevented us from suffering the same kinds of security breaches that allowed me to get into the Baldini wedding.

My father might have been very bad at raising children, but he was very good at running an empire.

I didn’t ever remember feeling like our safety might be in question as I was growing up. I know that my father’s reputation was part of the reason that other families didn’t try to kidnap us to force his hand. However, his commitment to creating a security team that we could actually count on was another essential part of why my family had always been safe and secure.

I climb out of my car and reflect on the fact that the Baldini compound also seems to be protected by a quality security system. This will make it much harder to get Kate out of their hands without giving in to their demands.

I sigh. Why did she run away seven years ago? Why didn’t she tell me that she was pregnant? I have so many questions and she doesn’t seem willing to provide me the answers that I am looking for.

“Elio!” My mother comes sweeping up to the door as I step inside, her arms spread wide to invite me into one of her warm, comforting hugs.

I believe that my mother is aware of the things that my brother and I must do to keep the family business prosperous, but she never acts like we are anything but a normal, happy family.

“Forgot about us again, did you?” Gabriel says to me as I follow my mother into the dining room. I take the seat at the head of the table that my father used to sit in and take a sip of the red wine that is waiting at my place setting.

“You know how it goes,” I reply, leaning back in my seat so that a maid can set my plate down in front of me. “Business doesn’t care about family commitments.”

“Is this the ‘business’ that we were talking about on the phone the other day?” Gabriel asks me before taking a bite of his pasta.

I nod as I put my napkin in my lap. “Seems to be the primary concern of most of my days right now.”

“Are you working on a new deal you haven’t told me about?” my mother asks. She gestures for one of the staff to pour us some more wine.

I sigh. I had hoped that I would be able to at least enjoy dinner before having to explain my mistakes from seven years ago to my mother. “You could say that,” I say, sidestepping the question ever so slightly and taking a bite of my food.

My mother narrows her eyes at me. “Elio, out with it.”

Jess laughs a little from her seat next to Gabriel before shifting in her seat and pressing both hands against her back. She looks like she could have the baby at any moment.

My mind briefly considers what Kate looked like when she was late in her pregnancy with Mateo. I keep realizing how much I have missed since she ran away and the thought creates a sense of loss I hadn’t expected to feel.

“You remember Kate?” I say. I take another sip of my wine.

My mother smiles and nods. “My favorite of the Aguirre children and the girl your father decided to betroth you to? Of course, I do.”

“Whatever happened to her?” Jess asks me. “I thought you two like, had to get married.”

Gabriel makes a noise and we all look at him. “Sorry,” he says, shaking his head. “It’s just that Dad’s idea about your betrothal to Kate was just so…medieval. I always assumed that you would just ignore his demands about that. I mean, I knew she was crazy about you, but I didn’t think you’d really end up marrying her because our fathers decided that you two could help smooth business relations between our families.”

I slant a glance at my sister-in-law, but I don’t reply directly to her question or Gabriel’s words. “I haven’t been entirely honest with all of you about what happened between us.”

My mother’s expression grows serious, and she leans back in her chair. “What did you do?”

I frown a little at my mother. I hate her disapproval, which would probably make my enemies laugh at this weakness. “That’s the trouble. I don’t actually know. Seven years ago, I found her at Marco Rodriguez’s house, and she told me she was pregnant with his child.”

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