Page 72 of Secret Baby for the Mafia Don

Kate

“Can you straighten that star a little bit?” I ask Elio.

I turn my head to the side as I watch Elio climb onto a chair and push the star on top of the tree in the foyer into position.

“Better,” I tell him. I smooth out my long dress and turn around to look up at the decorations hanging from the banisters above my head.

I have been planning this gathering for weeks, but I keep worrying that I’m going to miss something important.

“Stop worrying,” Elio tells me, coming up to hug me to his side. “This doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be welcoming.”

I sigh. Easy for him to say.

Grazia has set an almost impossible bar over the past few years. All of her gatherings are flawless and extravagant and yet totally welcoming and fun.

This year, it’s my turn to host the Christmas party for our families and I’m feeling pressured to live up to her example. That’s no easy feat.

I look at my smart watch and see a text from Grazia. “They are about five minutes away,” I tell Elio.

“I’ll tell the security team to expect them,” he says, taking out his phone and sending a text to the staff at the front gate. After we moved into Elio’s family home, we increased security.

Elio is convinced that someone might kidnap Mateo or myself, and I suppose that he’s not wrong to worry. Even with the added security, Mateo and I are allowed to live normal lives, which is a situation that is far more comforting than life in Mexico.

Mateo runs by me carrying the gifts that he asked to give to Enzo’s brood of children for Christmas. I want to stop him and tell him to put them back under the tree, but I decide they can open a few presents early if their mother is fine with it.

“The guards at the gate say they are on their way,” Elio tells me, bustling by me to go check on something in his office.

I stand in the center of the flurry of Christmas activity and my heart swells with happiness.

For years, Mateo and I spent Christmas alone. Sometimes Marco came to visit, but typically it was just us and our security team. The past few years it has felt very nice to be able to finally enjoy the holidays properly.

“Oh, there she is!” I exclaim when I see our daughter, Alina, being carried down the stairs toward me by her nanny. I had felt guilty at first about hiring a nanny for the children, but Elio had been right, as he often was.

It was nice to have some help with the children so that we could still spend time together each day. It made it easier to ensure that he could work without worrying about leaving me all alone with two small children to raise.

“Isn’t she precious in her little dress?” the nanny says to me, fluffing out the red checkered skirt of Alina’s little outfit.

My daughter waves her chubby little arms and giggles, leaning forward precipitously in her nanny’s arms when she catches sight of me. I reach out and take her from the nanny, cuddling her and tickling her until she laughs merrily.

“Look at the pretty star on the tree,” I say to her, bringing her over to one of the many brightly decorated trees in the house and letting her reach out to grasp a hold of one of the spiky branches of the tree.

She looks up with wide eyes at the sparkling lights and the glowing star.

The doorbell rings and the butler hurries to open it, admitting a flood of Baldinis. Grazia sails into the house ahead of the rest of the family, her pregnant belly leading the way and a pudgy baby girl of her own on her hip.

Grazia and I got to be pregnant at the same time with these chubby cheeked toddlers and now hopefully they’ll grow up to be fast friends. Sure, Grazia and Marco spend more than half their time in Mexico. But we go a lot too so that won’t be a hindrance.

She hugs me and tickles Alina, then turns in a circle, admiring my handiwork.

“This is beautiful!” she exclaims. “I love the swags on the railings.”

I blush at her compliment. I am feeling better about the party already.

“How are you feeling?” I ask her. I nod toward her large belly and she places a small hand on top of it.

“Oh,” she sighs. “I have good days and bad days. If your party was any later in the month, I would have had to miss it.”

“Just don’t have that baby here on La Rosa property,” Marco says to her, coming up to hold her shoulders. He gives me a broad wink and I smile back at him.

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