Page 122 of Unbound

We were having a family dinner. Me and Tommy, Sarah, Dare and Angel and Holly, Tessa, Lisa, Bianca and Nino, Luc and Eddy. I’d made lasagnas, Eddy and Luc brought dessert, Tess made bruschetta, Bianca made salad, and Angel and Dare brought the wine.

Lisa came early and helped me set up. She was quiet, subdued, but Tess arrived first. I planned it that way. At Tessa’s request.

Tess walked in. Lisa froze.

“Leese.”

“Hey.” Lisa stared.

“I’m sorry that I made you feel like we might not be able to get over how you came to be part of our family. But…” Tess choked up. I choked up. Lisa’s face crumpled.

They fell into one another’s arms.

“You’re our family. We love you. I’m sorry for what you’ve been through but I’m so glad you’re here, in our family.”

Lisa sobbed. “I’m so sorry that you got taken and violated. And I wanted to come to you the minute I heard but I…”

“It’s okay. I was a bitch to you.”

“You were processing.”

“I was still a bitch.”

“I have something for you,” Lisa said, and reached into her purse, which was sitting on my kitchen counter.

I started handing out Kleenexes.

“They found your phone. It was crushed. But I took it to a guy at the mall and he got your pictures off it. I remembered you saying your memory was full like, two days before, so I knew you had lots on there. There were… like… 289 of them. They’re on this little thumb drive.” Lisa passed it to her.

Tessa fell apart.

“Jim. I knew there were pictures and I never backed it up and that’s all I could think about when they were kidnapping me. I –fuck. Thank you, Leese.”

We were all crying again.

Tommy walked into the kitchen and made an immediate U-turn and left us in our crying huddle.

He knew what my intentions were with this dinner, so he probably wasn’t at all surprised.

The dinner was filled with good food, laughing, good-natured teasing, and kids running around, my dog getting spoiled, and it felt really great to spend the evening with my family.

13

Almost Six Months Later

My pregnancy was ticking along nicely. Uneventfully. I was eating a lot, keeping busy getting ready for the baby. I spent a lot of time with my sisters-in-law and my foster sisters and Rose regularly came over.

I’d even started going out by myself. Sort of. Tommy had a guard with me every time, but I was driving. Walking. Doing things. I was driving my Jeep, taking my no-longer little dog for walks, going to pregnancy yoga, hanging out with the family, and I was living.

Tommy was busy working. Ferrano Enterprises was keeping him busy. The business was still evolving but in a good way. He had gone to Vegas twice. Without me. Fete was nearly ready to re-open. Maybe someday I’d go back, but not any time soon.

I was also seeing a counselor every second week. I’d seen her about five times and she was fantastic and helping me. Tommy had yet to start seeing a new one but I’d gotten a referral from my counselor and he told me he’d call. He said he needed to fire his existing counselor first. In person. And the look on his face?If he was planning some sort of revenge against Oliver, I didn’t wanna know about it. Tommy’s mantra was that if someone fucked him over, he never forgot. I hoped he’d forget. Even if Oliver was a lying Fed, he’d helped us.

Anyway, I was due to have the baby in a few weeks. The baby’s room was ready. We didn’t find out the gender (I wanted a surprise) and did the bedroom in primary colors. I had a gorgeous white sleigh crib with matching rocking chair, dresser, and changing table.

I’d had a baby shower already and we were ready with all sorts of white, green, and yellow unisex clothing. I had a going-home outfit for a boy and a going-home outfit for a girl. My hospital bag was by the door. My husband loved to work out with boxing, and I was pretty sure that this little one was going to be a little kickboxer with the way I was getting beaten up from the inside.

“Tia?” Tommy woke me. It was 6:00 in the morning, a week before my due date.

---