Page 26 of Mafia Pregnancy

“The job where you clean the big house by the ocean?”

“That’s the one.”

“Do you like it there?”

The question is innocent, but it hits me hard. Do I like working for Radmir? Do I like being in his house, breathing his air, and cleaning around the edges of his life while pretending we’re strangers? “It’s a good job,” I say carefully. “It pays well, and the work isn’t too difficult.”

“But do you like it?”

He’s more perceptive than I like at the moment. “I like that it lets me take care of you.”

Leo accepts this answer with the easy satisfaction of someone who doesn’t yet understand the complexities of adult life. For him, the important thing is I’m happy, and we can afford the things we need.

If only it were that simple.

When Leo is absorbed in the movie, Carmen quietly asks, “How are you feeling? Physically, I mean?”

“Like my body is betraying me.” I look briefly at the screen, watching the dragon soar of the water. “I’d forgotten how awful the first trimester can be.”

“They say it gets better.”

I snort. “Last time, I spent three months feeling like I was dying, and then I had to figure out how to raise a baby alone.” I shift on the cushion. “At least this time, I know what I’m getting into.”

“This time you’re not alone.”

“I’m not with the father either.”

“That could change.”

I glance at my son as fear threatens to overwhelm me. “What if telling Radmir ruins everything for Leo? What if he’s better off not knowing?”

She arches a brow. “Do you really believe that?”

The honest answer is no. Leo deserves to know where he comes from and the chance to have a relationship with his father if that’s possible. He deserves more than the half-truths and careful omissions I’ve been feeding him for four years. Radmir probably deserves more too, even if he lied to me all those years ago.

“I still don’t know how to have that conversation without destroying all the security we’ve built.”

She sighs and pats my hand while delivering a harsh truth in a gentle voice. “Maybe that security was always temporary. Maybe it was always going to come to this eventually.”

She’s probably right. Secrets have their own gravitational pull, and their own timeline for revelation. I can’t control when or how the truth comes out unless I’m the one telling it.

“I need to think about this more. About how to approach him, what to say, and how to prepare Leo for whatever happens next.”

“That’s fair. Just don’t think too long. Every day you wait makes it harder…and more impossible to hide.” She gives me a bracing look. “Have faith that it will work out.”

I nod, though the thought of that conversation makes my stomach clench with more than morning sickness. There’s no easy way to tell someone they’re about to become a father for the second time, especially when they don’t know about the first time. “I have absolutely no idea how to that.”

“That’s why they call it faith.”

8

Radmir

Monday morning arrives with coastal fog that makes the estate feel isolated from the rest of the world, wrapped in gray silence that muffles even the sound of waves against the shore. I’ve spent the weekend in meetings that could have been emails, reviewing reports that told me nothing new, and checking my phone more often than I care to admit.

The cleaning staff returns today. Danielle returns today.

I tell myself the anticipation coiling in my chest has nothing to do with seeing her again and everything to do with the security concerns that have been eating at me if last week. I’m still worried about the conversation she overheard. I need to assess whether she represents a genuine threat to our operations.

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