Page 49 of Claimed By Him

Mia’s smile widened. She must have known, and that didn’t surprise me for some reason. But Antonio’s eyes shot open like saucers.

“What?”

I smoothened my sweater over my stomach to show what I’d been hiding under these baggy outfits. “I’m almost five months along now…”

“What?” he shouted, standing up, and screeching his chair back against the floor. Luca started to fuss, and Mia rocked him.

“Fiona, I’m so happy for you!” She grinned and opened her arm, gesturing for me to give her a hug. I felt relieved that Mia was such a warm person. Nothing could ever be the end of the world in her eyes. It was the absolute opposite of how Antonio always acted. I put my arms around her and Luca, rejoicing happily, but when I straightened up my smile faded.

Antonio’s eyes were pinned to my stomach, then he looked over at Mia. “You knew?”

She shrugged. “I suspected. I mean, I was just pregnant myself.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” He was astonished, but Mia frowned as though he should know the answer.

“It’s Fiona’s story to tell, Antonio, so you’d better listen to her. And for Christ’s sake, take it easy. You can see she’s been out of her mind with stress.”

He sighed and rubbed his forehead with his fingers. “Fiona, can we discuss this in my office, please?”

Of course, he would turn this into a business meeting. “Yeah.” I gave Mia and little Luca one last smile and walked to the office, where I sat down and pulled my legs under me on the leather sofa.

Antonio closed the door and stood for a moment, thinking. “I’m assuming it’s not Alex’s baby.”

“No…”

“Jesus, Fiona.” He shook his head in disbelief.

“Look… Antonio, I’m sorry. I fucked-up just like you said I would.” He scoffed, looking out the window. “I don’t know if the father will want to be involved. And I don’t know if Alex will want to be involved either. You’re the first person I’m telling.”

“Gee, thanks,” he said sarcastically, causing me to roll my eyes at him. “And what the fuck do you expect me to do now?”

I glared at him. “Absolutely nothing, Antonio. In fact, I would handle this all on my own if you would let me. But we both know you’re just gonna fly off the fucking rocket and take control of my life again.”

“You’re goddamn right, Fiona!” he shouted back. “Because that’s what I have to do! Because you live your life so fucking recklessly that you’ll get yourself killed if I don’t control you!”

“That’s such bullshit!” I shook my head and stood up. “You only say these things so you can feel like you’re in control! You won’t let me live on my own, but you’ll let me live with another man? Do you see how misogynistic that is?”

He threw his hands out angrily. “It’s protection! Which you’ll need even more of now that you’re like this!”

“Like this?” I screeched.

Antonio shut his mouth and fumed silently. After we stared each other down for a long minute, he held his hands up in surrender, sighing, and shaking his head tiredly.

“Look, Fiona. I love you, you’re my sister, and of course, I will love your baby, too.”

I sat down and felt tears prick my eyes again. Crying was a regular thing for me these days. Antonio sat down and leaned forward, bringing his fingers together in thought. When he spoke again it was slowly, carefully, like he was figuring it out as he went.

“We are family, and we always will be, that’s the most important thing to me. So… of course I don’t want you dealing with this on your own.” He lifted his eyes to me, shaking his head. “You can call me controlling, but my goal is to help you.”

Relief trickled through my veins, calming me down. I knew he would be angry, but I also knew he would be a good brother. He always went through this cycle of anger before doing the right thing. Not that it was his job to help me, it just made me feel good to know he wanted to.

“Thank you, Antonio.”

He was silent for a moment, before asking, “You do know who the father is, right?”

“Yes!” I rolled my eyes.

“Okay! Okay… are you… gonna tell me who it is?”

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