Page 24 of Secret Mafia Daddy

Yet, I can’t help but picture her all swollen with my baby, and it makes my skin heat up.

“I’m a play with a baby, Mommy,” she says, and Catarina takes her from me.

“Is that so?” Catarina mumbles.

I’m used to living in the moment, but now that I’m about to have a family and a little girl counting on me, I need to change my ways a bit. Catarina might not be happy now, but we’ll both have to adjust to this new reality somehow because there is no way she’s taking my baby from me any time soon.

10

CATARINA

“Dante, Catarina. Catarina, Dante,” Angelo says quickly as we stand at the door of a huge mansion, almost the size of Alonzo’s.

The handsome man standing there blinks once, twice at Chelsea, and then Angelo ushers him away and they head upstairs.

I stand awkwardly in the foyer, not knowing what to do, holding Chelsea’s hand.

A small, pretty woman comes up to us, smiling.

“Hello there,” she says, leaning down to get eye-to-eye with Chelsea. “What’s your name?”

“Chelsea,” my daughter says easily.

“Nice to meet you, Chelsea. Would you like to meet my daughter, Alessia?”

“Yes, yes, the baby!” Chelsea chants, and the woman laughs, taking her hand from mine and taking her into the dining room, where a chubby baby girl is banging around her blocks.

Chelsea immediately busies herself with the baby, and the woman turns back to me.

“I’m Mia,” she says. “Dante’s wife.”

“I’m Catarina,” I answer. “Angelo’s....”

I trail off, not sure I want to explain what I am to him. “Chelsea’s mother,” I finish, and Mia smiles.

“Would you like coffee? Tea?” she asks. “There’s also some pancakes for breakfast, if you’re hungry.”

“I want pancakes,” Chelsea pipes up, and in a few moments, an older, more severe-looking woman has set the table for all three of us, bringing a pot of coffee and two mugs and a glass of orange juice for Chelsea.

I’m shocked at how well the household seems to run and how their staff seems to snap to action.

I finally remember my manners.

“You have a lovely home, Mia,” I tell her, and she grins.

“Thank you.” She pauses. “Dare I ask what’s going on with you and Angelo?”

I tell myself that I shouldn’t talk to her, that she’s a stranger, but at the same time, I haven’t been able to talk to Alyssa, and everything’s sitting on my chest like I need to spill it out.

I look over at Chelsea.

“Marisa will take them to the playroom,” she says quietly, and when the older woman has taken the children away, I sit and sip my coffee and tell Mia the whole ordeal.

She just smiles and nods in the right places, looking shocked in others.

“I know it seems crazy,” I start, but Mia holds up a hand to stop me.

“It’s not quite as crazy as how Dante and I got started,” she says with a little laugh.

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