“You’re sure?” Daddy bit out.
I swallowed with difficulty and nodded.
“Honey, are you okay?” Mom rushed to ask once the shock of my announcement began to fade.
“Just some morning sickness,” I told her in a voice that sounded weak to my own ears. I cleared my throat, trying to put on a braver facade. “I took a test earlier, and I wanted you two to know first. I-I will set up an appointment soon to get everything checked out. I just wanted to keep you both in the loop.”
Mom looked at Daddy for a long moment when he continued to remain quiet. Shaking her head at him, she turned her gaze back to me. “And the father? Does he know?”
Out of habit, I wrapped my fingers around my medallion. “I…I don’t know how to contact him. We… We hooked up in Italy, and it was only supposed to be a summer thing,” I lied easily, praying Gian would forgive me. If he were even listening in. I only wanted to protect him from Daddy’s wrath a little longer. Plus, there was one other person I wanted to tell about Gian before I confessed everything to my parents. “I’ll try to find him on social media, but I’m not going to hold my breath. It’s okay, though,” I told her with a tiny smile. “The baby and I will be just fine if the father doesn’t want anything to do with us.”
“Of course you will be!” Mom reached across the table and squeezed my free hand. “You have absolutely nothing to worry about, Monroe. Your father and I will make sure you and the baby are taken care of. Won’t we, James?”
“Yes,” he half growled. Pushing his plate away, he stood. “Excuse me,” he muttered and stomped out of the dining room.
As soon as he was gone, I released a relieved breath, and I didn’t even flinch when I heard their bedroom door slam shut so hard, it felt like the entire house shook from the force.
It was over. I’d told them about the baby, and the house was still standing. No one was crying. No blood had been shed—though I hadn’t really feared that since Gian wasn’t there.
I would call the whole thing a win.
For now.
???
Even tired from getting no sleep the night before, Lexa was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in my life. The scar on her face wasn’t something I ever noticed when I looked at her, and since she’d married Ben, she’d stopped covering up that side of her face so much.
As soon as I walked through the door of Lexa’s house, she handed me her son, and I took him happily. Rubbing my nose against his made him coo up at me, but I knew better than to kiss his adorable cheek. Aunt Raven would tear anyone who kissed on her only grandson’s face into a million pieces for daring to spread unknown germs to him when he had next to zero immune system.
The one and only person who tried to kiss Finn when he was only a few days was still walking with a limp, from what my brother told me on the way home from the airport the day I returned from Rome.
“Please overlook the mess,” Lexa muttered as she straightened up a pile of freshly washed onesies and baby blankets on the couch.
Other than that, however, there wasn’t much of a mess anywhere. A bassinet was positioned beside the couch, and obvious proof that my one and only biological cousin had been taking a nap earlier came from the pillow and blanket that was folded in one of the chairs. A baby swing sat in front of the television that wasn’t on, and an empty plate was on the coffee table, but that wasn’t a mess.
Yawning, Lexa patted the couch cushion beside her, beckoning me to sit. Cradling Finn closer, I did.
“I’m so glad you stopped by,” Lexa said with a tired smile. “We haven’t had much time to chat, not even at the family dinner the other night Mom held to welcome the rockers. Tell me all about your adventure in Italy.”
Finn’s eyes looked heavy, and I reluctantly stood to place him in his bassinet, knowing I needed my hands completely free for what I needed to tell his mommy. Once he was tucked in and drifting off to sleep, I returned to sit beside Lexa and started telling her about all the amazing sights I’d seen.
But soon, the topic changed to how I was feeling. Everyone knew I was pregnant now, so of course Lexa wanted to know how I was handling the pregnancy.
“The morning sickness is starting to ease up,” I told her. “And it seems I have a huge sweet tooth now.”
“My cravings started early too,” she said with a sigh. “Thank goodness Ben likes to indulge me, or he might have lost his mind with all the two a.m. trips for fast food. One day, I wanted wings so bad, and he drove an hour and a half just to get the ones I couldn’t stop talking about.”
“Aww. Ben’s so sweet.” I knew if Gian were with me, he would do that too. I’d been craving one of the decadent desserts we’d had one night in Rome. I’d tried to make it on my own a few nights before, but it didn’t taste the same, and I was still craving it so badly, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
“How are you holding up, though?” Lexa asked, unknowingly jumping on to the topic I’d come there to talk to her about in the first place. “I mean, it must be scary going through all of this alone. I have Ben to help me, and I’m still scared. So, I can’t even imagine what is going through your mind.”
“Actually…” I paused, trying to regroup so I could put everything I had into convincing her Gian was a good guy. “I have to tell you something, Lexa. And I really, really need you to keep an open mind. I know it’s going to be hard for you, but please try. For me.”
“Okay, you have me worried, Mon.” She laughed, but I heard the nervousness under the surface.
“You know that whole proverb about the sins of the father and how you shouldn’t place one man’s guilt on his children?” She nodded, her eyes narrowing on me. “I really need you to keep that in mind.”
“My mind is open, Monroe. Now tell me why that would have anything to do with your baby.”