Berretta may have gone along with what Hoodrat and the doctor said to get out of the hospital, but once she gets home, she’s not going to just keep quiet. Not if she’s anything like she was before she was attacked by Luigi.
“I know, man. Shit, I’m just doing the best I can. I’m praying she’ll recover sooner rather than later.” I shrug and push past him to make my way down to Boss’ office.
Everyone is ecstatic to have Beretta coming out of the hospital, but when I explain to them that they’re going to have to go along with a dramatic, elaborate lie for God knows how long, they aren’t as happy as they were before.
The door to Boss’ office is open when I get there. She’s moving things around just the same as I was doing in my room a few moments ago.
“Come on in. We need to talk. Hoodrat just called me.” She tosses something in a box and sits in her chair, putting her feet up on the desk in front of her.
“What’s up? They keeping her longer than they said?”
“No, she’s being discharged within the next hour or so. That’s not what he called about. Apparently, there’s more to the lie that we all have to get on board with, and it’s not something I knew about.” Boss pulls her feet down and leans her forearms against the desk.
“Muffler, why didn’t you tell anyone that you lost a child?” Her voice is soft, and I feel the overwhelming wave of shame crest inside of me. I never told anyone about Lily. Only Beretta and I knew, besides her doctors, of course.
At first, I made it seem like I didn’t say anything because it wasn’t anyone’s business, but after a while, I realized the real reason was that I felt like Lily’s death was completely my fault. I didn’t want to have my family looking at me with that level of pity. The same way Boss is looking at me now.
“It happened. I wish it hadn’t, but it did. I didn’t want to dwell on it. Or bring anyone else in my family down because of it. Our whole relationship was a secret anyway. It didn’t make sense for me to divulge that tragedy,” I sigh and let my head fall back against the chair. I do my best to move on from those memories, but I know tonight when I go to sleep, I’m going to be dreaming about the small little girl who would’ve had a giggle just like her mother.
When I open my eyes again, I see Boss smirking at me. It’s not the expression I expect, but since she’s my president, I’m not going to question her.
“Secret, sure.” She chuckles once and gets up. I follow her out of the office and into the main area of the clubhouse. “Mug, get everyone down here. We need to get everyone on the same damn page, so we don’t fuck this up for Beretta,” she orders, and Mug moves from where he is by the door and starts calling people in.
My mind replays the last thing Boss said while we were in her office. What did she mean when she said, secret, sure? Before I can ask her, the main area of the club is full of the members, ol’ ladies, and clubwhores that are here.
“All right, I know everyone here is aware that Beretta has woken up from her coma and is in the process of being sent home.”
A short round of applause and hooting shoots around the room. We’re all glad she’s being discharged. She hasn’t been in the clubhouse in years, but everyone in the club loves the woman to death. She’s the one we can always count on when it comes to digging into people. She’s the best of the best when it comes to private investigators.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s all good, but there are still some complications we need to try and work with. From what we already know, Beretta’s under the impression it’s eleven years ago. She may not remember some of you, and there are certain parts of our lives that we’re going to have to hide. On top of that, Beretta also believes she’s still in a relationship with Muffler here.” Boss hooks her finger in my direction, and I brace myself for the shock and awe.
No one says a word.
“She’s going to—”
“Wait, hold on a minute. You guys knew that she and I were secretly seeing each other at one point?”
Venom actually tosses her head back and starts to laugh. “Secret? Are you serious? There was nothing secret about that relationship. Everyone knew. We were all surprised when it ended,” she answers. I’m basically dumbfounded. All this time, I would have never guessed that anyone else knew. No one ever said anything to me, just like I never said anything to them.
“Why did you two break it off anyway?” Mug asks.
“That’s probably the most sensitive part of the shit that I’m going to ask all of you to do. Beretta was pregnant with my child. It was still early, and we hadn’t told anyone. When I saw her yesterday, she was under the impression that she was still pregnant.”
“Ah man, what the fuck,” Mug says softly, and Gold shakes her head in sorrow.
“I don’t want that to be the first thing she remembers, so until it comes back to her naturally, I’m going to need everyone to pretend that they believe she’s pregnant. I won’t let her keep those thoughts in her head for too long. She just needs to get here and get back into the swing of things.”
“I hope,” Boss says from behind me.
My phone buzzes in my pocket. I fish it out and read the message Hoodrat just sent to me. The plan was that he was going to bring Beretta home from the hospital since he and Giada were already there for their baby’s check-up, but the appointment was running later than usual, so he needed me to bring Beretta home.
The message is straight to the point, with no nice tone underlying anything. He’s still pissed about the fact I never told him I was with Beretta. He’s going to have to get over it sooner rather than later.
I focus my attention back on Boss, “That was Hoodrat. Change of plans. Beretta’s ready to come home now, and he’s stuck at the hospital with Giada. I’m going to have to pick her up and bring her back.”
“Shit, now?”
“Yeah.” I nod and look around the clubhouse. It’s nowhere near ready for it to seem like she just walked into the past, but it’ll have to do.