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River's life was complicated since day one. And it was no surprise when her baby daddy turned out to be a Capo of the Sicilian Mafia.

But he was in love with her? He has been in love with her since an year.

Now this topped everything.

Except, River was not freaking out, rethinking everything or trying to get away from all of this. While she admitted that she did need time to process everything, she also admitted to herself that what he said, though it shocked her for a moment there - especially the WAY he said it, she felt happy? Shy?

He loved her? He was in love with her all this time?

Surely, they had the chemistry since the first day they met at the hospital though they have no recollection of whatever happened five years ago.

River was a feisty, insolent creature who was rude and insensitive to a patient on the operating table. Yet she pulled off a surgery, which was complicated, like she's been doing it for ages. And the patient AKA dear old Mateo, was no less difficult. He was being rude and threatening everyone.

But then Mateo found River to be an amazing woman later, full of confidence, self-respect and principle. And she was so obsessed with her job that she didn't care about her sleep or health or anything.

And River realized that the man, though a little childish and hella stubborn, was a real good guy. One of those rare good guys who helped her find her kidnapped kids.

And they found out that they shared the twins together. That they were parents to most beautiful children in the whole world.

Mateo looked over at their twins who were talking animatedly to their GG. They had turned out so well, very smart and understanding for five year olds and the sweetest of them all.

They had kissed him on his cheek that day and said that they loved him. They did it almost every day and every chance they got but this time it was like they knew he needed it.

His eyes darted to their mother. She was talking to Jacqueline and Alessia. He was plenty sure that River would ask them their opinion about the situation that he had presented her to her. And he really hoped that the two women gave her some helpful advice.

Mateo shook his head, realizing though that he had been angry and frantic about the confession, he was nervously waiting for her response now.

"You okay, Mr. Adesso?"

Mateo looked at Susan Johnson who was perfecting her grandchildren's handicraft. They were making these origami cranes, which Lilith Johnson was teaching them to make. Adam was playing with Mia by the ocean, dipping her feet in the water as she giggled. And as for Sebastian and Alison, there were outing today as well, enjoying their little vacation to the fullest.

Mateo noted that after the whole tension has been resolved, he needed to take River out to explore Amalfi as well. What was the use of coming to one of the most beautiful places in Italy if all you do is stay cooped inside the house?

He let out a breathy laugh, running his fingers through his disheveled hair. "Your daughter is driving me crazy!"

Melodious giggles left her lips as soon as he said that. Now he knew where River and Kiara got it from.

"Papa, let's go play in the ocean." Lucas ran towards him. Mateo caught him by the hips and the little one looked up at him. "Uncle Adam asked to bring one more adult because he can't handle us all."

Mateo rolled his eyes; it was so typical of his best friend.

He looked between his grandmother and his Papa. "Are you having a talk?"

"We could have it later." She smiled. Lucas shook his head.

"No, I will ask Mommy to come." He said and ran off while the duo watched him, smiles on their face.

The little boy kissed his mom's cheek which made her look up with an angelic smile on her face. River put the book aside and got up, scooping him up with her and charged at Kiara who squealed as she ran, only to be caught and twirled around, the three of them laughing.

A wide smile plastered itself on to Mateo's face as he watched the scene.

He was indeed in love with her, him and her. They were his world.

"River is very eccentric." Mateo turned to the lawyer and she continued speaking. "She is not romantic nor is she the cute innocent kind of girl who the guy would want to protect."

Mateo nodded in agreement. She was absolutely right. River was very independent and didn't need any kind of protection from anyone. "She's fierce." He said. Susan could hear an undertone of pride in his voice which made her smile to herself. It was not everyday that a man came along who was not threatened by a woman's strength and accepted it whole-heartedly and actually felt proud of her for it.

"And practical and headstrong, not to mention blunt." She rolled her eyes. Mateo laughed out loud. Well, she was her mother so she knew her like the back of her hand.

"So men find it hard to deal with her. They are threatened by her, I guess?" She scrunched up her face. "My mom says that she and her grand-daughter are 'alpha species'."

Mateo chuckled, nodding. She couldn't be more right about that one!

"That's why her relations never stuck." She continued. "And it didn't help that she was a doctor-"

"A workaholic one at that." Mateo commented, sighing. River looked so much better and healthier now that she was not running around working all the time. This time off from work really was replenishing her health. But he knew that it wasn't going to be long before the woman went back to work. It was her third baby and he could tell that even though she loved the time she got to spend with her babies and family, she still missed being the badass doctor she was.

"Exactly. But she was never a mother who neglected her kids okay?" She pointed out. "And Jesus, your twins are probably the most darling pair out there! They are stubborn, mischievous and a lot of things, something that we cannot be surprised of anymore given who their parents are-" She shrugged making Mateo chuckle again and look over at them three now a little in the water. Susan was absolutely right about that - both their parents were headstrong and 'alpha species' so it was only natural that their little ones turned out that way. And they were only five now. Things were going to get much more interesting as they grew older. "- But they are also very understanding and they worship their mom and they know what she is doing is difficult and they don't complain unless they are at some breaking point or missing her too much or something like that."

"Which they got from their mother." He sighed. "She bottles it all up until she-"

"-has a panic attack!" The two finished together.

"So when she got to know that she was pregnant, she decided she wouldn't do relations anymore, because she did not want the kids to have a father figure only to lose him."

Mateo nodded. For this, he was eternally grateful to her. He knew that it must have been hard for her being a single mother with such a promising career but he was their father and he didn't think that he would have been okay with them having another father figure though that it was sort of selfish of him.

'I am selfish when it comes to those three.' He thought to himself. And he was not ashamed of himself for it.

"So I guess she never let herself to feel for anyone for so long that she doesn't understand her emotions anymore." She continued. "Which is unhealthy I guess. But she does care for you, trust you. She always did. From the moment you walked into our house with River that day when the kids were kidnapped to this day, I can see that River trusts you with her life. And she trusts you with her children's lives and it's not because you are their father but because she has faith in you as a person."

"You know she is never wrong, right?" She added, a joyous glint her eyes. Susan Johnson was very very very proud of her daughter. Despite the fact that River and Sebastian had made a lot of stupid decisions in their lives and they had gone through a lot of difficult times, Susan was proud of both her children because they had turned out so well.

Mateo nodded again, feeling so much happier knowing that his difficult baby mama did trust him. She had told him personally that she did have a lot of faith in him and that she cared for him and he knew that River was not one for hollow words but hearing it from her mother made it all the more real and better.

"So you think I have a chance?" Mateo quirked a brow.

She laughed out loud, again that angelic laugh that her and his daughter had inherited. "I personally feel that you are the only one in the whole world who have got a chance, but I bet that if her father was alive, he would straight out say and believe that no one does."

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"I feel some tension and I know it isn't sexual." Adam laughed out loud while River narrowed her eyes at him. This little shit really liked to make her feel awkward. He was that friend. And River thought that he already had Sebastian for that and needed no one else. Too bad both she and Mateo ended up with the exact kind of friends - the irritating and mocking ones.

The kids, Adam and she were in the water. And she had to get Alessia and Jacqueline as well because well, her two kids were reasonable only as long as water wasn't involved. Mia had gotten tired and so was now in Lilith's arms and they were talking animatedly to each other about who knows what because Mia couldn't speak properly yet, but they seemed to be having a full blown conversation.

River just hoped that her grandmother wasn't teaching her little godchild some heavy words and idioms like she taught Lucas because she didn't think her poor old Sebby would be able to deal with that. His own vocabulary consisted of about twenty words.

"Please don't start, Adam!" River groaned as she splashed water at him with her leg.

"Why not?" He asked. "I am a chilled out dude. And I love to have these meaningful conversations."

River rolled her eyes. 'Meaningful my ass.' she thought to herself.

"Yeah right, I have seen how you talk to the employees here. You are anything but chill, dude." She pointed out. He was like the warden of a boy's boarding school. He acted like he was possessed when he barked orders at them

"It's all just an act." He shrugged, his laugh silly and careless.

"So tell me, what are you doing to that poor soul?" He asked, referring to his own best friend. Both he and River knew that Mateo was anything but a poor soul.

River gave him a flat look. "Human, he literally has gun collection as hobbies and shoots people in the head without flinching. Not to mention, he once drew a gun on my head. He is not a poor soul!"

"Well, your family was being manic and irrational and he had to do what had to be done to protect his family." He defended. River was not surprised that Adam was defending Mateo for what had happened. This guy was so slow that he could not tell that she too was just joking and not really accusing her baby daddy of anything.

"Save your arguments for your rows with Alessia, buddy." River splashed more water at him and he gagged when the saline water went into his mouth. She burst out laughing only to trip back and fall into the water which had everyone cracking up, but she still couldn't stop her laughter. She again thought how slow this dude was. She had deliberately brought Alessia up because she thought that they made such a cute and dynamic pair. She wondered if they both even realized the chemistry they had.

"Mommy!!" Her children waddled over to her and hugged her and the three were hit by a sudden strong wave which had all of them drenched, choking and laughing.

"Alright, that's enough salt water in the lungs for today!" River looked over her shoulder to see that Mateo had approached them and though the three protested like the stubborn babies they were, he lifted all three of them up (yeah yeah bro, he thinks he is the descendant of Hercules) and walked back to where the towels and picnic mat were.

The three were finally placed down. River quickly grabbed two towels and tossed one to Mateo, starting to dry Lucas' hair while he did Kiara's.

"Papa, we had so much fun!" Kiara squealed.

"I can see that." Mateo laughed, placing a kiss on her cheek, which she returned.

"Mommy, can we have Tacos tonight?" Lucas turned to her. It was kind of a family tradition to have Mexican after beach day.

"That's kind of disrespectful young man-" Mateo chided, "-asking for Mexican when you are in Italy."

"But we always have Mexican after beach day!" The kids whined in unison. Mateo looked up at River and though they both suddenly felt extremely awkward after what he had said earlier, she copied the twin's sad pout which they had inherited from their mother, by the way and nodded.

Mateo looked taken aback for a moment and then sighed. "Tacos it is!" He finally declared, to which the kids cheered and hugged his waist.

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"You make it sound like it's a bad thing." River rolled her eyes as her mom combed (read: tried to comb) out the knots on her wild springs.

"But I don't want him to do something just because he loves me." Alison sighed. "I want him to live his life too."

"Ally, Mia is going to be four next year and will be enrolled in preschool and he will go back to work." Jacqueline reasoned. "And it's not like he is not working; he freaking did the architecture for the new wing in the hospital. He is so good!"

River hadn't seen the wing because it was opened after she had left but she knew that her best friend would have done an amazing job with it because well, HE was amazing!

"Yeah but I still feel like I am holding him back." She sighed.

"This is why I don't get married!" Jacqueline declared as she rubbed lotion on to her face.

All the girls except Alessia were in the room. The kids were asleep, Sebastian had called it a day after all the sight-seeing and excessive shopping Alison did and was fast asleep too. Mateo and Alessia got a call and were in the office, Adam had gone off to somewhere again. He was always going somewhere, but was always at home too. It was like he had the time-turner from Harry Potter.

"No, you don't get married because you are dumb, much like my granddaughter." Lilith Johnson looked up from her phone, on which she was playing Candy Crush. They were all having girl time and this woman was playing games on her phone. And Alessia was missing out.

"Nanna, you married when you found the love of your life. We are waiting for ours." Jacqueline shrugged to which Lilith snorted obnoxiously.

"I don't know about you, honey but my granddaughter-" She looked at River pointedly. "-is busy running away from hers."

River mentally face-palmed. What was wrong with these people?

She was not running away. She was just processing the whole thing.

She agreed that she did have some squeezy feeling towards this guy before she had realized he was in the Mafia and the father of their kids but now, she was way preoccupied with the twins' safety and the danger looming around all of them to think about anything else!

"Good night people." The surgeon sang and got up from the foot of the bed. Her mother caressed her arm as she walked away and Alison hummed a "Good night."

Why are things so complicated?

River made a trip to the kids' room and kissed their foreheads and Mia's too before retiring to the room she was staying at - Mateo's room.

And as she walked in, Mateo put his phone aside and turned to her like he got caught doing something which he wasn't supposed to be doing.

"What?" River narrowed her eyes at him.

"Noth-"

"Don't even think of lying." River gave him her death glare. She could sense that something was definitely wrong.

He stared at he for a long moment, as if he was weighing something in his head and then he finally sighed and said, "Mona is dead."

River blinked. And blinked. And blinked.

She is dead?

"Like dead dead?" She asked dumbly. She had never met this woman but she had given her more stress and nightmares than any exam she had ever written.

"Yeah." His voice dropped and he looked down.

"And?" River pushed. His face told her that there was a twist to this tale. Obviously, he should be happy that she is dead right? This set things right, right?

"Her body was found in our ranch."

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