"Well, I fucking lied," Angelo said while examining the small piece of paper with a photo of the bump and I right on the front. "Not bad though, eh criceta?"

"Doesn't really look like me," I too examined the paper, and was a little sad to say that I almost didn't recognize myself and I wasn't really sure if my family would either. This photo would be "accidentally" put in the wrong hands, so that eventually it would get to the media and then find its way to my family who would read the small article about my life over the course of the last few months and then would hopefully realize that I am an adult, and can't be dragged back home to live with them forever.

Or everything can go bad like always, and they can hire private investigators to try and find the source of this picture which may or may not lead them straight to the mafia house.

I tend to be a pessimist, so I saw it going that way.

Angelo, however; was slightly optimistic and thought that the mafia house wasn't traceable in any way and was readily willing to let all of his men go down just to try and keep me around. Wasn't so sure if that was good or bad.

"You do look a little different, but still beautiful," Angelo said before handing the paper off to someone who happened to be walking by, and quietly said something in Italian.

"I feel fat."

"And I was waiting for the day when you would say that. It came sooner than I expected."

"Am I allowed to go see Luca, or is he still requesting alone time?" I asked, knowing that he might bring me some enjoyment these few hours my presence was required in the mafia house. I couldn't wait to go home, snuggle up to Bandit, and take a nice, long nap. Luca wanted some alone time with his small, but probably ever-growing family. He's had that for the past month though and it was really starting to annoy the hell out of me because I couldn't even talk to Alessandra. The only time they would ever come out is when everyone else in the mafia family was asleep, and that was in the early early morning.

Based on this information, I can confirm that Alessandra and Luca are in fact proud parents to a mysterious baby girl named Camilla.

I just wanted to see the kid. Was that really too much to ask for?

Apparently it was.

"They want to be alone right now, Chloe. Accept that," Angelo said, "You'll probably want to be alone as soon as the bambino comes."

"Speaking of bambinos," I stepped closer so that I could force my way into his arms. "Let's reschedule that appointment you so very rudely canceled awhile ago. Ya know, this is kind of important information. How am I supposed to know whether to buy blue or pink?"

"It's already been rescheduled for next week."

"Ooh, nice. Now," I clasped my hands together and stared up at him intently, "Lets discuss names for him or her. I'm dying Angelo. I'm a very impatient person, I need this planned like right now or I will jump off a cliff."

He gave me the weirdest look but quickly straightened it out, "Funny you should ask. It's already been decided based on tradition."

"I'm scared to ask what that even means."

"It means, boy or girl, names have already been decided because of a family tradition."

"Ok. Care to share?"

"Italian children often get named after the paternal grandfather and grandmother. So, our bambino or bambina would either be Dante Alessio, or Sophia Angelique, after my grandparents."

My jaw hit the floor. What?!

Dante is like the ugliest name that I've ever heard. You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you that that was actually on my "definitely fucking not" name list. I could live with Sophia, that was actually kinda cute, but I was seriously starting to doubt that having a girl would happen. Nothing ever went my way anymore, and fate was a bitch.

"I don't even get a little say in this?" I whined while following closely behind him as he started walking to someplace else. "That's hardly fair, if you ask me."

"It's a tradition, amore mia," he said as if that was supposed to mean something to me.

It didn't.

"Yeah, well it's tradition in my family to have a say in the naming process. I don't agree with the name Dante. Not even a little bit."

He shrugged.

He. Fucking. Shrugged.

Ohhhh no he didn't.

"Angelo!" I screamed bloody murder, causing him to quickly whip around to face me. He looked terrified for a brief moment but that eerie blankness came back almost instantly. I started to cry, and believe it or not, that wasn't planned.

Angelo sighed, "Not again."

I shot him a look through my teary eyes and he snapped his mouth closed. My emotions had been a scary roller coaster the last couple of weeks. Tears would pour, anger could kill, but I was still the happiest freaking criceta when everything went my way. And now nothing was! "You're so mean to me...sometimes."

I'm sure this would have been a sight to see for some of the mafia men around here. I wasn't usually crazy, but when I was, I went all out and embarrassed anyone involved.

"Boss!" Someone ran into the house.

"Boss!" Another person.

"Boss! Boss!" More people shouted.

They sounded kind of like the birds from Finding Nemo. Ya know, the ones who were always like, 'mine. Mine. Mine.' Yeah, those ones.

A guy I immediately recognized ran up to Angelo. It was Nico, the creep. "What?!" Angelo shouted at him impatiently.

"Do you want the news here...or somewhere more private? Is she allowed to hear?"

He seemed to be weighing his options. Does he have me listen, or does he go away?

He went away, leaving me all by myself.

I went on a hunt for my shoes because I needed to get out for a minute or two. I think a walk around the property would be great right now. I found my shoes right where I had left them earlier, right by the couch in the living room closest to the door. I slipped them on and headed outside.

It was cold, but not unbearable. The sun was starting to set, and herds of people walked around, just doing this and that.

I pulled my jacket closer to me and started my undoubtedly short, and guarded walk. Angelo's men were told to watch me whenever he couldn't. I didn't see them half the time, but I knew they were there and they could see me.

The whole property was fenced in and security was heavy, so when I noticed the wooded trails behind the main mafia house, I didn't hesitate to start my walk.

This time, without even having to look behind me for verification, I felt the presence of another, following rather closely behind me. I decided that I wouldn't yet point it out to him that I knew he was there, but I was going to do it eventually...and maybe even scare whoever it was in the process.

I think the walk would have been a little more relaxing if I didn't fully know this person was almost chasing after me.

The twigs that kept snapping behind me started to get annoying and that's when I knew that I wasn't going to be able to keep this up any longer, so I turned around to face the doe eyed boy standing behind me. He looked young, younger than me. If I had to guess his age right now, I would have said no older than 16. That didn't seem right though. "Can I help you?" I asked before folding my arms over my chest. "I believe you're supposed to make it seem like you're not there."

"Please don't tell the boss. I suck at this job and he's just waiting for an excuse to get rid of me. This would be a good enough excuse for him," he begged, really showing his age. I also couldn't help but notice the accent he had. It definitely wasn't italian.

"How old are?" I asked.

"Eighteen."

Ah, so he was just baby faced.

Alright.

I took advantage of the silence by carefully taking in the appearance of the boy standing in front of me. He wasn't bad, but he definitely was no Angelo D'Amico either.

Hell, he didn't look like he even belonged in the mafia. Not this one anyway.

His pants were too big for his slim frame, and seemingly threatened to fall off his hips. His light blue button up shirt was also too big for him, was wrinkled and untucked and the worst part was that I could see his gun sticking out of one of his pant pockets.

He didn't have much hair, probably because he wanted the tattoos covering his head to show.

They were weird, graphic and in some other language I couldn't even sound out because the letters were in scribbly writing.

I furrowed my eyebrows and took cautious steps backward. Something wasn't right about him, and I knew for a fact that he wasn't going to leave me alone. I also knew that there was no way for me to get around him to alert the others.

He wasn't in this mafia.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"The name is Kasimir and I know exactly who you are."

"You do?" I asked, and continued to take slow steps back, as he kept walking forward.

I couldn't go through another kidnapping because I had a strong feeling I wouldn't be so lucky this time. You don't get lucky many times before it all starts to crumble in front of your eyes.

"Yes. You're Chloe Cruise. Sorry. Chloe D'Amico. My real boss will be so proud of me for catching you," he lunged at me, grabbed me firmly and pointed his gun right at my head.

If I had a dollar for every time that's happened, how much money would I have?

"If you make any noise, I'll shoot your unborn detka," he lowered the gun to my tummy and pushed it firmly.

I nodded, sealing my fate.

___________________

Longer chapter today. Can't wait to write more. I'm getting into this right now.

I've got two questions for you.

Let me know :)