Page 90 of Born into Darkness

Lev’s smile is bigger than I think I’ve ever seen it as he swipes through the photos with Jolene. Mia and Sasha crowd in to see. Jolene’s still crying when she looks at Dominic and says, “He’s so beautiful. How’d it go for Nat? Everything okay?”

Dominic beams with pride. “She did great.” His voice is thick with emotion when he takes his phone back and shows the picture to Isabella. “That’s your baby brother and Mommy.”

“Aww,” she says, pointing at the screen. “I want Mommy.”

“Okay, baby,” he tells her. “We can visit with Mommy, but then she needs to rest, okay?”

Isabella nods, and Dominic looks at all of us and says, “You should be able to see him through the nursery window now, and then they’ll bring him into Nat’s room.”

Alessandro laughs and holds up his phone so Dominic can see. “Dad is already cracking open a bottle of wine in celebration.” He looks at his brother. “And he says we need to get our asses in gear, get married, and start making babies.”

Dario grunts. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that.”

Sandro types out a message for his dad. “I told him we didn’t need to because Dom and Nat are going to make enough babies to keep the family going.”

“Yeah, that’ll appease Uncle Salvatore,” Dominic says, making his cousins scowl at him.

Sandro looks at his brother. “You’re the oldest. Time to do your duty, brother.”

Dario just laughs, not even bothering to give a response.

“Are we meeting my newest nephew, or what?” Mia asks, looking around the room. She’s not really the baby obsessed kind, so when she gets a few raised eyebrows, she points to her mom. “Grandma’s getting anxious.”

Jolene nods, still crying tears of joy. “I really do want to meet him.”

“Let’s go meet our grandson,malinkaya,” Lev says, giving her a kiss before they follow Dominic out of the waiting room.

We all trail out after them, and it’s Damien who says what we’re all thinking.

“The hospital staff are going to be thrilled when visiting hours are over.”

Evgeny laughs and says, “At least no alcohol is allowed. We’d never get them out of here if they provided celebratory margaritas.”

“Poor little Enzo. He’s just been born into one crazy family,” Niki says. “I have a folder of photos I’ve collected over the years. Maybe I’ll put together a collage that highlights some of our proudest moments.”

“What kind of photos do you have?” Luka asks.

Niki just laughs. “You don’t want to know.”

“Just remember that my brother isn’t a photographer. When he says he has photos, it’s snapshots he’s taken from security cameras,” I say with a laugh.

Luka groans. “That’s what I’m worried about.”

Val points a finger at my younger brother. “You know you’re not allowed to spy on certain things.”

Niki laughs and shakes his head. “Relax, I’m not a fucking perv. Although, if I was,” he adds, “I’d have one hell of a folder, because there are a few couples in our family who can’t seem to behave in the elevators.”

“Do tell,” Sveta says, waddling in even closer.

“You really want to know the answer to that, baby?” Vitya asks her. “If anyone is having a quickie in the elevator, my money is on your dad.”

Sveta scrunches up her nose. “Eww, you’re right. Never mind, Niki. I don’t want to know.”

“Your dad is one of them,” Niki admits and then laughs at the look Sveta gives him. “But he’s not the only one.”

No one asks, because none of us want to know, but when he looks over at Sasha and Mia and gives a soft laugh, Mia fakes a dry heave while Sasha says, “Don’t ever fucking send me those pictures. It’ll scar me for life.”

“Little late for that,” Mia says while grinning up at her brother. “You were born scarred. You don’t need to see gross pics of mom and dad going at it in the elevator to make that happen.”

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