Page 50 of Mafia Doctor's Secret Baby

I press my lips together, and I can’t help but smile. It’s so good to hear her on my side—even willing to consider it.

“So, tell me,” she begins, raising her eyebrows at me pointedly, “what are the pros and cons to this?”

“The cons,” I begin, my mind darting to the worst-case scenario, as it often does. “Are that he’s…who he is. That he’s part of the family that he is. And that, whether I like it or not, my daughter is too, and she’s probably going to be pulled into it one way or another.”

“And that you got kidnapped weeks after he came back into your life,” she reminds me. “Don’t forget that.”

“Oh, I’m not…”

“Good. Because I’m never going to,” she warns me. I can tell she’s not kidding around—she doesn’t, when it comes to matters of her friend’s safety.

“But the pros…the pros are worth considering too.”

“Oh, yeah?” She prompts me with a look. “And what are they, exactly?”

“That I enjoy being with him,” I begin, slowly. “That he seems to like me a lot. And that he’s great with Polly, that he’s kind, that he’s thoughtful, that he’s brave when it comes to?—”

“When it comes to the matter of saving you from some mess that he put you in the middle of in the first place,” she finishes up for me.

“Yeah, that,” I reply, with a slight grimace. “But he still did it. And I know he’ll do it again—I know this isn’t just some passing thing for him. He’s dedicated. He’s spent his whole life protecting his family, and now that Polly and I are a part of that, I know we’ve earned that protection too.”

“But do you want to be with someone who makes it so you have to be protected?” she asks. “Is it…is he worth that? And what about your career…?”

“I don’t have a career here, not anymore,” I reply, shaking my head. “It’s been taking me a long time to come to terms with that, but…but it’s true. I had something before I got pregnant, but now, I don’t think anyone’s going to look at me the same way again. You know how people feel about hiring single mothers at the best of times, let alone one who dropped out in the middle of a campaign…”

She grimaces and nods. “But does that mean you’re just going to leave all of it behind?” she asks. “I know how passionate you are about politics, that’s how we became friends in the first place. I can’t imagine you just never giving that part of yourself space to thrive again.”

“See, that’s the thing,” I remark, tipping my head to the side thoughtfully. “I…I don’t think I have to, not if I go with him.”

“You think you can get into politics in another city…?”

“Not through the route I was planning to take up here,” I admit. “But there are other ways to make a change. Other ways to exercise power. And if I’m part of a family like Luca’s, I can use that to change the world for the better. And I won’t have to go through all the bullshit that I would in actual politics, right?”

She raises her eyebrows. “Damn, girl,” she remarks. “You’ve really thought of it all, huh?”

“Yeah,” I reply, feeling an excited flush come to my cheeks. “Seeing what those women went through, I realized that there’s so much more out there that needs our attention. Shit that the legitimate world tries to pretend doesn’t exist, but that doesn’t make it any less real for the people who are in the middle of it. The mafia are the ones who do this shit—so it’s the mafia who can make it stop.”

I let out a long breath when I’m done. Now that I’ve said it out loud, I’m certain that the choice has been made for me. It’s not just that I want to be with Luca because I’m falling for him, because I care for him, because I want him to be part of his daughter’s life—no, it’s because I can make a great life for myself out there, even if it’s not the one I pictured myself living.

“You should go,” Cara tells me, and I notice all at once that her eyes are blurry with tears.

“Oh God, don’t cry,” I plead with her, laughing to try and hold back my own emotion. “I…I don’t think I can take it if you start crying too!”

She giggles, but the tears begin to fall down her cheeks, and I reach over and pull her into a giant hug. She squeezes me back, rubbing her hand up and down my back.

“I’m going to miss you so much,” she mumbles into my shoulder. “But this is the right thing for you. If you really care about him as much as you say you do…you deserve to have someone love you like that. You deserve everything.”

“Thank you,” I murmur as I pull back. “You’re going to come and visit all the time, right?”

“Are you kidding?” she exclaims. “I’m going to try and get put on a story out there so I can help you with the move. If you think I’m going to let someone move in on the best-aunt territory when it comes to Polly, you’ve got another thing coming…”

I laugh again through my tears—the mixture of emotions is hard to wrap my head around, but hearing her support me in this is everything I needed. It’s going to be hard moving somewhere we can’t see each other as much, but I know she will keep in touch in any way she can. Like me, Cara’s pretty stubborn, and she’s not going to let our friendship slip through her fingers.

“Thank you,” I whisper to her, and she shakes her head.

“You’ve got nothing to thank me for.”

“Of course I do,” I reply. “You’ve always been there for Polly and me. I’ve always been able to rely on you. And I want you to know that you can rely on me too, okay? Anything you need.”

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