Page 163 of Broken Mafia Prince
Three days later
It’s simple math really, so I don’t know why I’m surprised.
Unprotected sex plus no birth control or any other preventive measure equals a baby. Even a five-year-old knows this. This shouldn’t come as a shock to me. And yet I can’t seem to tear my gaze away from the pink line on the stick.
I’m pregnant.
Oh god.
A part of me is ecstatic about it. I’m having Raffaele’s baby—what’s not to be happy about?—but another part of me is scared to death and anxious. I realize that this might just be the worst time to be pregnant. My life is in too many shambles right now, and I don’t want to have to think of a child in addition to all the other shit.
Raffaele and I have discussed kids, and I know that he wants them, a lot of them. The thing is, telling him about it right now may just end up distracting him from whatever plans he has in place. I know he worries about me, and I don’t want to have to give him two reasons to worry in these precarious times.
But more than ever, I realize that I have to leave.
The need has just gone up on the emergency scale with this new development in place. I’m not just doing it for myself and Raffaele anymore. There’s now the life growing inside of me to think about.
Getting up from the closed toilet, I exit the bathroom and grab my phone from where I flung it on the bed as soon as I’d gotten back from the pharmacy with the pregnancy test kit. I dial the first number on my call log and wait.
“Are you okay?” my cousin asks as soon as she picks up.
“You busy?” I ask back, noting the noise in her background. “I can call you back later.”
“I’m at the grocery store. Don’t ask me why I suddenly have the urge to do my own grocery shopping.” She lets out an irritated huff.
I chuckle. “I need to talk to you.”
Her tone immediately changes, and she sounds serious when she asks, “Are you okay, G?”
Am I? I really don’t know. “Yeah. I’m fine. How soon can you get here?”
“Give me fifteen minutes to grab some chocolate,” Isa says. “Do I need to add wine for this discussion?”
I wince. “The chocolate is fine.”
Half an hour later, the French doors leading out to my bedroom balcony slide open, and Isa joins me, settling into one of the comfortable lounge chairs. Silently, I hold out a blanket for her, and she takes it, wrapping it around her legs to stave off the cold, then passes over a bar of chocolate.
I break the silence. “I need to leave with Raffaele soon.”
Her head snaps to the side, and she stares at me wide-eyed. “You do?”
I nod. “I have to.”
She looks taken aback. “When?”
“I’m not sure.” There’s a lot I don’t know these days, but one thing is clear—staying isn’t an option. “I need to find a way to talk to Raffaele first. He said a couple of weeks, but it’s been longer than that now. I’m sure he’s been making plans, handling things for us—that’s why he’s been off the radar.”
An expression flashes across her face, and I assume she’s still in shock from my announcement.
“Isa, we’ve both known that I’m leaving someday.”
“I thought you’d change your mind. I didn’t think you would really go through with it.” Her voice is shaky.
“I have no choice. I can’t stay.” I meet her eyes and drop a palm to my stomach in a pointed move. “Not anymore.”
Her wide-eyed gaze ping-pongs between my face and my stomach, her eyes flaring even wider when realization hits. “Oh god, Giulia. Tell me that… you’re… Holy shit, holy shit, holy?—”
I offer a nervous smile as my cousin freezes in place like a statue, her face a little pale. “You’re going to be a mom? How did this happen?”
