Page 36

I guess by now I have enough practice to sneak around, so I'm not too worried. Especially since Raf's planned this to a T.

Inside the clinic I'm swiftly received by a nurse and after she has me fill in a questionnaire, she leads me to the consult room.

"Good afternoon, Miss Lastra," the doctor comes in, greeting me. I smile in return, even though I am a little nervous about what the checkup entails.

She tries her best to make me comfortable before starting on the pelvic exam. I try to ignore what's happening, or the fact that she's eye to eye with my lady bits.

"Everything looks good here," she finally says, and calls a nurse to wheel in a machine. "Let's do an ultrasound, shall we?"

I nod, and she pulls my shirt up, squirting some cool gel on my stomach. Removing a wand from the machine, she starts moving it on the surface of my belly, the gel making it slip around effortlessly.

"There it is." The doctor smiles, pointing to a small dot on the screen. "I'd say you're about seven to eight weeks along," she tells me, but I half-listen, my eyes glued to the screen.

"You can hear the heartbeat," she continues, and I close my eyes, honing in on the sound.

Good God, I'm going to be a mother.

I don't know why hearing that tiny heartbeat makes me tear up, but I can't contain my emotions as it finally dawns on me that I'm going to have a baby.

A human life.

Ironic how out of all that death and destruction we'd ended up creating a life.

The doctor prescribes me some vitamins and schedules my next appointment. After everything is set, I thank her and head back to the salon, a new optimism rising inside of me.

Things are going to change. This time I'll have someone to care for. A hand on my stomach and a smile on my face, I meet with Raf and his aunt again.

She doesn't seem suspicious in the least as she just gives me a nod, returning to one of her phone calls.

"I told you she wouldn't notice." Raf gives me a conspiratorial smile as we head back to the car waiting for us.

"Well, well, if it isn't my retarded brother," a malicious voice resounds from behind us.

Turning around, I note a man coming toward us, his arms around two girls as he looks down at Raf. He's wearing an all leather outfit emphasizing his lean frame.

Stopping in front of us, he pushes his sunglasses over his hair, the long, dark locks wavy and restless in the wind, his light eyes full of animosity.

There's a malice coming from him and I can't help the way my lip curls in disgust as he continues to insult Raf to his face.

"B-b-brother," Raf replies, almost hiding behind me, his shoulders slumped, his eyes stuck to the pavement.

"And what do we have here," he whistles, looking me up and down before chuckling. "Of course, the retard and the repulsive," he jokes, his eyes on my birthmark as the girls by his side start giggling. "The two Rs," he continues, seemingly very pleased with himself as the girls simply stare at him in awe as if he just quoted a Shakespeare sonnet.

"This must be your reprobate brother," I nod toward him, not doing anything to hide my disgust, "three Rs." I give him a fake smile.

Raf had told me about his brother, Michele, and how strained their relationship was. In fact, strained might be an understatement since Michele is clearly a grade A asshole.

I'd heard all about the origin of their conflict and the fact that their father wanted Raf to inherit the capo title, and not Michele, even though the latter was the older one by a few months.

Raf hadn't been able to tell me why his father was so bent on doing that, even as his older son went off the rails. But the more Benedicto enforced the issue, the more Michele pushed back, doing all sorts of nasty things to get attention.

Of course, Raf had always been the target of his taunts, and one of the reasons why Raf's always triednotto draw attention.

"And you must be the nun my brother's marrying," he continues, coming closer and getting into my face, a smug smile on his lips as he no doubt thinks he can intimidate me. "Couldn't you have found another one? She probably doesn't even know what to do with a dick." He tries to pull another joke, and of course the girls by his side think he's said the funniest thing ever, their laughter irritatingly loud.

Not afraid of him, since I've met more than my fair share of bullies like him, I raise my chin slightly, meeting his gaze with mine.

Why, but he could be Cressida's male counterpart.