Page 154 of Jordan

“I want to do this today,” Dario says, tapping the table with his finger.

I’d love to see what he would do with items he could throw. Maybe next time I’ll bring some to leave around. Would love for him to throw something at me so I could slice his throat and watch him bleed out right on this table.

“Absolutely not. I have things to do,” I say firmly.

“More important than this?” Dario asks but doesn’t wait for an answer. “This is exactly my point. If you aren’t going to take this seriously, you don’t deserve it.”

I smile, get to my feet, planting my hands on the table and leaning forward. I smile nice and big for him. “If you must know, I have an appointment with my wife’s OB-GYN.” Dario’s face falls. “That’s right. She’s pregnant. With my child. I’m carrying on the Bramante name, Dario. So yes, this is more important. Now, you can kindly go fuck yourself and follow the rules of the treaty.” I turn to Maximo. “Are we done here?”

He nods.

My brothers get up, and we head outside to our cars, stopping by mine. Dario and Maximo are shouting at each other as we go. I can only hope Dario loses his temper entirely, so Maximo shoots him and ends all our suffering.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Marco asks. A pang of guilt hits me right in the chest.

“Things have been chaotic. I’m sorry.”

“I understand. It’s okay. I mean, can we go by? Has Elio met her yet? How far along is she? We gonna be godfathers or what?” I’m not in the mood for Marco’s rapid-fire questions, but he’s my brother, and he’s hurting right now.

“One thing at a time, Marco. Chill,” I say.

“Sorry, I’m just excited.”

“She’s only about two months along. Maybe not even. We don’t know much yet. Today is her first appointment. I’ll call you later and let you know,” I say, pulling open the car door.

“And no, I haven’t met her yet, so perhaps Sunday dinner will be at my place this week?” Elio suggests.

“No, it’ll be at my place because it’s already been at yours and Vincenzo’s. Same time. See you then.” Marco walks away and gets into his BMW and drives off. I glance at Elio with a raised brow.

“He has no idea,” he tells me.

“And we’re going to keep it that way.”

He nods and sighs. “See you Sunday.”

He walks to his own car, and I get into mine where Antonio is waiting in the driver’s seat.

The doctor is already here by the time I show up, and I hope like fuck Jordan wasn’t able to convince him to start without me. When I left this morning, she was so eager to see her baby for the first time.

Same as me.

But also, we get to see how far along she is. We get a due date. And we get to schedule the paternity test.

I’m grateful when I find Jordan and Rafael sitting outside the medical room. There are two armchairs in the hall that aren’t usually there. Jordan looks up when she sees me and gives me a nervous smile.

I lean down to kiss her cheek. “Everything okay?”

She nods. “Just excited.”

“And nervous,” Rafael adds. “Impatient, too.”

She slaps him playfully on the arm.

“You or her?”

He shrugs. “Both I guess.”

“The doctor is already in there,” she says as she stands. “Told us to go in when you got here.” The three of us walk inside, but she stops and turns to me. Rafael continues on.