Page 68 of Broken Mafia Prince (His to Break #1)

GIULIA

T hree 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?”

“Uh, Isa?—”

“Does he know?”

“I haven’t told him yet,” I say. “I wouldn’t even know how to reach him.

We haven’t spoken since the incident at the docks.

He hasn’t reached out. And even if he does, I’m not sure I want to tell him about the baby right now.

He already has so much on his plate, I’d hate to add one more thing to it. ”

“What the hell are you talking about?” She glares at me, planting her hands on her hips. “Don’t be stupid. You both made this baby, and it’s his responsibility, too. He should know about it and plan accordingly.”

I press my mouth into a thin line and finally admit the truth that I haven’t even yet admitted to myself.

“I’m scared, terrified, in fact. I don’t know, but it feels like everything between us so far has happened inside a kind of bubble.

We’ve always known what to expect, how things are.

I’m afraid that a baby will make us realize that this is very real, and?—”

“Giulia, I love you with all my heart, but for the love of god, shut up,” Isa cuts in sternly. “You’ve been going on and on about how much he loves you, and how he wants a life with you.”

She points a finger at my stomach. “That is what a life with you entails.”

I open my mouth to respond, but just then, my ringtone blares out from inside the room. “I need to get that.”

I jump to my feet and hurry inside the room, heart thudding. These past few days, each time my phone rings, I’ve dived for it, hoping it’s him, only to be disappointed. My hands shake as I swipe the answer button and press it to my ear.

There’s silence on the other end of the line, and I clear my throat. “H-hello?”

“Giulia.”

Heat washes through me, along with relief, and to my embarrassment, tears well up in my eyes. When I turn to the balcony, I see Isa giving me a look.

“Are you going to tell him?” she mouths.

“Not yet,” I mouth back. She just shakes her head and turns away.

“I haven’t heard from you in days.” I try not to sound accusing, but I’m not sure I succeed.

“I know,” he says quietly. “I miss you, too, baby. I miss you so much.”

My lower lip trembles, and I bite down on it, trying to compose myself. It feels like I haven’t truly breathed in all this time without him, and now the air comes rushing in, filling my lungs.

“So much has happened,” he continues, sounding exhausted. I have the overwhelming urge to draw him into my arms and hold him, tell him that we’re going to get through this.

“Is it over?”

“Can it ever truly be over? Years and years of hate, rooted so deep that even they don’t know what depths the roots have reached.”

I dropped down to the edge of my bed and lick my lips. “Now what?”

“Now we admit that we’ve done the best we can. This morning, I’ve put a decent dent in my father’s forces, stopping their planned attack on the Montanaris. I don’t think he has the manpower to launch another assault on your family soon,” he tells me.

“But this only halted his plans temporarily. I heard from one of his men that he’s already making arrangements with even more powerful Russian families, and he won’t stop until he sees all the Montanaris dead. And what’s worse, we won’t have the strength to stop them.”

I swallow. “What’s the plan, then, when he recoups?”

The sigh he lets out tells me everything I need to know. Raffaele can’t put up even more of a fight against his father. Eduardo has endless connections, and I won’t be surprised to find out that he has aces up his sleeve.

“He knows about you,” he suddenly says, breaking me out of my reverie. “I don’t want you to panic, baby, but my father is desperate enough to come after you as things stand now.”

Terror slices through me. Not for myself, though. I cup a protective hand over my stomach. “Remember what you said when you asked me to marry you, about how we’re not going to let ourselves be the martyrs of this story?”

“I remember.”

“I’m sick of trying to save people that don’t want to be saved.”

The life growing in my womb can barely be referred to as a child right now, and there’s no guarantee that I’ll even carry it to full term.

I know a good percentage of women lose their pregnancies in the early stages.

Even knowing all of that, I’ve never felt such love and fierce protection.

It makes me wonder how my father can be so nonchalant toward me.

I’ve protected my father enough. A man who has a long history of breaking my heart. My priorities have shifted now. I have to protect my child, and that means keeping myself safe.

“Let’s get out of here,” I tell him urgently. “I’ve been a bit terrified to leave everything I know, but this isn’t the world I want our kids to know. They deserve better.”

“And they’re going to get better,” he promises.

“I think it’s time. I can’t risk anything bad happening to you—not now that I have you back.

Our fake passports are ready. I’ll send you the coordinates where we’ll meet tomorrow.

There’s a small chapel where we can get married before leaving. I have everything planned.”

My heart soars. It’s sooner than I expected, but after the back and forth and the anxiety of the past few weeks, it doesn’t feel soon enough. “Do I get to wear a wedding dress?”

“I’d love to see you in one, but you know I’d still marry you if you showed up in rags. I love you any way I get you, Giulia.”

“I love you, too. And I can’t wait to marry you.”

“I know it’s not the dream wedding that?—”

“My dream wedding is marrying you,” I blurt out. “I just want to be with you, I want to be yours.”

“You have no idea how much I want that, too. I’ve gotta go, but I’ll send you the coordinates and time,” he says. “I’ll call you with another secure line if I can, and if not, we’ll see each other at the venue.”

“Tomorrow can’t come fast enough.”

He chuckles, the sound making my body tingle. “We’ve waited so long. What’s a few more hours?”

After we hang up, I raise my head to see Isa staring at me expectantly. “Well?”

“We’re getting married tomorrow!” I exclaim, quickly slapping my palm over my mouth. I completely forgot that I’m still in my father’s house—he could be walking by and overhear me.

“Isn’t it too soon?” Isabella asks carefully. “I understand leaving Chicago, but getting married is a whole different type of commitment. He doesn’t even know about the baby yet. Don’t you think you need to tell him before you make a lifelong commitment?”

“Yes. I’ll tell him tomorrow when I see him, before the wedding. We love each other, and we want to spend the rest of our lives together amidst all of this mess.”

She offers me a strained smile. “If you’re happy, then I guess I’m happy for you, too.”

I peek up at her. “Really?”

Isa chuckles. “Yeah. Really. I still can’t believe you’re getting married before me. For someone who preferred being at the range to going on dates, you’re taking to this whole thing really easily.”

“If you know, you know.”

She snorts. “Yeah, I guess. I just worry that all of this might end badly.”

When I glance over at her, she has a strange expression on her face, and I wonder what else she’s thinking. The whole thing must seem extremely odd to her, so I decide a distraction is in order. “Wanna go dress shopping? I promise to let you use me as your personal dress-up doll.”

“Sure.”

It’s not my imagination that she doesn’t sound all that enthusiastic, but I ignore it. I know she’s worried about me, but I’m sure with time she’ll see that she has nothing to worry about, and I’m in perfectly safe hands with Raffaele.

By the time we get home, it’s almost midnight. Isa helps me pick the white dress I’ll wear and pack up a few clothes, and we try to sleep afterward. I’m buzzing with too much nervous energy to sleep, though. I end up on the balcony, a book in my hand.

I must have fallen asleep at some point, because the next thing I know, Isabella is tapping my shoulders, yawning.

“Did you sleep out here?” Concern wrinkles her forehead. “You’re going to catch a cold. You can’t afford to be careless about your health anymore.”

“I’m fine. I had a blanket.”

“Hmm.” She holds out my phone. “You got a text. It’s probably from Raffaele.”

“Thanks.” I grab the phone and unlock it, heart in my throat. Is he canceling?

It’s a different number from the one he called with yesterday, but it’s him. The text is simple.

Change of plans. Initial location might be compromised, and I don’t want to risk it. I’ve attached the new location below. Same time. I can’t wait to marry you. I love you.

“Oh, I know that place,” Isa says, reading over my shoulder. “It used to be a popular picnic location, but I think the park has been closed for a while. I can drive us there.”

“Thank you, Isa.” I smile gratefully at her. “We should start getting ready. I don’t want him to think I’ve changed my mind about being with him because I’m running late.”

“Sure.” She nods, taking my hand and dragging me to my feet. “Let’s get this party on the road.”

Joy swells inside me, filling every inch of my being as I think about what I’m about to do. But beneath it, a quiet ache settles in my chest. Isabella is the only part of this life I’ll genuinely miss. The only person who ever felt like home.

My father was never really part of it. Not in the way that mattered.

I didn’t grow up with the kind of love I’ve read about in books—found families, nosy but caring in-laws, the warmth of people who would choose you again and again. My world was built on power plays and cold transactions, not unconditional love.

But that ends with me.

I press a hand to my stomach, my throat tightening. My new life will be different. It has to be. Every single day, I will make sure of it.

For the me I am now. For the girl I used to be.

For Raffaele.

And for the little one growing inside me.