Page 47 of Sin City Obsession (De Salvo Empire #1)

The Third

Alessa had been through many things in life. She’d experienced fear, pain, tragedy, and the hard realities of being a woman in a man’s world. She liked to think she had overcome all of them, to some extent. But damn if she did not know how women kept doing this.

She’d promised Rocco at least two, and she knew he would be thrilled with a third. Regardless of either outcome, she was having the doctors put her under in the future. The epidural had not been enough.

But her baby’s cries filled the air, louder and more insistent than anything else, and she couldn’t deny the spark of unfamiliar joy that lit in her heart.

Iris had told her to expect something like that. She’d explained how holding her baby in her arms for the first time had filled her with a whole new purpose, a fresh kind of love she hadn’t understood before. It had been hard for Alessa to wrap her mind around, especially via phone and video calls.

Then the nurse passed the bundle of blue to her, helping her cradle the newborn properly, and Alessa found herself staring into the tiny face of her son.

He had the faintest whisps of dark hair, like whiskers on his scalp, already decorating his head.

And it didn’t matter that he wasn’t fully cleaned off yet, or that she wasn’t sure she was prepared to care for such a tiny human, because she loved him.

She loved him with her whole heart, in a way she’d never felt before.

It didn’t overtake the love she held for Rocco, or her family, it merely expanded into a region of her heart that hadn’t existed previously and set down roots.

Rocco curled himself around her, around them, and settled one hand on her opposite shoulder in a gesture of comfort and support while he reached out to gently brush the tip of one finger along their son’s little cheek.

“Look at this masterpiece you made, my queen,” he whispered above her ear. “Our son.”

Tears burned her eyes and she tipped her head to lean closer to him. She didn’t want to risk dropping her precious cargo by shifting her hold. But Rocco understood, and adjusted himself to hold her a little tighter.

She couldn’t tear her eyes away, and suddenly the name she’d known for months whispered through her mind again.

She’d known it since the day they’d learned they were having a boy.

His name had never been in question. But somehow, she was only just recognizing such an obvious thing.

“Rocco Cavallo III,” she murmured aloud.

Her tears broke free.

Little more than a year earlier, she had lost her beloved older brother.

Losing him had torn her up, sent her spiraling.

But it had also, indirectly, sent her toward her future—to Rocco.

She sniffled and rubbed a finger over her son’s tiny fingers.

“He’s … so precious.” Her baby boy. Her very own third-generation son.

Her brother had been a third. Alfonso Adimari III.

Now her son was a third.

She couldn’t believe she’d failed to connect that dot over the past several months of newlywedded bliss and baby prep.

“Alessa? You okay, beautiful? Should I call the doctor in?”

Alessa drew a shaky breath and turned her smile to her husband. She couldn’t have hidden her tears if she’d wanted to. “He’s a third,” she said, her voice cracking. “Just like Al.”

Rocco blinked once before his expression softened.

He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“Yes, he is.” He dipped one hand beneath baby Rocco’s head, beneath the blanket, and curled his fingers enough to show he was cupping the softly whining boy’s head.

“And together, we’ll make sure he lives the life your brother was denied. I swear that to you.”

Baby Rocco—Rocky, she was going to call him Rocky—began to cry again.

Alessa bumped her head on Rocco’s arm. “Yes. Yes, we will.” She allowed the nurse to slip in and take Rocky, reminding herself it was a very temporary—and highly monitored—separation.

Then she latched onto Rocco’s nearest hand.

“We’ll raise him strong, like his father, with all the love our families can muster.

” She turned her teary smile to him. “But now I really hope the next one’s a girl. ”

Rocco matched her smile and kissed her gently. “I’ll get to working on that for you, just as soon as possible.”

She gave him a half-hearted shove. “You’re terrible. Go tell our hovering families the good news. I need to sleep for a year.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He kissed her forehead as he stood, pulled the blanket to her chin, and slipped from the room.

Alessa let her eyes close as visions of Rocky, growing into a rambunctious boy, filled her mind.

She was glad they’d moved out of the penthouse and into something on solid ground.

Gladder still that her parents had humbly allowed her and Rocco to buy them a smaller, single-story second home for anytime they wanted to come to Las Vegas.

Which they were joking would be every winter.

The vision in her mind evolved, a second, faceless laugh joining the first. Maybe she wasn’t so opposed to one or two more, after all.

The End