Chapter 2

The next couple days flew by for the couple. They went out into the city to explore and did the touristy things, which Ellie knew killed Nick because he had already expressed to her how much he hated that kind of stuff, several times before, during, and after the activity. Despite the complaining Ellie still felt very thankful to Nick. She knew things like that took a lot for him because he had grown up getting everything he wanted, whenever he wanted.

Back in their hotel, Ellie was on edge because it was Sunday, the day before Monday, the day before she would meet the rest of the Lombardi clan. Ellie stood over suitcases all of her clothes sprawled across the bed. She could feel the nerves spreading through her body, and the three going on four vodka tonics she had had hadn’t helped. She was already feeling tipsy and nowhere near slowing.

“Piccolina,” Nick said coming up behind her. He placed his hands on her shoulder and grabbed her drink. Once the drink was set aside he rubbed her shoulders. “Slow down. Everything will be okay tomorrow.”

“No it won’t,” she whined. “I have nothing to wear.”

“I thought you just bought a dress for tomorrow yesterday,” Nick questioned rolling his eyes. He distinctly remembered the shopping extravaganza the two had gone through to find the ‘perfect’ dress. Not only did it have to look perfect, it had to be the right price because she wasn’t accepting any gifts from him since his family was most likely paying for the majority of the wedding. Him buying the dress to hurry the trip would not have been a gift to her, but a gift for himself. He hated just watching her try on stuff.

“It’s too short,” she answered. “I’m meeting your family, not partying with my friends. What exactly is the plan again?” Once again she picked up her drink and took a large gulp.

Sighing he stepped to the side of her and took a look at her displayed wardrobe. “It’s just a little cookout- once again very informal.” He picked up a simple dress and a cardigan and set them aside. “Wear this. It looks like something one of my sisters would wear to one of these things.” Just as he said this his phone rang, the sounds of a very standard cell phone tone echoed through the room. He took a glance at the caller ID. “I got to take this,” he mumbled before making his way into the living room area of the hotel room.

Immediately Ellie knew that it was a business call. Annoyed that she still hadn’t been informed of the specifics of his family business and still slightly tips, she decided the perfect moment to question him was when he came back into the room.

He came back sounding and it was obvious that he had not like what had happened on the phone.

“What’s wrong?” questioned Ellie as she began to put away some of her clothes.

“Nothing,” he grunted running a hand through his hair. “Absolutely nothing.”

“Something happened Nick, I’m not stupid. Just talk to me about it.” She put down her glass and moved closer to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. Rubbing his back she continued, “I’m going to be your wife. You can share anything with me.”

He looked down at her for a few seconds before finally shaking his head and giving her a quick peck on the lips. “Don’t worry about it. It’s just business.”

Pushing away from Nick annoyed Ellie returned to her clothes. “Don’t belittle me, Nick. I have a degree too, in accounting none the less, from the same school as you. I know about business.” After a beat she went on, “what exactly does your family do? What exactly do you do?”

A look of annoyance passed over his face. “I’ve told you before, trade.”

“What kind of trade, Nick, huh?” she angrily continued her task throwing folded clothes into very sloppy piles.

“Are you okay Ellie? What’s wrong with you today?”

After taking another big gulp of her drink, she turned so that she was looking at Nick who stood across the room. Their eyes met, she could already see the annoyance with a hint of anger bubbling up within him. “There is nothing wrong with me. I just thought that since I’m marrying into this family it would be a good idea for me to figure out what the family does.”

“Your drunk Elle,” he said brushing it off his shoulders. He mumbled something in Italian before making his way into the living room area.

“I’m not fucking drunk,” she said slamming down her glass and following him even though she too knew that she was drunk. The alcohol wasn’t the reason she was asking what she was asking, it had just helped her get the conversation started. She had been wondering for a while now. He was seated on the couch. Ellie stood in front of him with her hand crossed over her chest.

“You don’t need to know the specifics of what my family does. You won’t be involved. You’ll just be-“

“…Just your goddamn wife, right. That’s what you want isn’t it, a stepford wife, an obedient woman that just listens to your every back and call, who sits at home cooks and cleans and pops out your kids. Isn’t it?”

“Why don’t you go put away your clothes and go to bed? We can talk about this in the morning when you’re sober.” He managed to hold back his anger though it was brewing under the surface.

“You’d like that wouldn’t you. Avoid the whole conversation completely,” she snickered.

No longer able to hold back he stood up, “Okay you want to talk about this; let’s talk then.” Ellie backed up as he moved closer to her. He followed and somehow she found herself backed up against a wall. “You have nothing to worry about. I can provide for the both of us, give you a life much better than the one you have, how I do so, is of no concern to you. I could give two shits whether or not you work or what you know about business, it means nothing to me. I’m handling what I need to handle and you need to handle what you need to handle.”

Once again passionate and annoyed Ellie retorted with, “Fuck you, Niko Lombardi.”

He backed away from Ellie and too went to the bar area to make himself a drink. “Don’t make me something I’ll regret, “he warned.

“I don’t want or need your money, Niko. I’m fine economically and I will be fine in the years to come. My life is perfectly fine. I’m perfectly fine,” she made her way closer to him.  “You’re the fucked up one. You’re the one with a family business you can’t tell your fiancé the details of. You’re the one who’s only really had two real relationships, who’s slept with half the world. You’re the one who couldn’t introduce your fiancé to your family until four months before your wedding. When you compare the two of us, it’s easy to see who needs to be given a better life.”

Nick slammed down one of the bottles he was pouring, “Don’t ever talk to me like that again. I’m not one to be played with. Do you understand me?” He made his way so that he was right in front of her.

“You’re not my dad nor do you own or control me. You can’t tell me how not to or how to talk to you.”   

“What is wrong with you,” his eyes softened for a moment right before eventually returning to their previous blazing conditions. “You know no one talks to me like that. Around here my family is a lot more powerful than you know.”

The way he said that sent chills through Ellie’s body. “Are you threatening me, asshole?”

“I’m leaving,” he said going into the bedroom area. Ellie followed. “I’m booking another room. I can’t be around you when you’re like this.”

“Like what?” Her hands moved to her hips annoyed.

“When you’re being a bitch,” he spit glaring at her for a few seconds before packing a bag quickly. He made his way to the door and Ellie stood in place watching him leave. “I’ll see you in the morning, after you’ve calmed down.”

Once again grabbing her martini that had waited patiently for her in the bedroom, she drank the last drops before yelling, “Fuck you,” at the closing door and throwing the glass. She watched as the pieces shattered to the floor, before finally letting herself cry. The day had taken such an unexpected turn.

The rest of the Lombardi Family

Cristiano "chris" Lombardi jr.

The logical father

Marta Lombardi

the overprotective mom

Rosabella "Rose or Bella" Lombardi- 16 years old.

the baby.

Allegra "Ally" Lombardi- 19 years old.

the jokester, easy going daughter.

Bianca "B" Lombardi - 21 years old

The Princess

Chapter 3

Nick reached over and attempted to grab Elle’s hand across the center console of the white SUV he had rented for their stay, before they settled. She immediately pulled away the moment she felt his fingers on hers. Frustrated, he looked over at her. She had been in the same position the whole ride to his parent’s house. Her body leaned away from him and her face pointed toward the window. She wanted nothing to do with him today and he couldn’t say he really blamed her.

Frowning, he brought his hand back to the wheel and looked toward the road. “You can’t ignore me. Don’t you think it will be a little weird for my family to meet you while I and you are fighting.” From the corner of his eye he saw her slightly shift.

Ellie sat up straighter bored of the scenery around her. They had moved from the downtown area of the city into the more suburban area. She hadn’t noticed any welcome to signs so she wasn’t exactly sure where she was. She wanted to ask Nick if it was actually a suburb, but due to their current situation refused to. 

Nick looked at Ellie once again upset that he had not received a reply. She hadn’t said a word to him all day. He was surprised that she had even agreed to still go to the cookout with him. He was surprised when he had come back to their room to find her dressed, the outfit he had chosen, and applying makeup to her face. After attempting to question her with no reply, he too dressed and the two silently went on their way.

Nick pulled over knowing that the two needed to talk before he could throw her into the lion’s den, that was his family.

“Ellie… Ellie… Elle,” he called trying to force her to look at him. “Eleanor.” The use of her full name startled her so much that she looked up at him. The only people that ever called her Eleanor were her grandparents and her mom when she was pissed at her.

“I know you’re mad at me Piccolina. I know. Last night… well last night was last night, but if we are gonna do this we have to look happy doing it. I don’t want my family to have any reason not to like you. Things are going to be hard enough considering…” he trailed off not exactly sure how to continue his sentence.

“Considering what?” This was the first thing she had said to him all day. Her curiosity had made her break the cold shoulder she was giving him.

“Considering you aren’t Italian,” he finished.

Nick had already explained to her that his parents had always wanted him to marry a nice Italian girl, preferably one from a close family. He had already explained that they might be a little disappointed when they found out she wasn’t Italian, she was already prepared for that.  

“I’m not going to lie to you though.,” he took in a deep breath before continuing, might as well tell her while she was still mad at him, get it all out. “You not being of European Descent isn’t going to help either.”  He watched her face for a reaction.

Ellie attempted to stay calm. She couldn’t believe he was telling her all this while they were on their way to his parent’s home. She felt she had deserved some preparation time. “So they are going to have a problem with me being black…”

“Not exactly,” he said running a hand through his hair then over his face. “It’s just going to take them a while to get used to it. They aren’t racist. They just have a different mindset. They’re all about bloodlines and lineage.”

Turning to Nick with her lips pursed, though deep inside she knew she wanted to cry, she asked, “Do you even want this? This relationship… Do you want to be with-“

“Of course I do. I don’t care what my parents think or do. I want to be with you, forever.  I love you.” He reached out and touched her left leg. This time she didn’t move away.

“Alright,” she answered quietly. She gave him a little smile before again averting her eyes back to the road. She wasn’t forgiving him, but hearing those words had softened her a little. She planned to bear through the gathering but afterward, the two would have to have a talk.

After putting the car back into drive and getting back on the road, Nick placed his hand back on her thigh and rubbed light circles into her skin with his thumb.

“She’s very, very nice,” Nina said to her sister-in-law Bianca, “and very smart. I really like her.” The two were seated on a patio set, set in the Lombardi dining room waiting for the arrival of Nico and his fiancé. “Just be open minded when you meet her.”

Bianca pursed her glossed lips and nodded. She already had trouble with meeting new girls. For some reason unknown to her, she never really got along with females she hadn’t grown up with or who weren’t in her family. She had a feeling this would be exacerbated by the fact that this woman would be marrying into her family, to her older brother. Niko and Bianca had a special relationship and always had since they were little. Since the two were only 13 months apart in age, they were very close, well as close as a brother and sister could be in their early 20s. She was protective of him as he was of her.

“Mamma,” Nina heard a little voice call from behind her. Turning she was met by the sight of Gio with their daughter Renna in his arms. Smiling she held her hands out for the little girl and took her.

“Nico and Ellie are pulling in,” he said to his sister and wife.

“Are you excited to meet Uncle Nico’s friend?” Nina asked her child in Italian.

“Sì, mamma,” the little girl replied. Nina stood with the child still in her arms, grabbed her husband’s hand and the three made their way to the front door. Bianca followed, a snarl already beginning to form on her face.

The entire Lombardi family gathered in the entrance hall awaiting the entrance of the almost new member of their family. Marta and Chris stood closest to the door, to greet their son and his new fiancé first.

Marta reached her hand out to open the door the moment she heard the doorbell ring. She was most excited for this moment. She had never thought her second son would marry. Through his youth he had been very shifty going from one woman to the next. He had never introduced the family to any of them, he had more respect for his parents than that, but he hadn’t tried that hard to hide his ventures either. The day she had heard from Gio that he had gone out and purchased an engagement ring had been one of the best things she had ever heard. If Nico could get married she knew the rest of her kids would be perfectly fine, too.

“Nico,” she greeted when she saw him at the door. She went in for a hug. “How are you my baby,” she asked in Italian.

“Buongiorno mamma,” he simply replied. Then he looked to his father gave him a quick hug also and said, “buongiorno papà.” Chris Lombardi simply nodded in reply.

“Mamma, Pappà this is my fiancé Ellie Peters.” He stepped aside and revealed a small woman.

Ellie placed a nice smile on her face and stepped forward and said, “Hello Mr. and Mrs. Lombardi. It’s so nice to meet.” She stuck out a hand and shook first Marta then Chris’s hand.

Marta was silenced. She hadn’t expected that. She hadn’t expected the girl to be black, in all honesty. He had warned the entire family that she wasn’t Italian. Marta had accepted that just happy that her most wild son was finally settling down with someone. It was upsetting that the girl wasn’t of Italian descent but she had consoled herself by saying that that wouldn’t taint their line that much, but an African- American woman that would definitely show.

Marta shook the woman’s hand on reflex and watched as her husband did so and said, “Buongiorno Ellie.”

Nick put his hand on Ellie’s lower back and led her further into the house to meet the rest of his family. After quickly greeting his brother and sister-in-law he reintroduced them to Ellie. Gio once again hugged her and Nina also went in for a hug, one just as friendly, if not friendlier than the previous one.

“This is my daughter Renna,” she told Ellie. Nina set the girl down and said, “say hi to uncle Nico and his friend Ellie.”

The little girl turned to Nico and hugged his legs. “Hi,” she said with a smile on her lips. Letting go she turned to Ellie and said a shy “hi” before running to her dad and hugging his legs.

Ellie said hello to the little girl waving her hand also. Renna was a nice little girl who looked nothing like either of her parents with fair skin and light blonde hair. The girl did not resemble a typical Lombardi, though she was very cute.

Nico put his hand on Ellie’s lower back again and led her to another group of his siblings, his sisters.  He hugged each of his sister and greeted them with a Ciao.

“Bianca, Allegra, and Rosabella meet Ellie, my fiancé.”

Rosabella was the obvious youngest. She had straight blond hair and the signature blue eyes. She was a very cute girl who was obviously in her teenage rebel years. She had on a lot of heavy eyeliner and unlike the rest of her female family, who were dressed in dresses, she was clothed in dark blue skinny jeans and layered tops. “Call me Bella,” she said sticking out a hand. Her nails were painted black. The sweetness of her name didn’t appear to match the way she wanted to represent herself.

The next girl was Allegra. She too was a very pretty girl with lots of long dark hair. She was obviously younger than Bella, but younger than Nick. She looked to be the nicest of the three with a sweet smile plastered on her face. Reaching out a hand also she said to Ellie, “Please just call me Ally. It’s so nice to meet you Ellie. I’ve heard so many great things about you.”

“And so have I,” the third sister, Bianca, said with a hint of sarcasm. Ellie had heard a lot about Bianca. Whenever Nick talked about his family and it wasn’t something about Gio, then it was usually about Bianca. He was obviously very close to her. Ellie hadn’t expected her to be as pretty as she was though. She too had long dark hair and blue eyes. She came off as that type of girl that looked great effortlessly and knew it. She was basically the female version of Nick.  She knew from the stories Nick had told her that she would be the hardest sibling to impress, the one that would originally like Ellie the least. She just hadn’t expected her to be as standoffish as she was.  Bianca stood with her hands crossed over her chest and a grimace on her face. It was apparent that they were already off to a rough start.

“It’s so great meeting you,” Ellie said to the brunette.

“You too,” Bianca said looking Ellie up and down as if judging her of course with the same disapproving look on her face.  

“B,” Nick scolded from Ellie’s side to which Bianca responded to in Italian; the snarl stayed in place on her face. Nick opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by Nina.

“Okay,” said Nina coming to the group flustered. She had heard and watched that interaction, as had the entire family. She had also heard and understood what Bianca had said and knew what kind of outcome it could lead to. She knew the right thing to do was to diffuse the situation. “How about we all go out to the backyard? Papà has some really good food on the grill.”

Nick and Bianca continued to stare each other down before Bianca finally broke contact and said, “let’s eat,” before making her way into the backyard. The rest of the family followed.

Nick turned to Ellie after the room cleared out. “I’m sorry. Bianca… well Bianca is Bianca.” He put his hands on her shoulder and went in to kiss her. She turned her head at the last moment so that his lips met the very edge of her lips.

“I haven’t forgiven you,” she said. “We still need to talk about last night.” He nodded and took her hand leading her into the lion’s den, otherwise known as his family dinning table.

Chapter 4

Tears began to fall from her eyes as she thought of the welcoming she had received from her fiancés family. It was obvious they hated her from, from the look his mom gave her when she spoke to her, to the way they discussed the wedding as if it was mere fancy, something Nick and her just dreamed about, but were never actual going to bring into fruition. Bianca insisted on speaking in Italian as much as possible with the obvious intention of leaving Ellie out. The rest of the family attempted to cover for the two women, but it had still been hurtful. It hurt her to think that she may never be accepted into this family.

A soft knock came from the other side of the door. “Ellie baby, are you in there?” Nick‘s quiet and calm voice reminded Ellie that she wasn’t at home. She couldn’t just lock herself away in the bathroom. It wasn’t even her bathroom.

“Yeah,” she replied through sniffles.

“Can I come in?” he once again asked. This was not usually how their relationship worked. She was usually strong she could support herself and hold herself together. She was different from the girls Luc had grown up with, and that’s what he said he like about her so much.

Embarrassed, Ellie quickly tried to fix her face, of which she had worked so hard at perfecting this morning. Quickly wiping at the tears and brushing a little more powder over her face, she unlocked the door.

“Ellie,” he said coming in and after closing the door pulling her close. “What’s wrong?”

Annoyed she pushed away from him so she could look into his eyes. “Don’t act like you don’t know.” Crossing her arms she became very cold. “They hate me. Why didn’t you tell them? It would have made it easier on all of us, you know.” She walked away and took a seat on the toilet.

“I didn’t tell them because it shouldn’t matter,” he said making his way closer to her. “They don’t hate you. It just takes them a while to warm up to people.”

Ellie shot him a look that said, ‘there’s no way I’m falling for that. ‘

“Okay well,” he continued, “Only Bianca and my mom have a problem. I’ll talk to them about it. Bianca’s just protective and my mom is my mom. Regardless the rest of my family likes you. Gio has liked you since he last met you. Nina is obsessed with you. My dad likes you and so does Ally. Bella is indifferent toward you, which is a compliment because she usually hates everything that has to do with family interaction.”

Ellie let out a little laugh at the last statement. How couldn’t she? Nick was being funny, something that was very hard for him to do.

“My family is full of bigger assholes than me. I mean I had to learn it from somewhere,” Nick said moving in closer and squatting before her. Once again she laughed. He placed his hand on her slightly damp cheek and looked into her eyes. “You’re doing great. You’re perfect!”  He moved his face in close to hers, this time hoping she didn’t reject him like she had earlier, and laid a soft kiss on her lips.

This time she allowed him to, very quickly, because she knew it would make her feel better. They still needed to talk, but for the moment she would pretend that she wasn’t mad.  “I love you, but I’m still pissed at you.” She let a half smile move over her lips.

He laughed a little at her and stood nodding. “I love you too,” he answered. “You ready for round two? Just tell me when you’re ready to leave and we’re out of there.”

Once again wiping at her tears, she nodded her head and the two made their way back to the backyard.

“Bianca you’re being so rude,” Nina scolded the woman in Italian. Nina held her son in her hands and was feeding him little bites of food from the barbecue.

Answering in the same language she said “I don’t like her.”

Nina rolled her eyes and said, “Well it’s not like you even tried. You hated her from sight. I know that you and Nico are close and you’re protecting him, but-“

“You don’t know anything,” the younger girl snapped. Bianca shifted her eyes away from Nina who groaned in frustration.

At the other end of the table, Marta Lombardi complained to her husband. “He’s doing this to punish me, isn’t he? He’s rebelling.  He’s punishing me.” She droned on and on to her quiet husband who sat there and just listened as he had for several years now. “You need to talk to him. You need to talk to your son.” She turned to her other son. “And you, talk to your brother.”

Gio simply nodded shifting his daughter, who sat on his lap around and placing a kiss on her head. He liked Ellie and found no reason to dismiss her so quickly. Love was a lot more important than lineage and Ellie and Nick were in love and that’s all that mattered. He hoped that when his children were older he was old enough he would never act like his mother, nor would his wife. 

Chris Lombardi planned to talk to his son, but not exactly about the subject his wife wanted.

Ellie and Nick returned to the Patio with the rest of the family. It was obvious, despite her attempts to cover it, that Ellie had been crying.  Nina frowned upset that the experience had been so negative for her. She hadn’t expected this. All the interactions she had ever had with the Lombardi’s before her wedding had been positive. Marta had even asked her to call her mom before the wedding, which she had done obligingly. Maybe it was because she had been a family friend since she was a child, or maybe it was because she was Italian, but Marta and Bianca had treated her the exact opposite of how Ellie was being treated. She really felt for the girl. Smiling up at the couple Nina waved them to their seats across from herself and Gio.

Ellie smiled and followed Nick as he led her to their original seats. She had originally gotten a weird vibe from Nina, especially when speaking in terms of Nick, but from this experience alone she realized she really liked the girl. She was warm and friendly and very welcoming, which one wouldn’t expect from someone as beautiful as her.

“I’m sorry,” Ellie said to everyone at the table before once again taking her seat.

“You’re perfectly fine,” Nina told her smiling.

“So when is this wedding taking place, exactly? Have you set a date?” Marta asked annoyance filling her voice.

“Well we were hoping to get married in 4 months in late July or early August.” Ellie looked over at Nico and smiled. He squeezed her hand below the table. “That way most of my family will be able to make it down here.”

“And we’ll be able to get a house before then, “ Nick added before looking to Gio. “Actually Gio I was wondering if I could have your real estate agent’s number. We need to start looking.”

“Yeah,” Gio answered. “He’s great.  I’ll message it to you. “

“So your family… have they met our son?” Marta asked skeptically.

“Yes, he’s gone home with me several times. They had a rocky start, but now they love him. My whole family does.”

Marta nodded slowly before saying, “I’m going to be honest. I don’t like this. Ellie you’re a very nice girl, very nice, I just don’t know if you’re right for my son.”

Ellie’s jaw dropped. She hadn’t expected to hear her directly say it. Despite already knowing the truth, it was still very trying to hear. “I-I…,” stuttered Ellie completely speechless.

“What did you just say? What is wrong with you?” Nick asked his mother in Italian, outraged. 

“Excuse my wife, she’s forgotten her manner. She isn’t usually this rude.” Chris Lombardi attempted to cover up his wife’s blunder. He began to scold her, well scold Marta as much as one could, in Italian.

From the other end of the table Bianca’s sinister laugh rang.

Turning to her Nick asked in English, “What the fuck are you laughing at?”

Bianca looked taken aback for a second, before easily regaining her composure. “You. What did you expect?”

“You know Bianca you can be a real bitch,” Nick said.

The way Nick was speaking to her shocked her. Of course they had fought, but the fights had never turned to this. He had never called her anything that bad before. It was just another thing to add to the list of reasons why she didn’t like Ellie. Ellie had turned her brother against her.

“Don’t ever talk to your sister like that again,” Marta yelled at her son in Italian. “She’s done nothing wrong. “

Watching the tension build Nina knew she needed to get her kids away from this situation. It couldn’t be healthy for them. Shifting her son so that he was lying on her shoulder she told her husband her plan. Gio offered to go help, but she knew it was best if he stayed and tried to diffuse the situation. She grabbed Renna’s hand and led the children into the house. She felt horrible not being able to help Ellie and be another person in her court, but her children always came first. Before leaving she offered the girl a smile though, that was the best she could do at the time being.

“I don’t even want to hear anything from you anymore,” Nick said in Italian also turning back to Marta for a few seconds before looking back at Bianca and speaking again in the same language. “You of all people I thought would try their best and have my back, you my closest sibling, but you end up being the worst, well second of course to your mother.”

“I gave her a chance and didn’t like her. I’m entitled to my own opinion,” Bianca expressed still a little shell shocked by her brother’s reaction. “I don’t have to like every girl you bring home. “

“Gave her a chance my ass,” Nick retorted.

“Actually you’ve been rude since she’s walked into the house,” Ally said speaking up, which was weird because she was usually very quiet.

“Shut up you little shit,” Bianca snarled shooting Ally a death glare.

“Stop it. Stop it, “cried Marta. “I can’t listen to you argue like this.” 

“Well you’re the ring leader of this little episode here,” Nick retorted back. He had never spoken to his mother like this before, but she had never acted like this before either.

“Niko,” she cried.

“This family is a shit show,” cried Bella in English. She refused to speak in Italian unless the situation was dire. It was part of her rebelling. “I’m embarrassed to be a part of it.”

 “Niko,” called Gio, also in Italian. “Calm down. Bianca stop with the attitude. Allegra please try not to jump in.  Rosabella, now is not the time. Ma Niko loves this girl and what you said was very rude.” He attempted to calm and diffuse the situation. It didn’t work, after listening for a second the family continued to argue, it was just as if he had just joined in.

Ellie listened and tried her best to follow all the chaos that was going on around her, which was hard considering it was in a different language and there were so many people involved. She couldn’t believe this had all happened because of her. She hadn’t expected it at all.

“Stai Zitto,” (shut up) yelled Chris Lombardi who had managed to remain quiet through the greater part of the argument. He continued in his native tongue. “I will not have this in my household. We are family. We don’t do this, Family first, always.”

“I’m leaving,” announced Niko in English so that Ellie would understand also and begin to pack up her things. He continued the rest in Italian, “with my family.” He looked at Ellie who sat with a very confused look on her face. Nick stood and Ellie followed. Grabbing her hand he led her toward the house. Very quickly she turned back to the family and said, “It was nice meeting all of you, despite…”

“Niko,” called Chris. “I want to talk to you eventually okay.”

Nick gave his father a quick nod before walking out.

Back on the patio Gio groaned “well that was something” before pushing out his chair and going to go find his family before leaving.

“This is bullshit,” cried Bianca visibly upset. She made her way to her bedroom.

Marta left soon after claiming that she had a headache.

“Is this over? Can I leave now,” Bella asked. No one answered so she just got up and left. Ally followed soon after.

Chris Lombardi was left at the table alone. “I need a stiff drink,” he said before finally leaving the table. Today had been eventful day for the Lombardi family.

<3 <3 <3

Nick and Ellie laid on the bed on their separate sides of the hotel bed for once Nick wasn’t working but messing around on his computer for fun. Ellie beside him was reading, a romance novel, she had been trying to finish for a while, but just had never found time to.

Setting her book aside though, she turned to Nick. “We need to talk,” she stated.

He closed his laptop and turned to her. “I’m so sorry about today.” He had already apologized a billion times. She wasn’t mad, just annoyed that things hadn’t gone as planned. She was actually impressed that Nick had managed to stand up for her. Well she assumed he was standing up for her, since she couldn’t understand what exactly had been going on.

“Not about that, about yesterday. I’m not satisfied with the answer I got. If we are going to do this, despite your mom and sister, if I’m going to have to fight this, I want to be sure that I’m making the right decision. I can’t fight for us if I can’t trust you.”

“I know, I know,” he replied. “I just can’t right now. It’s complicated. It’s-“

“Nick you know I love you. You can tell me anything.” Ellie reached out and rubbed her fingers up and down his arm hoping to reassure and coax him into a confession.

Looking into Ellie’s eyes he said, “I’m not sure you’ll love me after I tell you. That’s what I’m most worried about. I’m not even sure you’ll like me.” It was the most tender thing she had ever heard him say.

With that confession she had an idea of what he did, though she still wanted to hear it from him. She needed to hear it from him.

“I’ll still love you. I couldn’t just stop if I wanted to,” she reassured. Her hands continued to rub his arm, making their way up his arms.

“My family… We have a long history. For years we’ve dealt in- in- in… Ellie I can’t. Not now.”  He looked down. He looked as if he had failed and was obviously beating himself up about it. A frown distorted his features.

The sight brought pain to Ellie. Nodding she understood. “It’s fine Nick, for now, but you have to understand I can’t marry you until I know. I wouldn’t feel right.”

He understood. “I will tell you, and soon. I just have to get over this. I just- I love you a lot. I’m scared of losing you.” 

 “I love you, too.” Ellie picked up her book and began to read again and Nick opened his computer again. There was an obvious switch in the dynamic of the room.

Chapter 5

It had been two weeks since Nick had seen or talked to anyone in his family besides from Gio and Nina, and besides from the brief phone call from his father asking him to the family home today. He couldn’t tell exactly how he felt, he wasn’t scared because he knew nothing would happen to him. He also knew he wasn’t anxious. He felt something in the pit of his stomach and the closest thing he could relate it to was nervousness.

Putting his key into the lock, he let himself into his childhood home, also the scene of the epic falling out.

He didn’t bother to look for any of his other siblings just letting making his way into his father’s study where he was sure Chris sat waiting for him. On his walk there he did pass by Bianca while walking down one of their long hallways. She averted her eyes and pretended as if he had she did not notice him and he did the same. He didn’t plan on talking to her until she apologized for what she’d done.

Once at the oak door of Chris’s stood, Nick knowing better, put his hand up to the door and knocked. He heard a voice tell him to enter.

Chris Lombardi’s study was one of the most beautiful parts of the entire Lombardi home. The walls were covered by book shelves that were filled with books, fake ones of course since none of them had ever been opened. The entire room was decorated in red with oak accents. The carpet was of the plush red type and the curtains a matching red with a paisley print very lightly of them. In front of one of the grand windows sat Chris’s desk, also made of oak and very large and thrown like, which he sat at arms crossed. Next to him was his right hand man, a man the kids called Uncle Pete, even though he wasn’t blood related to them at all. Pete was Chris’s right hand man and had been so for a very long time.

“Pa,” said Nick toward his father in Italian. “You wanted to talk to me.”

“Yes, yes, “Chris said to his son. “Take a seat.” There was a seat placed right in front of his desk. Nick had taken a seat there several times over the years from times as a teenager when he had gotten in trouble, but recently as an adult only to talk about business. He had never expected to sit in the seat and feel the same as he did as a teen for doing something wrong.

“Pete if you’ll excuse my son and I, “ Chris said to his friend and with a quick nod at both men he left.

“I know what this is about,” Nick said the moment he heard the door close.

“You do, do you?” Chris asked skeptically leaning back  and folding his hands over his chest.

“Yes, I’m not doing it. I’m not leaving her just because of ma,” Nick proclaimed. “It’s my life and my choice.”

Chris sat quietly and nodded his head. “Hmmm, I see. “

“…No matter what the consequences are. I don’t care if you cut me off. There is nothing you can say or do to change my mind,” Nick said stubbornly looking straight into Chris Lombardi’s eyes.

“Most would never think to stand up to me like that. Most people are weary of what I can do to them.”

“I don’t care,” Nick said crossing his hands over his chest. “I love her.”

Once again Chris nodded. “Well don’t worry son. I’m not here to tell you to break up with her. I like her. She’s very nice.”

Nick threw his father a confused look. “What?”

“I like her,” he repeated. “I think she’ll be a wonderful addition to the family. “

“But- but what about ma?” Nick asked still confused.

“Your mother will learn to get over it. She’s just stubborn and hardheaded and also concerned. You’re her youngest son and she is an Italian mother. In due time I’m sure she’ll get along with your fiancé as well as she does with Nina.”

Nick nodded happy that he had his father’s support. Even though Marta was the woman behind the man, and she usually had great power and could sway him to her thinking, everyone knew that once Chris made up his mind there was no changing it and everyone else just had to adapt.  

“We both know that Bianca doesn’t hate her for the same reason as your mother,” continued Chris.

Nick knew this as true. He knew that Bianca didn’t have a problem with Ellie because of the color of her skin or her culture. She was usually a very democratic person and even accepting of her friends interracial parings. Bianca’s reasons were fueled by something different.

“Your sister is defensive because she’s scared of losing you. She’s never had to compete with another girl for your attention because well usually there was no other girl. She wouldn’t have been happy with any girl walking through those doors.” Chris pursed his lips and looked at his son. “You need to make her understand that your new relationship is going change things between you that you can still stay as close as you were.” Chris paused letting that soak in before going on to a joke,” Plus we both know that she isn’t very good with girls anyway.”

Nick laughed thinking about all the times he had to try and diffuse a fight between Bianca and some other girl. Whether it was some teenage drama screaming fight or an actual fist fight, Bianca somehow managed to always end up in one, and usually over the dumbest things. It was no coincidence that Bianca could count the number of female friend she had had ion her entire life on one hand.

“Now on to business,” Chris said pulling out documents from his desk. “Nick we’ve lost a lot of money. There have been a lot of shortages. We need to get this situation under control.”

“Yeah I know pa,” Nick replied rubbing a hand over his face. “Gio’s working on that .He has some men out already trying to collect. I’m hoping they can get the job done without too much damage. Also I had them raise the prices, to make up for the lost shipment.”

Chris nodded very proud of the how well his children were doing. He knew that once he was gone the family business would run smoothly without him and that was all he had hoped for. He’d raised and trained them well. “Alright, great work. That’s all,” he said.

Nick nodded to his father and prepared to stand. He was stopped though by his dad saying something else to him.  “Nick, I want you to talk to your mother and sistermake it right. We are famiglia.” Once again he nodded and stood. No one ignored Chris Lombardi, no one. He made his way toward the door but was stopped halfway.

“Oh and Nick,” Chris continued. “Have you told her?”

Niko knew immediately what he was talking about. He was asking whether or not Nick had told Ellie what the family did.

“No not yet, “ he replied, his head down almost ashamed.

“Soon… you must do it soon,” Chris said and no one ignored Chris Lombardi, no one.

“B,” nick asked knocking on his sister’s bedroom door. “Can I come in?” he pushed the door open slightly and found her sitting on her bed. She had her phone held up to her ear and when she saw him she rolled her eyes and excused herself from her phone conversation.

“What do you want,” she asked coldly. “I was busy.”

Nick frowned. He knew that Bianca could be a bitch, but he had never been on the receiving end of her attitude. He was usually defending others from it.  “I want to apologize”

She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could get the words out he continued, “I’m not apologizing for everything. I’m not saying I’m sorry for defending my fiancé, I was not wrong for that. I’m apologizing for the way I defended her. I shouldn’t have called you all those things.” He stepped closer to her.

  Bianca nodded with pursed lips. “Yeah, you shouldn’t have,” she snapped looking back to her phone.

“You have to see it from my side too B,” Nick lamented. “I was hurt. Out of everyone in our family , I’m closest to you, and it felt like you abandoned me out there.  I didn’t expect it from you. Mom sure, but you… no way.”

Bianca bit at the edge of her lips. Her hard exterior was starting to melt as she listened to her brother. She had never heard him speak about emotions, they never talked about it. Out of everyone in the family they were both probably most like their dad, very cold. “She’s really softened you hasn’t she. “

Nick shrugged not knowing how to reply to that.

Bianca nodded and continued to bite her inner lip. The two sat in silence for a while just staring at the other, looking into the same exact blue eyes as their own. “I’m sorry,” she finally whispered so quietly is barely audible. Nick was lucky to have even heard it.

He smiled in reply and moved toward his sister and sat on the bed next to her. “So… I was thinking we could have a do over. You could meet Ellie alone. No family, no pressure, just the two of you could go out to lunch together. I think you could be friends if you just gave her a chance. “

Thinking it over Bianca pursed her lips. “You really love her don’t you?”

Nick smiled not really wanting to talk about it with his sister. It wasn’t that he was ashamed; he just thought it was something more private. Saw it as a weakness, something others could attack, a feeling he had to guard.

“Nico Lombardi is in love,” laughed Bianca. “I never thought I would see the day.”

Nick growled out a “your next,” as his cheeks tinted a little. “Any way what do you say.”

“I say okay. I’m doing this for you. You’re my brother and I want to get along with whoever you love.”

“Thank you,” he replied rubbing a hand through her hair which he knew would annoy her, and to his pleasure she sent him a death glare before patting it back in place. “I have to go though. I’ll text you the details.” He got up and made his way to the door.

He didn’t go see Marta. He didn’t know if he could face her now. He was still very angry about how she had treated his fiancé. He was even disgusted by her discrimination, an emotion he had never thought would be aimed at his mother. Leaving he made plans to return to his childhood home on a later date to handle his mother.

Ellie was led to a table in the back of the restaurant where she was met by the sight of Bianca Lombardi who was furiously texting on her phone. Ellie was nervous very nervous, the last time she had been in the same room as Bianca things hadn’t gone over very well, and she had had Nick with her. The idea of facing Bianca terrified her. She had pushed through her fear and come though in hopes that the two could form a bond and move into a better place. She didn’t want any hostility between her and any of her in-laws.

“Hi Ellie,” Bianca said standing as Ellie approached the table. She plastered a smile on her face. They both sat down together. “How are you?”

“Good. And you?” Ellie was still cautious, she didn’t plan on letting her guard down for a while.

“I’m great.” Bianca said and silence ensued. The two women picked up their menus and looked through them while attempting to make small talk until the waiter came and took their orders and returned with their drinks and appetizers. The whole thing was awkward.

After taking a long sip of water Bianca finally said, “this is very hard for me. I don’t usually do this, and it’s probably why I have so many problems with women.” She smiled after this last statement laughing at herself a little. “I’m sorry. I was very rude to you and it was very unwarranted. You seem like a perfectly nice woman. I should have respected my brother and knew that he wouldn’t be marrying a bad woman. Not to make excuses, but I am very protective of my family, especially of Nick. It’s not you I had a problem with, it was the idea of Nick being married that bothered me, I think.”

Ellie looked into Bianca’s eyes and thought she saw sincerity in there. She would accept her apology, but would keep her guard up. It was going to take more than a measly apology to bring that down. “It’s fine Bianca.  Thank you. I hope that we can move on past this though and hopefully build a relationship and maybe one day even become friends.”

“Yeah,” Bianca agreed smiling.

The rest of the meal continued a little better, though of course everything wasn’t healed. There was still that bit of awkwardness that comes with not really knowing someone. The tension though was lessened though once the two got over that molehill.  In general it could be say it was a success.

Chapter 6

The ringing of the cell phone echoed throughout the house. Nick looked at the caller ID before pushing ignore. Turning to face him, Ellie asked him despite knowing the answer, “ Who was that?”

“No one,” was his quick answer as he fastened a silver watch around his wrist. Ellie knew it was his mother. She had been trying to call him for at least a week now. It had been 3 weeks since the whole family dinner event had happened and Nick still hadn’t spoken to his mother. Ellie felt bad and somewhat responsible for tearing their family apart. She couldn’t stop the frown from appearing on her face.

Nick saw the frown and came to his fiancé’s side. Into the side of her neck he mumbled, “you look so hot right now,” before kissing her softly.

Ellie couldn’t help but laugh. She felt fat. She was outfitted in her loosest dress, a short black tunic number which she cinched at the waist with a gold belt, but still couldn’t fix the problem. It was a lost cause. Nina and Bianca couldn’t have chosen a worse time to throw the couple an engagement party. It had surprised Ellie when Nina had announced to her that they wanted to celebrate the couple’s engagement. It had especially been surprising when Bianca had jumped on board. Bianca had been making strives at creating a relationship with Ellie since their dinner. She just hadn’t expected her to show such support in their union so quickly. Ellie could even say she was beginning to like the girl, maybe even beginning to let down her guard a little. Despite Ellie’s protest against the event the two had ignored her and continued planning.

“Nick, I look like a bloated whale, no need to lie,” she said knowing how annoying she sounded. She hated when women did this to their men. She knew she should just shut up and take the compliment, but she couldn’t..

Nick being the smart man he was didn’t comment but kiss her on the lips quickly before returning to get ready.

“So do you know where this shin dig is being held,” asked Ellie trying to pump herself up for it.

“At a local club,” he replied. “One we used to go to all the time when I was younger.”

Ellie nodded. “Who’s coming?”

He walked into the bathroom and continued speaking to her. “Nina, Gio, Bianca, Ally, Bella-”

“Wait aren’t Ally and Bella underage? I mean for a club, or is it…” She could smell Nick’s cologne coming out of the bathroom.

“It’s fine. We have our ways of getting around that. None of us really care whether or not they drink. I mean we all did it at their age anyway, and our parents allow them too.” He came out of the bathroom completely ready and Ellie could tell that she was going to feel worse about her appearance from standing next to him. He looked great. His salmon shirt was loosely tucked into his pants which were fastened with a belt. The top three buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned. His hair was styled to perfection and his face clean shaven and smooth. He looked perfect.

Ellie nodded and slipped on her glittery gold high heels. She wondered if that was how they were going to raise their kids. This was just another difference in their backgrounds. To this day even, she could barely drink nevertheless get drunk in front of her parents. She even felt weird about it around her older sister, who was 7 years older than her.

“Ready to go,” Nick asked putting his wallet cell phone into his pockets.

“Yeah,” she said after she spritz some perfume on her wrist and neck. She grabbed her purse and Nick’s hand on her way out.

Bianca and Nina had booked a limo for Ellie and Nick, which Ellie thought was ridiculous. They could have easily driven their on their own or taken a taxi, a limo was just a waste of money. Nick on the other hand did not find it ridiculous at all. He loved it and kept asking Ellie, “have you ever hooked up in a limo before?”  She hadn’t and didn’t plan on ever doing so, especially today, despite the glint she saw in her fiancé’s face.

The club looked like fun. She could see a line extended down the block and what she assumed was around it also. The street vibrated with the sound of the music.

The limo dropped the two at the front door, where Ellie followed Nick out of the limo. He led the two up to the bouncer who let them in without a word. It was as if the bouncer recognized Nick. It must be nice to be a Lombardi she was beginning to recognize, she just couldn’t understand why.

Inside the club they were met by the smiling face of one of its workers. The woman was petite with short plain brown, the exact opposite of what one would expect. Extending her hand yelled over the music, “Hello, I’m Amanda, the owner. Congratulations. The rest of your party is waiting for you in our exclusive VIP section.” After shaking both of their hands she began to lead them up some stairs. “We’ve actually held many wedding receptions and would love if you guys would consider our venue for yours.” She led them on a balcony and stopped turning to face the two. Behind her Ellie could see some faces she recognized. “Here’s my card,” Amanda continued handing it out first to Nick who made no move to grab it, then to Ellie who took it and placed it in her purse.

“We’ll call and hopefully we can tour the place during the day time.” Ellie attempted to make up for Nick’s rudeness.

Amanda smiled. “We realy appreciated your business Mr. Lombardi and Miss..”

“Johnson,” Ellie finished for her once again shaking her hand. “Thank you.” Amanda smiled in appreciation at both of them before leaving. Once she was out of ear shot Ellie scolded Nick. “Rude. Stop acting like an entitled prick.”

He shrugged it off and walked toward the rest of their party guests.

“You both look so good,” said Nina after pulling away from Gio and coming to greet the two. She gave both Nick and Ellie hugs. “How was the limo ride? It’ll be here when you’re ready to go home or if you want to go anywhere else. We’ve rented it until 4pm tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” Ellie said humbly. “You’ve done so much. Thank you.”

Nina lifted her hand and acted as though she was swatting at something. “It’s the least I could do. We are going to be sisters soon.”

Ellie couldn’t help but smile at that. She loved the idea. Nina after a few more words left them and returned to her husband. Nick led Ellie around and introduced her to some family friends.

First he led over to a man he called his childhood best friend, Sammy, who was at a table talking to another girl. Upon introduction Sammy stood up and pulled Ellie into a hug.

“I might steal this one from you for myself,” he said holding onto Ellie. He turned to Ellie and jokingly asked, “are you sure you want to be with this sucker? I could probably tell you a couple things to change your mind.”

Ellie laughed. “I’m not sure. You’ll have to tell me those stories.”

“I don’t think so,” Nick intervened.

“You really married up didn’t you. She’s much to pretty for you,” Sammy once again joked punching his friend in the shoulder.

Nick just grimaced in reply. Ellie really like Sammy he was a jokester and very nice, an all- around great guy from what she could tell and been told. Before the couple left Sammy got up once again and pulled Ellie into a hug. Nick led her from him to another woman.

“This is Juliette,” Nick said. The woman before Ellie looked to about the same age as the couple. She had short blond hair cut very stylishly in a bob, with a streak of blond at the front of her head framing her face. Her nose was very straight and pointy, and her frame petite and short. Ellie towered over her as did Nick.  She didn’t look like a sweet girl at all, and Ellie knew she wasn’t.

Nick didn’t speak about his last girlfriend, last real girlfriend, very often. All Ellie knew was that the two had had a tumultuous relationship involving several cheating episodes on both ends and that they were only together in the end of the relationship because it was an ‘if I can’t have him/her no one can’ type of thing. Their relationship had lasted a year from the time they were seventeen to when they were eighteen.

“Hi I’m Ellie.” She stuck out her hand to shake the other woman’s.

“Nice to meet you,” the other woman said taking her hand very quickly. Juliette turned to Nick and pulled him into a hug. She then planted a kiss on his cheek. “How are things going? We haven’t spoken in a while.”

“They’re great. How are you?” he asked hugging her back. Ellie felt out of the place and invisible.

“Obviously not as good as you, you’re getting married. I never thought I’d never see the day.” Juliette shot a look toward Ellie before looking back at Nick with a smile.

“Yeah,” he answered running a hand through his hair. “I am.”

“Well I’ll see you around you have a lot of guests to greet.” After another quick smile Juliette turned and walked to another group of people. Nick watched her walk off with some sort of look in his eyes, which of course pissed off Ellie.

Breaking out of his haze, he seemed to remember Ellie and attempted to lead her to another group of friends. Pushing him away and glaring at him, she made her way to a set of couches and took a seat. Nick followed.

“What’s wrong,” he asked confused as to why she was mad at him. He felt as though since they had come home they had begun fighting more and more than usual. It was never like this before.

“Nothing,” she mumbled. “Absoultely nothing.”

Sighing he kept his place next to her resting a hand on her thigh and pulling her body in close to him. He rubbed her inner thigh with his thumb. Public affection showed that he wanted forgiveness or he was drunk. It was most likely the former because Nick barely got drunk in public. Ignoring it Ellie continued to pout.

“Big brother,” drawled a visibly drunk Bianca coming up to the couple. “Ellie, come dance!”

Nick didn’t dance and Ellie in their two years together had never seen him dance and never expected to. Usually she stayed with him sitting out whatever dance her friends invited her to, to keep him company. Today though, she felt a change of heart probably incited from the whole Juliette situation. Today she accepted.

“Come on Nick, please,” pleaded Bianca, she even went as far as getting on her knees and pleading to him. Still he said no, telling the two women to have fun.

Bianca led Ellie out of the exclusive VIP section onto the main floor where they joined Gio and Nina and some of their other friends dancing. The two began dancing and it wasn’t long before Bianca was dancing with a guy, which left Ellie alone. She continued to dance, just having fun doing it in the first time.

 After few minutes of gyrating alone a guy came up and began to dance on her. Ellie wasn’t a prude and didn’t mind grinding; she just didn’t like it when a guy did it without asking. She also didn’t think Nick would appreciate if she did it with some random guy.

Before she had a chance to turn around and confront the culprit, she felt him move away. Turning she was met with Nick’s face. Behind a guy, she assumed was the offender was being pulled away by two bouncers. Looking back at Nick she saw just how unhappy he was.

“I-I was about to say-“ Before she could say anything Nick leaned and kissed her hard on the lips, which took Ellie aback. He ran his hands over her body starting from her shoulders down to her but which he gave a little squeeze.  She had never done this with him before in public; it was foreign to her. She didn’t know what to do with her hands. She just left them at her side, confused. When Nick pulled away, she saw the same anger still in his eyes. Leaning to her ear this time he grunted,“sei miniera.” He turned away and made his way to the nearby bar where he kept his eyes on Ellie the entire time.

Ellie continued to dance alone, but found it was less fun. The people that had once surrounded them backed away and left five inches of space between the group and themselves.

Annoyed Ellie walked toward Nick, but at the moment a loud sound, that wasn’t music rang through the club. Before she had time to think, she was tackled to the ground and felt another person’s weight on her. Screams echoed through the room.  Looking around as much as she could, she saw that the other people in the club were also on the ground. She heard the sound, which she realized were gun shots three more times. Silence followed afterwards. After a few minutes the weight moved off of her and she realized it was Nick. He had tackled her and protected her from the gun shots.

He helped her off of the ground and scared she held on to him. She had never been in such close proximity with gun shooting. It was something she only heard about on TV. Despite her poor upbringing her parents managed to keep her away from that.

“It’s okay, babe,” Nick mumbled soothingly rubbing a hand over the top of Ellie’s head. He had forgotten she wasn’t used to this kind of thing. He suspected she probably had never even held a gun before. Though his father protected the family, Nick and his siblings had grown up with guns, in the house and at shooting ranges. They had all learned how to shoot one at an early age.

“Why is this happening,” Ellie asked crying. “Why?”

Nick looked down at Ellie for a second not knowing how to answer her. Shifting his attention to Gio, he asked, “is everyone okay.”

Gio pursed his lips and shook his head an answer Nick didn’t expect. “Someone was hit…Sammy. I’m sorry Nick.”

Chapter 7

Ellie sat on a toilet and stared at the stick in her hand, two lines were present in the middle of the strip. Pulling out the instruction box she saw two lines meant pregnant and at that moment she felt a wave of emotions ranging from happiness to sadness. Ellie knew she wanted children eventually, but she also knew this wasn’t the time for it. Sammy was still in the hospital under critical condition, Nick had been working late, Nick’s mom still had a problem with Ellie, and since the shooting her whole entire life had been flipped upside down.  It just wasn’t the right time.

Ellie knew the shooting had something to do with whatever Nick did, but she still didn’t know what. She knew she had to approach the topic, her life had indeed been in danger, but with Nick hurting over his friend, she also knew now was not the right time. She would wait until Sammy’s condition stabilized.

Throwing the pregnancy test away in the trash, she also came to the conclusion that now was not the right time to share her own news with her fiancé. She didn’t know if he would take it as a good or bad thing and didn’t want to risk stressing him out further.

Leaving the bathroom, she tried her best to act as if nothing had happened. Nick was away at work, wherever that was, but Ellie still had the company of Herold and the last thing she needed was for him to find out.

Herold was her new “bodyguard.” Ever since the shooting, all of the Lombardi women were required to have someone by their side at all times. This told Ellie the shooting wasn’t a random occurrence, but in fact plotted against someone in the family. It scared Ellie, as well as peaked her curiosity, to think that someone was trying to kill either her or Nick, or even someone in the family.

Ellie crawled into bed, Herold sat in the living room of their hotel. His gun was clearly visible, which still freaked her out. The closest Ellie had ever come to a gun before the shooting, was when she saw one or TV, or even a water gun if that counted. It wasn’t something she commonly saw in her household as a child.  She didn’t like the destruction it could cause, intentionally or unintentionally.

“Is there anything wrong,” Herold asked from the couch.

Ellie hadn’t realized she had been frowning deeply. She hadn’t meant to. “No, nothing,” she replied turning over to lay down in her bed.

Within the next week, Sammy’s condition stabilized and he was taken out of Intensive care. It turned out that one of his lungs. After a surgery to remove it and repair the damage, Sammy was stabilized. He would be able to return home within the next two weeks to continue the healing in the privacy of his home.  Ellie was elated when Nick told her the news. She hoped that it meant an end to all of this unnecessary protection.

Along with the good news, Ellie also knew it was time to get to the bottom of whatever caused all of this. She knew it was related the family and suspected that it was to the family business also. If she was going to be a part of Nick’s life, she needed to be one-hundred percent, so that she could protect herself and the thing in her stomach. It was more than just about her now; it was about their baby.

Ellie waited up for Nick, the day she planned everything to happen. When he finally came in it was two am. Ellie layed on her side of the bed reading her novel and watched him make his way into their hotel room.  He greeted Harold, who was at his post in front of their bedroom door and then made his way to Ellie, after shutting the door.

He gave her a kiss, surprised that she had stayed up for him, by this time she was usually asleep. They exchanged quick greetings and he prepared himself for bed. Ellie watched as he unstrapped a hidden gun from his side and placed it as well as some bullets on his side table. The way he casually handled it scared Ellie. It made the whole thing too ordinary, when it was surely not. He then went on to change out of his clothes into a t-shirt and shorts, his usual sleepwear.

Climbing into bed he immediately reached for Ellie. The two hadn’t had any type of intimate relationship in a while because of their differing schedules. It was obvious why he thought she had stayed up for him. Resisting him Ellie pulled away from his grasp. Looking away from him she mumbled, “we need to talk.”

Nick sat up straight and crossed his hands over his chest. “You aren’t about to break up with me,” he asked squinting his eyes a little suspiciously. He already began to build a wall up.

“No, I don’t think so…” she said a little unsure though hoping for the best. “I just need to know everything. What your family does? What the shooting was about, and how its connected to the Lombardi’s?” She looked at him and saw a frown forming on his face. Putting her hand on his shoulder she continued. “I want to be with you Nick, but I can’t without knowing what’s going especially if things like gun fights are going to be going on around me.”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” he said barely softening to her touch. He had gone from hot to cold in a matter of seconds. Typical Nick.

“Try me.” Ellie pulled her hand away and folded it in her lap.

“You aren’t going to like it Ellie. You’re going to leave me.”  His frown deepened but for a moment the emotion behind it changed. It went to sadness, but quickly returned to its hard state. Only someone with a quick eye would be able to catch it.

Ellie remained silent. She didn’t want to promise things she couldn’t deliver. The shooting had really scared her. She couldn’t promise Nick that she wouldn’t leave him, she wasn’t sure herself. She did know that she was going to do what was best for the baby and herself and try her best to stay with Nick. She loved him and the last thing she wanted was for her child to grow up without a father. Settling on the answer she had previously given him, she repeated herself, “try me.”

“I guess I’m stuck. You’re leaving me either way,” he said quietly to himself. “At least confessing I have the slightest chance.”  He sighed. “Okay I’ll tell you. Ellie this is something that needs to be kept on the down low. It can’t be blabbed to anyone, okay.”

Ellie nodded though slightly offended that he would think she would blab his secrets to anyone. She thought he trusted and knew her more than thought. She didn’t say anything though as to not distract him from his confession.

He continued. “I didn’t lie to you Piccolina.” Ellie smiled at his use of his pet name for her. She loved the way it sounded on his lips with his legitimate Italian accent. “My family is involved with trade. The thing is what we trade…”

“For a long time, the Lombardi’s have had control of this city. Not politically, but rather in more underground ways. We are respected and revered. You’ve probably noticed by the way people treat us when we go places here. We have power.”

Thinking back Ellie thought of their real estate agent. Soon after getting the information from Gio, Nick had set up an appointment and the two had begun looking for a house. The agent acted as though she was afraid of displeasing Nick, but the fear seemed to go deeper than just because of a paycheck. It was as if she was legitimately afraid. Ellie even began to think of the quick service and stares they had gotten in different place restaurants, the club, even the hotel. Now analyzing what she remembered of their looks, the people did not seem to look up to the Lombardi’s or envy them, they looked afraid. Ellie wasn’t sure if she was just over analyzing the situation or not, but the more she thought about it, the more examples she could find.

“What the government thinks we do is sell and trade products with South America, legal products. What we actually do is-is..” He looked over at Ellie to see her reaction, and most likely try to think of the best way to present the matter at hand. He laid a hand on her blanket covered leg and looked into her eyes. “We actually trade drugs.”

Ellie’s eyes shifted away from Nick’s. She hadn’t expected that from him. In their two years together she had never seen him doing anything worse than drink, and even then he rarely ever got drunk.  He had even once discouraged her from trying pot at a party with a group of her friends. People looked at him as the straight and narrow, maybe even preppy , rich kid, not the bumbling dealer. “Y-y-you don’t do-“

Shaking his head almost annoyed he said, “of course not. You know I don’t. I see what it does to people. I’m smarter than that.”

Ellie let out a breath, “but…”

“I’m not done.” He said coldly.

Ellie let out two short shakes of encouragement of her head.

“You’ve heard of the Mafia? You know like the godfather or the sopranos.” Of course she had, she didn’t live in a hole. Trying once again to avoid a fight she didn’t say anything sarcastic, rather just nodded her head once again. She braced herself for what she pretty much expected him to say. “My family is the mafia. We are those people. After the end of prohibition, no one wanted dangerous bootleg alcohol so we as well as other families switched to drugs.”

“Okay,” Ellie said quietly. “Wow!”

“The shooting was in connection to the business. The shooter was working for a smaller group that is slowly growing in the city. This has been our territory for several generations. We had been trying to squash the group for a while now. The shooting was their retaliation.  Sammy is one of my father’s men. It was his job to protect us. Bella was up there with him, and the shooter was aiming at her. He took the bullet and managed to wound the other man, not enough though for anyone to catch him. We know what he looks like and there’s a hit out on him though.”

Ellie shivered at the thought that there were people out there trying to kill her new ‘almost’ family. It was too bizarre. This is what she would be marrying into. “A hit,” she asked. “That’s like… You plan to… to kill him?”

Nick nodded silently. “He tried to hurt us Elle. He deserves what he gets.”

“Drugs Nick, drugs. That’s serious stuff, isn’t it? People die all the time fighting over it.”

“Me, you, my family, we are all safe. We have 24 hour guards to protect us. They would give their life before letting anything happen to you. It’s their job. They are like our extended family.”

“This is all so scary. You could get hurt or be killed. You’re hurting and killing other people. What do you have to do to even put a hit out on someone? Could I do it if I wanted?”

“I’m not personally doing it, my men are. I only work on the business end of things, rarely am I out physically doing things. Everything is complicated and I just don’t feel comfortable telling you about it right now.” He looked to Ellie again. “Do you still love me? After everything I’ve told you? Now that you know…” The way he looked at her was frightening, almost like he was trying to scare her.

“Of course I do,” she answered honestly. “I’ll always love you.” Her hand subconsciously wandered over her stomach as she thought of their child that was currently residing in her body. The father of her child was a murderer. She wondered how Nick would react when she told him. Would he be happy or upset? She wouldn’t tell him today, it wasn’t the time. Not after talking about all those horrible things.

“So is this the end of us?” The look in his eyes was replaced by softness, something she rarely saw. It was refreshing.

Ellie thought over everything she had heard. It something she knew she should run as far away from as possible, but for some reason she couldn’t pull herself to. She loved him, more than she had ever loved any one before. Besides from a few hiccups, their relationship had been smooth sailing. They were compatible in almost every way, the perfect example of opposites attracting. She thought of her child. Which was worse growing up in this environment or without a father? If she did leave would she have to hide the baby from Nick, take it away from him? Would he want it? Thinking this over, she felt torn. She couldn’t pull herself to leave him, not now.

After a brief pause she said, “No Nico. I’m staying right here with you.”

Smiling once again he pulled Ellie to him and laid kisses all over her face and mumbled in her ear in Italian, what she assumed were sweet words. Pushing her back, he once again crawled atop of her, this time she didn’t push away. They enjoyed each other’s bodies for the first time in a long time.

Ellie watched Nick get dressed in the morning. He was beautiful. After studying him, it was easy to see how he’d grown so cocky and self -entitled.  He had probably had women fawning over him his whole life.

“What,” he asked buttoning up his gray shirt.

Smiling Ellie mumbled, “nothing.” Nick leaned in a placed a quick kiss on her forehead, just as a quick knock came from the door. Nick granted permission for Herald to enter as he continued to button his tie.

“Sir, Miss,” Herald said looking between the two of them. Ellie blushed knowing that he knew what they had done. She felt like a teenager that had had sex in her bedroom with her parent’s room down the hall, rather than aTn adult on her way down the altar, making love to her fiancé.  It was embarrassing and she didn’t like it.  “The police are on their way up here.”

“Okay” Nick nodded and Herald left the room.

“What?” Ellie questioned sitting straight up, careful to pull the sheet to cover her chest. “What’s wrong? What’s going on?”

“There’s a guard posted inconspicuously outside the hotel on lookout. He saw the cops go in. They’re coming up here.” Just as he finished the separating door opened and a group of cops entered their hotel room. Ellie pulled her sheets closer to her body.

“Nick Lombardi?” one of the officers questioned.

Nick calmly nodded. Ellie remained frozen in fear.

The cop continued and began to Mirandize Nick, “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be held against you in the court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?”

“Yes,” Nick once again calmly answered. It was as if he had known this was all going to happen. Ellie felt betrayed. How couldn’t he have told her?

The police surrounded him. They patted him down, removed his weapons off his person, and arrested him. Ellie remained frozen as this all happened, hoping it was all just a dream.

“I’ll be back Piccolina. Don’t worry,” Nick said as they dragged him out of the room.

Chapter 8

“What’s going on?” Ellie asked the moment Nina walked through the door with Gio. Word had spread quickly through town and before Ellie had had time to process the events of the day, Nina had called her and informed her that Gio and herself would be stopping by. At the moment she was sitting cross legged on her bed in black yoga pants and a white ribbed tank top. She was still in shock and looked eerily calm.

“Oh Ellie,” Nina cried setting down her purse. She ran to Ellie’s side and wrapped her arms around her. “I’m so sorry.”

Ellie nodded in reply and looked up at Nick’s brother. “What happened? Why is he in jail?”

Gio looked at her unsure of what to tell her. He wasn’t sure if Nick had finally confessed to his fiancé. Even if he had he wasn’t sure what Nick wanted her to know about the business and what he wanted to keep secret. Gio respected the right of every member to decide what their family should or shouldn’t know.

“He already told me about… about what you guys do.”She could barely get the words out. The idea still scared and disgusted her. They killed for a living and sold illegal harmful substances. She couldn’t believe it. She felt Nina squeeze her a little tighter.

Gio nodded and made his way further into the room, taking a seat in a chair. “Well the police suspect him of being involved in the shooting.”

“How could that be? He was being shot at.”

Once again Gio was torn as to whether or not to give her the information she needed to fully understand the situation. It was almost crossing the line, to things that he didn’t even tell Nina. “Well the man who was doing the shooting had been killed. They think Nick did it.” He didn’t wait evena second before continuing. “The police have been after us for a while. They will use anything to lock one of us up. Don’t worry we have the best lawyers in the state.” He smiled reassuringly.  

“—But he did. He did kill him didn’t he?”

Gio remained silent and looked down at his lap.

Ellie didn’t feel any better she couldn’t believe she was in this type of situation. She was supposed to be going to fittings for her wedding dress, picking out paint colors for their house, and looking for a job. The last thing she needed to be doing was wondering whether or not her fiancé would go to prison.

“You knew about this beforehand, didn’t you?” Ellie continued. “Everyone knew he was getting arrested but me.” Tears began to stream out of her eyes. She didn’t know if it was the hormones or the stress of the entire situation, but something about being the only one left out hurt her.

“Oh Ellie,” Nina cried rubbing at her hair as if she were a child and not a full grown adult. In a way maybe she was a child. She was new to this. She hadn’t grown up in an environment this hostile. In her small hometown if anyone got caught breaking the law, it was the town gossip. Once again it became so obvious how different hers and Nick’s lives must have been.

The tears made Gio nervous and he jumped at the opportunity to leave when his phone rang. He had never liked when women cried, especially ones he wasn’t that familiar with. He excused himself from the room, not before shooting a look to Nina that read ‘talk to her.’

 Once the door closed Nina began to say softly, “everything will be okay. He’s going to get out. He and you will be okay…”

“No we won’t,” Ellie cried out pulling away from the woman. “I’m pregnant. I shouldn’t be worrying over this. I should be planning my wedding and settling into my home.”

Nina’s mouth formed an O. She had stopped listening the moment she had heard her say “I’m pregnant.” “You’re what?”

Ellie hadn’t meant to let it slip. The only people that knew were her 3 best friends and ex roommates, she had told them soon after she had gone to the hospital for confirmation. She hadn’t gotten mixed reviews, while they were excited, they didn’t know how they felt about the idea of Nick becoming a father. Ellie hadn’t planned on telling anyone else until she had talked to Nick and figured everything out, not even her parents or sisters. This little slip ruined all her plans.

“I’m pregnant,” she repeated defeated. Maybe having someone on this end that knew would help her through everything she was going through as well as be more understanding.

“Little Nicky is going to by a daddy?” She asked dumbfounded. “Wow, I never thought I’d see the day.”

“I don’t think he did either, “Ellie mumbled sarcastically.

“This is so great! Have you been to the doctor? Is everything okay with the baby? What about baby names have you considered those yet-” Nina continued to ramble on and on.

“No,” Ellie said cutting her off. “I’ve been to the doctor. He says I’m fine, but there wasn’t anything he did besides from a standard pregnancy test. It’s too early to do anything else. I haven’t told Nick yet…”

“Why not?”

She shrugged in reply. She didn’t want to tell her she thought he would be upset. She knew he wanted children in the future, in the very distant future, but also knew now was not what he wanted. What he wanted even less was a baby out of wedlock. If she ever accidently skipped a pill one day he would refuse almost anything to do with her physically until he thought the problem would be fixed. He was anything but careful, which is why Ellie was so confused. She had no idea how this had happened.

“You need to tell him and soon. People talk around here and we don’t need outsiders, such as the press finding out before he does.” Once again she consoled Ellie. “You’re going to be mommy. It’s the most rewarding thing ever.” She smiled down at her stomach.

At the moment, Ellie didn’t know if she could believe that. “Just don’t tell anyone, not even Gio. I don’t want this spreading around either. I don’t want to be the last one to tell him.”

She nodded. “You need to tell him soon. He deserves to know.”

“Me and Gio are going down to the station to talk to him with the lawyer tomorrow,” Nina consoled just as the door was opening and Gio made his way back in. “You should come too. Tell him then.”

Ellie nodded. She knew she needed to, especially if word traveled as fast as Nina claimed it did.

“Nina, Papa is requesting I come see him. We need to talk. We have to leave.”

Nina pulled in Ellie for another embrace, before picking up her bag and going to her husband. “We’ll see you tomorrow around five okay.” Once again Ellie nodded. Nina smiled and made her way out the door. Gio gave Ellie a short head nod and followed his wife.

She would do it tonight. She had to, he deserved to know. Maybe it would end up being a good thing, maybe he would be excited for their baby.

It was weird seeing him in the orange jumpsuit, with cuffs on his wrist. He looked as good as ever despite everything, he always did. The officer unlocked his cuffs after sitting on a chair and went to stand at the door of the room. Nick sat across from her, Nina, Gio, and the trusted family lawyer. It was strange thinking that just a few days ago her life had been so different.

“How’s jail treating you?” Gio asked jokingly.

“I’ve been through worse, “Nick answered though everyone knew it was a life. He had lived his entire life cozily and privileged, even Ellie knew she had lived a rougher life than him. Jail was probably very rough for him.

“Oh Nicky,” Nina cried frowning.

Gio and Nick continued discussing. The whole time Ellie remained silent and just watched the reaction between the two brothers. She was nervous about what she was going to have to say later and it didn’t appear that he was going out of his way to make conversation with her either.

He avoided looking at her and turned to his lawyer. “How’s the case going?”

“The DA doesn’t have strong case. They basically have zero physical evidence and only have some testimonies from members of the opposing gang, which we can take care of the majority of them. You are the only one being singled out because it happened at your engagement party. We are trying to work out a deal before this goes to trial. The DA will most likely give in. There will probably be some sort of monetary agreement and you’ll have to lay low for a while.”

“So you’re confident?”

“Yes very,” the attorney assured. ”You should be out by the end of the week and you can go back to planning your wedding.” He smiled. “I’m expecting my invitations soon.”

For the first time since she arrived Nick looked over at her. He held her gave for a  quick second before looking back to his lawyer. “Of course, you’re basically family.”

The lawyer nodded and began packing up his things. “I have another appointment. So I’ll be my way.” He continued with his goodbyes and left leaving the rest of the family.

“I’m sorry it was you. I wish it had been me,” Gio confessed frowning, “luckily though you should be out soon.”

“Yeah that’s great news,” Nick said running his hand through his hair.

“We should go,” Nina said looking at Gio. “Let Nick and Ellie talk alone.”  Gio agreed and they stood and said their goodbyes to Nick. “We’ll wait out in the car for you.” Before they left Nina shot Ellie a look that she read loud and clear.

When the two were alone, Nick shifted his chair in closer to Ellie.  Checking behind him very quickly at the guard posted at the door, he leaned in and laid a kiss on her lips. “I’m sorry for this morning,” he said pulling back slightly.

“You knew and you didn’t tell me. I thought you were sharing everything with me,” Ellie cried. “I thought we were being one-hundred percent honest.”

“We are,” he answered. “I didn’t know for sure yesterday. We just knew the cops were compiling stuff. I’m sorry I didn’t want to scare you.”

“Well you did when I saw a whole brigade of them storm into our room.” She pouted. “Why are you being so cold? You wouldn’t even make eye contact earlier.”

He groaned a little. “I don’t feel like fighting right now Elle. I’m already in a bad situation; let’s not make it worse. We’ve been fight so fucking much since we came here.”

Ellie sighed agreeing. He had been rude earlier, but that was just the way he was, always hot and cold. It took a strong woman to deal with him long term. Her hormones must be acting up, making her over analyze every situation. Ordinarily, she probably wouldn’t have noticed. The thought of her hormones led her back to the real reason why she had been left alone with him.

“I have something to tell you. I don’t know how you’ll take it,” she started. She saw him squint his eyes skeptically. “I’m happy about it, I think. I hope you’ll be happy about it, too. When I tell you, don’t think about it close mindedly. I know it’s not what you originally wanted for us but I know it’s going to work out for the best, I know it.”

“You have five minutes,” the police officer called from the door. Ellie knew she had to speed it up, but she was so nervous for his reply. She had no way of predicting what he would say.

“Nico, I’m pregnant. We are having a baby.” She watched his jaw drop and still wasn’t sure how he felt about the whole thing. He didn’t say anything for a solid minute and when he did all he managed to mutter out was, “how?”

“Well when a man loves a woman...” Ellie began trying to lighten the mood, but she got no reply from Nick his frown remained in place. Answering seriously she said, “the doctor thinks it might have been some medication interaction or something. I guess some medication makes birth control ineffective.”

“How could this happen to us,” he asked devastated. “We had a plaan. A great plan.”

“Well everything doesn’t always go according to plan, babe.” She watched his eyes drop to her stomach.

“We are too young,” he stated.

At twenty-two even she agreed, though she was getting married. If she was too young to be a mother didn’t that mean they were two young to become husband and wife.

“Can’t we just take care of it?” he asked hinting toward an abortion.

Disgusted Ellie turned away from him. “What the hell is wrong with you? Sometimes you disgust me.” Though she wasn’t exactly thrilled at the thought of having a child this early, she did feel an attachment to it already. The mere idea of killing it sent shivers down her spine. It was her child, a little mix between Nick and her. It was the first thing they could truly call theirs. How did Nick have the audacity to tell her to take care of it.

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that… I just-“

“Times up,” called the guard coming toward Nick. He cuffed him and stood him up again.

“We can talk later,” he said to Ellie as he was being pulled out. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” she mumbled as he was pushed out of the room. Standing, she made her way out to where Gio and Nina waited in their big black SUV.

Blood was everywhere. It dripped from between her legs, soaking both her pajamas and her white sheets. Before going to sleep she had felt slight pains in her lower stomach, but those were nothing compared to how she felt now. She felt as though her uterus was being clenched harder than anything she had ever experienced. It was so painful. Crying out she touched the red spot between her legs and realized what was happening. She was miscarrying. Her baby had died.

Herold entered her bedroom and was surprised at the sight before him. Ellie drenched in sweet, crying and yelling, with bright red blood covering her bottom half. He had been trained for all sorts of situations, but never something like this; he had no idea what was even going on. “Are you okay?”

Ellie strangled out a “no” something she struggled even to do through the pain.

Jumping to action, he picked up the phone and called 911. After the call, he watched Ellie from a far. He didn’t know how to comfort her, he didn’t even know if it would be appropriate; she was in fact his boss’s fiancée. He settled by just watching to make sure she didn’t pass out or anything from a slight distance.

Tears streamed from Ellie’s eyes as she thought about what she had lost, her child. She hadn’t been pregnant for long, but she had grown attached to the idea of parenthood. Thinking back on what Nick had suggested to do, she began to weep. At least one of them would be happy about the situation she thought bitterly.

The paramedics arrived quickly. She was carted onto a stretcher and escorted out of the hotel. She couldn’t believe this was happening to her. She never would have expected it.

Chapter 9

The doctor said that sometimes the body just rejects the child because it knows that if it went through with the pregnancy something could have been wrong with it. He said it wasn’t her fault that she hadn’t caused it. It had been completely natural. That’s all Ellie could think about as she layed curled up on her bed. She had been released from the hospital soon after her check up with the doctor. There wasn’t really anything they could do. She just had to wait it out, as she bled out the remains of her child.

Ellie had not cried once after getting her prognosis. She felt something different. She was mad. She knew that there was nothing wrong with her child. She just knew it deep down in her soul. She had a feeling this was all caused by stress. Stress, she thought she had been handling well, but obviously hadn’t.

She was also pissed. She never knew she could ever be this mad at someone. She knew what she had to do to protect herself. She had to do it soon, before she changed her mind. She got up and closed the door between where her and the living area, where Herold was situated. She didn’t want him to see what she was doing. Nick was coming home today and she needed this to be a surprise to him.

Nick was released from jail on Friday, just as his lawyer told him. He was going to have to be very careful, but he was lucky. He got out of it without even a charge. All he wanted to do now was see his fiancé. Word had spread quickly to him about what had happened and how she had fallen into a depression after. He needed to be with her to help her. If having another would help her, he was willing to do it. He would do anything for her.

After quickly greeting Herold, he pushed open the door and was surprised by the sight that met him. Half of the things in their room were packed. Ellie’s suitcases layed sprawled all over the floor. He watched her come out of the bathroom, things in hand and set them into a bag. “What the hell?” he asked.

Looking up she met his eyes. He could see that they were rimmed and swollen. Her eyes did not have their normal glimmer, they were dull and lifeless. She wasn’t the same Ellie, which was to be expected after what had happened to her. She had been through a lot.

He couldn’t hold himself back. He went up to her and pulled her in for a hug, which she swiftly pulled out of and returned to her packing. He watched from a distance as she silently shoved more things into her bag and then forced it closed.  She dragged the bag, which was obviously her last, to a pile where the rest sat and turned to him.

“So you’re leaving me?” he asked coldly.

She nodded in reply. “Yes.”

Breaking down he did something he never thought he would do. He began to beg. “I’m so sorry babe. I love you so much, don’t do this. I love you. We can try again. We can have another child. We’re both still young. Please, Piccolina, baby, Stop.”

He didn’t break her rock hard shield; she just frowned and shook her head once again. “I can’t do this Nick. I can’t live this life.”

“Yes you can. I’ll protect you. You know I will.”

“You can’t protect me from everything. Losing this… this… Losing it, I realized I couldn’t raise a family with you. Not when you’re acting like this. Not when you live in this war field. I think it’s best if we-“

“Don’t say it. Please don’t,” he had no idea he would feel like this. He never thought it would hurt so much. He had never felt like this about a woman in his life, and he had had more than his fair share.

Taking in a deep breath, she finished her sentence. “I think it’s best if we go our separate ways.” She was still numb. She felt a slight inkling of something, but it wasn’t hitting her completely that she was leaving Nick, the man she considered the love of her life.

“Whatever you want,” Nick said cooling. He made his way over to the bed and took a seat.

“I booked a flight. Payed for it myself,” Ellie continued. “I do love you Nick and I will always love you.” She gave him a small smile.

He grunted in reply and continued to watch her. He watched her until she left, even signaling to Herold to let her leave. Ellie layed a small peck on his lips and placed her engagement ring into his palm before leaving. He watched the her as she left, thinking of everything he was going to miss.  

6 months later

The flooding of light made Nick squint his eyes as well as awake the woman that laid naked next to him.  Groaning he looked up and was met by the dark outline of a figure, highlighted by the light flooding in from the hallway. The blond next to him groaned as she pushed back some hair and rubbed her eyes. “What’s going on?” she asked.

“I can’t believe this?” the figure cried. “I thought we were passed this. I thought you had grown up.” The figure stepped into the room and flicked on the light. The thin figure of Juliette appeared. She was over dressed of course in heals, a black blazer, leggings and tunic. Adorned over her body, were thousands of dollars in jewelry, most of it bought by herself with Nick’s credit card.

Nick just groaned in reply. Even though he had been forced by Juliette to make their relationship official, he had thought she understood that things would go back to the way they were. They would have a relationship as far as their families were concerned, have sex with each other, and cheat on each other. It was the way things had always been between them. It was what worked best.

“Get up,” she cried. She turned to the blond and screamed, “get away from my boyfriend.”

The woman looked at Nick questioningly. Quietly, he instructed her to go into another room while he talked things out with Juliette. She gladly wrapped sheets around her body and carefully scooted around Juliette and into the hallway.

“What is wrong with you Juliette?” Nick asked sitting up. She had never acted like this. Usually she pretended to be jealous, but her eyes said otherwise. They usually had a fire between them. She was usually more attracted to him when he treated her badly. Today there was no fire, just anger.

“What is wrong with me? I just caught my boyfriend cheating on me? I’m allowed to be angry.” Juliette paced the room, her heals clicking with every step.

“We’ve always been like this, “Nick answered standing up and pulling on his boxer. He felt a little dizzy as he stood and could still feel the effects of the alcohol he had drunk earlier in the night.

“We were seventeen Nick. I’ve changed; I thought you would have too. I bet you didn’t treat that little bitch like this.”

That little bitch referred to Ellie. For some reason Juliette fostered a resentment toward his ex- fiancé. She was constantly comparing herself to the girl and telling Nick the differences in how he treated her compared to him. What she didn’t understand was that he had loved Ellie and he was only attracted to Juliette.

“Yeah whatever,” he answered nonchalantly. He wasn’t worried that she would break up with him. He could really care less. He could get what he wanted from someone else, as he was already doing anyway. It wouldn’t be hard. He was Nico Lombardi.

“I can’t take this Nick,” she screamed. “I can’t be with you if you’re going to treat me like this. I deserve better. I deserve a thousand times more than what you gave that bitch. When you’re ready to give me what I deserve call me.” She turned on her heals and made her way out of the room, not before stopping by the blond and abusing her which was made apparent by the shriek the blond gave. Nick lazily made his way back to his bed. He could care less about the two women fighting in his house.

She couldn’t believe they’d talked her into this. She was going out to a club for the first time in months, and didn’t know how she felt about it. The last time she had gone to one things hadn’t worked out so well. She was dressed in a skin tight black and white striped bandage dress and leather jacket. On her feet were a pair of black booties and silver chains dangled over her neck. She looked like a decked out biker clothes, in the clothes her best friends had forced her to wear.

“I look ridiculous,” she called to her three ex-bestfriends and former roommates.

“No you look hot,” answered Delia. Kayla and Tori nodded their heads in agreement. “You are so getting laid tonight.”

Ellie groaned at the thought. She had pretty much been on a dry spell since her miscarriage, which she was completely happy about. Her friends on the other hand were not. They were always pushing for her to date again or just have some sort of interaction with a man. They thought that would be what would help her get over Nick, which sadly she still hadn’t been able to do.

“Don’t groan,” Tori said. “It’s true and you sure do need it. Now sit.” Tori led her to a chair and began to curl her long hair.

“I don’t understand how you’re not over that asshole,” Kayla the more blunt of her friends state. Ellie told them almost everything, so they already knew how he had reacted toward their child. Not to mention they too had gone to school with Nick, and unlike Ellie, hadn’t gotten over how rude and arrogant he was. They never one hundred percent supported their union. “If a man ever asked me to get an abortion I would cut his balls off.”

The memory still upset Ellie. She rarely talked about the miscarriage.

“I’m not ready for this you guys,” she stated. “I just need to go home. You guys go out have fun. I-I-I’m just gonna get some extra work done for Monday.”

“No,” cried Tori. “You’ve been working way too much since you’ve been home. You need to have fun like we used to, before… you know.”

“Before asshole Lombardi,” Kayla finished for her.

“Kay,” Delia warned.

“It’s true,” Kayla defended.

Ellie nodded. She wanted anything but to think of Nick right now. It only made her miserable.

Ellie had come home and been forced to move in with her parents. Her roommates had signed a new lease and there was no way she would have been able to move in with them. She felt like she was taking a step back, but knew that it was the only way. She didn’t want to move out on her own, nor did she want to live with complete strangers. She was also now working. Immediately to pull herself from sulking, she had gone out and found a job, which hadn’t been too hard considering her outstanding resume. She was already flying up the corporate ladder at her new place, since she was throwing her whole being into her job to keep from thinking of the past.

“Ellie we don’t care what you say, you’re coming out.” Delia patted her on the shoulder and gave a reassuring smile. “We want you to go back to normal. You’re depression is killing us. We love you.”

“I love you guys too,” Ellie smiled. She had great friends; she knew it. They would do anything for her. She had to at least try for them.

She was crying on the bathroom toilet. She had forced herself to do something to attempt to fix herself, and it had done the exact opposite. It had broken her even more. She felt disgusting and she knew no amount of showering would be able to clean her off. She had attempted to be just like Nick, to treat sex as nonchalantly as he did, but she couldn’t. It wasn’t.  It was more to her, something she only wanted to share with someone she loved. The man that had laid above her just a few hours ago was not.

In a pure moment of desperation, she picked up her phone and began to look through the pictures she had saved on it. Most of them were of Nick, candid pics she had snapped when he wasn’t looking. She even had one of the two of them together. She was laying on his shoulder and he had his arm wrapped around her. Delia had snapped that one, just before the two had awoken. Looking at the pictures saddened her even more.

She didn’t know why she did it, but once she started she couldn’t stop. Reality didn’t snap back into perspective until she heard the phone ring for the second time. She was calling Nick. She was about to hand up,, but couldn’t when she heard his voice answer the phone.

“Hello, hello… is anyone there?” He called to the silence on the other end. Forcing herself to pull away, she hung up the phone. Streams of tears followed as she curled up and really allowed herself to really cry for the first time.

Chapter 10 (cont.)

“Nico,” Marta Lombardi called entering her son’s home, through a suspiciously unlocked and cracked open door. She still hated the thing and thought it was much too large for a bachelor. He had bought it soon after his breakup on impulse. He had done a lot of things on impulse since she’d left, most of them weren’t for the best.

Marta and Allegra had come in to check on Nick. They had heard from her other children that he wasn’t doing so well, so recently Marta  had made it a priority to come in and check on him at least one time a week. She always made sure to have an excuse so as not to look like she was babying him. Today she was bringing him food under the assumption he had trouble stocking his refrigerator with anything but take out.

“Nico,” she called again and once again received no answer. She began to get worried and exchanged a look with her daughter. Their family was in constant danger, especially the men. What if someone had broken in and gotten Nico? What if he was in trouble?

Marta fearfully led her daughter and herself down the hallway that led to all of the bedrooms, making her way to end to the masters suite. Coming from the room, she heard the sound of a low television and could see lights coming from it. After looking around carefully, she pushed open the door and made her way inside where she was met by a shocking sight.

Nick was laying on his bed completely knocked out covered by only his blanket over his groin. A woman that Marta had never seen was pacing next to the bed biting her nails and staring down at him. She was scantily dressed in a way that even embarrassed conservative Marta. Nick was heaving in his sleep even though it was obvious that he was passed out.

“What’s going on,” Marta began to ask, but never received her answer. She was stopped by the sight of Nick beginning to seize and what sounded like choke. Jumping to action Allegra pushed him on his side and quickly dialed 911. Marta stood in shock staring between her son and the equally shocked woman.

“My brothers having a seizure,” Marta heard Allegra call into the phone. Things were worse than she had that. She needed to get to the bottom of this.

After taking the ambulance with him to the hospital and watching them rush him to a separate room, she pulled out her phone and made a phone call. “I know I’m the last person you would expect or want to hear from, but my son really needs you right now.”

Ellie sat shocked once hearing the voice on the other end of the phone. Why would Marta Lombardi be calling her? The woman hated her and would probably be so happy about their breakup. Did she just want to rub it in?

“I know we haven’t gotten along, and I know that I haven’t always been the nicest woman to you, but my son needs someone right now and I think you’re the only one that can help him.”

“What,” Ellie asked. She sat in her childhood bedroom on her bed surrounded by her old stuffed animals and memories. A time so distant. A time much simpler. It felt wrong to be dealing with her complicated  life here, almost like she was tarnishing her memories.

Sighing Marta began to speak. “I found Nick today in his room, naked with another woman…” Ellie’s heart broke a little, though she had expected it. He was Nick Lombardi, she was surprised he had even stayed faithful to her while they had been together. “He was on the bed seizing. He overdosed.” She heard Marta’s voice crack a little.

“He doesn’t do drugs though…” Ellie added quietly. She was scared. She still cared for him a lot. If anything happened to him, she would never be able to move past it. He was still her other half. Her feelings hadn’t faded.

“Yeah that’s what I thought, but I guess he’s picked up a few bad habits,” she mumbled. “It was a bad mix between the high amounts of alcohol and the drugs.”

“Is he okay? He’s going to live right?”

“He will. They are stabilizing him right now, but let’s get to the main reason why I called you. I need you to come back to my son. He hasn’t been the same since you’ve left.”

“But-But I thought you didn’t like me,” Ellie asked skeptically fingering the edge of one of her pillows.

“I know what I said, but my son’s happiness and life is a lot more important than our family lineage. The lineage can’t continue without his life.” Marta pursed her lips. She felt like she was begging, something she didn’t do. She was of course the matriarch of the Lombardi family, but she had to put aside her pride. Her families wellbeing came first of course.

“I can’t do it,” Ellie answered simply. She left Nick for a reason, and despite how she was feeling there was no way she would go running back to him. She was stronger than that. As long as she knew he was okay, she didn’t need to run to his side.

Marta was shocked. No one told her no. “-But why? You are in love right?”

“We are… were in love, but we broke up for a reason, a reason bigger than you’re dislike for me.”

“Okay…” Marta didn’t know what to do. She truly believed Ellie was the only person that could help Nico. “Don’t you care for him still?  He could hurt himself again. He’s miserable without you. He’s doing all of this because of you.” She hadn’t meant to go the guilt trip route, but it had come out despite herself.

Ellie told herself not to break though it was becoming easier and easier. “He can move on. He seems to be doing fine finding a new girl anyway.” She sighed. She had heard from Nina that he was back together with Juliette. Nina had tried to keep in contact with Ellie after the breakup, but slowly Ellie broke bonds. It was too hard having that connection into Nick’s life.

“He’s doing it because of you. He hasn’t moved on…”

“I’m sorry,” was Ellie reply. She would not get back together with Nick out of pity. Not only would she be ashamed of herself, but she knew Nick would never accept it. His pride was too big.

There was silence on the line for a few minutes.  “Okay then, “ Marta continued. Once again silence ensued. “How about you come up here and just talk to him? I mean if you still care for him at all it’s the least you could do.”

The blame that Marta was placing on Ellie was really starting to annoy her. It wasn’t her fault Nick had spiraled out of control; it wasn’t as if she was living her life happily as if he didn’t exist. She was still tortured by thoughts of him every night. She still compared every man that approached her to him and they usually fell in comparison. Her life was far from perfect too. Sadly though she still loved him, and hated how she left things off with him. She shouldn’t have left the way she did, but after everything with the baby, she just felt so numb. She had wanted to just be out of the hotel room where everything happened, away from him. She should have talked it out with him, explained her plans. She made the right choice about her breakup, but her execution of it was poor. She owed it to him to talk it over.  It was the least she could do to give them both a piece of mind.

“Yeah I’ll do that, but we aren’t getting back together,” she said quietly.

Marta let out a deep breath. “Great! I’ll have a flight ready for you tomorrow. I’ll arrange everything. When I have all the flight information I’ll text it to you. Make sure you pack enough for at least two weeks. Talk to you soon.” She ended the conversation before anyone could say otherwise.

Before Ellie could protest Marta hung up. She hadn’t planned on leaving so early. What about her job? Her life? Or her friend and family? In normal Lombardi family they didn’t think of anyone, but themselves. Sighing, she went about getting everything settled so she could leave tomorrow. As usual she was going to go out of her way to help Nick, she just hoped she wouldn’t get sucked right back into his web.

“Is she coming,” Allegra questioned her mother. She had called the rest of the family and told them about what had happened, while Marta had called Ellie.

Marta nodded and Allegra smiled. Despite how she felt about the girl, Marta knew what she had to do, and there was no way anyone was stopping her. Not even Ellie herself.

Chapter 11

She couldn’t believe she was doing this. This was the first time she would see her ex since six months ago. Since everything happened. How could she do this to herself? She questioned whether or not she was strong enough to hold her own, when presented face to face with him for the first time in so long.

The driver, hired by Marta, pulled up to the hospital. He informed Ellie that he was to drop her off here and then take her stuff to where she would be staying, what she assumed was a hotel. She was too nervous to even ask. She was already overwhelmed by the grandeur of her arrival. Marta had given her the five star treatment, fit for any Lombardi, of which she was not going to ever be. A driver took her to the airport, where she took a first class flight into the city. Another driver waited promptly at the baggage pick up for her, with a sign and all and led her to a limo, with tinted windows and all. Honestly it was too much for her.

Watching the limo drive off, she made her way into the hospital. Her butterflies immediately began to act up as she asked the receptionist where Nick was staying. It was so weird for her to say his name. She hadn’t said it in so long. She’d avoided it like it was the plague. Taking an elevator up a few floors, she found herself in the private wing the family had secured for Nick. Another grandiose and unnecessary move.

The moment the doors opened and the elevator dinged she felt all eyes turn to her. Taking in a deep breath and securing her purse closer to her side, she made her way toward Marta who sat next to her husband.

“Hi,” she greeted, no smile appeared on her face. This was not the occasion, and the sight of Marta was the last thing that could make her smile. Despite everything , she still didn’t like the woman all that much.

“Thank god you’re here,” she cried standing. “You must talk to him right away.” Once again without asking Ellie for permission, she pulled her away, toward the only occupied room in the section of the hospital, what Ellie assumed must be Nick’s.

Marta entered the room dragging Ellie in. In the room she was met by a sight that made her want to cry. Nick was hooked up to several hospital equipment pieces. He layed on the bed, dressed in the light blue hospital gown with a blanket covering him. He looked different; he looked sadder. Bianca sat in a chair across from him. The two were discussing something animatedly in Italian. Neither looked very happy about it. Ellie felt as though she was intruding. 

Bianca looked up and shot Ellie a dirty looked. It appeared that she was no longer in good standing with the girl. Nick had probably told her about their break up, she must have blamed her. Ellie avoided looking at Nick’s reaction, it was the last thing she wanted to see.

“What is she doing here,” Nick questioned annoyance in his voice.

Marta replied in Italian, but it was obvious to Ellie she was scolding him by her tone. Marta then continued on saying more things that Ellie couldn’t understand. Finally, Marta turned to her and said, “me and my daughter are going to give you and Nick some privacy while you talk.” She shot a look at Bianca and made her way out.

Bianca said something to her brother quietly, so that Ellie couldn’t hear it though she assumed it was in Italian so it didn’t matter. On her way out, she brushed against Ellie and shot her a stone cold glare. Knowing what the Lombardi’s did, it even slightly scared Ellie.

Once the two of them were alone in the room, Ellie finally looked at Nick who was glaring at her. “What do you want?” he asked. “Are you here to see me suffer?”

“Of course not,” she answered taking the seat across from him that Bianca sat in previously. “I would never want that.”

Silence ensued. It was awkward; neither knew what to say to the other. Ellie just wanted to make things right, without falling back into what she and Nick had. Nick on the other hand had become so numb he could barely feel.

“What were you thinking?” Ellie asked. “This isn’t like you.”

“You don’t know anything about me anymore,” he mumbled turning away from her. His scowl deepened.

“I know you better than anyone else as you do me.” She could feel herself being vulnerable. He was hurting her and it was the last thing she wanted.  Once again there was silence. They both knew it was true. Ellie reached out to touch his shoulder, but once again he pulled away.

He finally turned back to her. His eyes had changed. There was anew emotion there. “Just tell me you love me Ellie, Piccolina. I need to her it, please.”

She didn’t lie. “I love you Nick.”  His eyes brightened, but were brought down by what she said next. “I love you, I really do, but I can’t be with you. We don’t work.”  The scowl returned. “Nicky tell me what happened. I want to help you.”

“The only way you can help me is by getting on your knees and sucking my cock.”

She gasped. He had never spoken to her like this. This was the old Nick. The nick she heard rumors about in school. The asshole, who treated women with no respect. It hurt. She felt tears pool in her eyes and begin to fall. She hadn’t planned on crying. Ellie wiped up her tears before too many could fall and said “I don’t think my boyfriend would like that very much.”

She only said it to hurt him, which she easily saw that it did. She had no boyfriend. She was so single, it hurt.

“Who is he?” Nick asked.

“No one you know,” she replied perpetuation the lie.

“Do you love him?” he asked. A frown formed on his face.

Ellie couldn’t answer that. The man wasn’t even real, but she couldn’t take it back now, it was too late in the game, so in reply she simply shot back her own question. “Why do you care, I know you’re dating your ex.”

He nodded slowly and once again they sat in silence. “Do you love her?” Ellie asked afraid of the answer.

“No.”

Ellie couldn’t stop herself from breathing out a sigh of relief. “Nick I’m worried about you. You’ve gone back to your old ways. I don’t want you to get sick or to catch some kind of disease-“

“What do you care? I’m not sleeping with you.”

Ellie rolled her eyes at that and continued. “These women your with aren’t a good influence. You never did drugs and rarely drank. You’re barely yourself. You aren’t Nicky.”

He growled at the nickname. “You love it,” she joked and he even half cracked a smile. An awkward pause passed as either didn’t know what to say.

Finally after a few minutes Nick spoke up and said quietly, “I don’t do drugs. It was the first time. I thought I could do more than I can. It probably didn’t help that my first time I mixed it with alcohol. If I was an experienced user I would be fine.”

“Which you won’t be,” Ellie said sternly. “What about the girls Nick? You can’t keep doing this, not to yourself and not to Juliette, she doesn’t deserve it. “

“What do you care about Juliette?” The sound of her name annoyed him. He barely knew why he was with her, probably to occupy time.

“I owe it to her as a fellow woman,” she half joked. She may not like the idea of Nick with another girl, but there was no way she was going to let him disrespect her. Everyone deserved better than that.

He once again grunted in reply. “Yeah, whatever.”

“Seriously Nick, you never did it  to me, well as far as I know-“

“I never ever cheated on you Elle.” He reinforced.

Taking in a deep breath she continued,” you never did to me, so I know you don’t have to do it. You have the ability to be faithful.”  She paused before continuing on. She knew they needed to talk. She hadn’t left on good terms and she needed to fix that. “We need to talk… about the baby.” The last part came out as a whisper.

Just as Nick opened his mouth to talk, he was cut off by the opening of the door. Juliette pushed her way in, followed closely by Marta, who quickly said, “I tried to keep her out.”

“I need to talk to my boyfriend,” she said really accenting the word boyfriend and glaring at Ellie. She crossed her hand over her chest and watched the two.

“I guess I’ll go,” Ellie smiled getting up and smoothing out her dress. She smiled at Juliette, trying to show that she meant no harm at all. “We can talk about this later Nick.”

He nodded in reply. Ellie followed Marta out of the room, and Nick watched her do so longingly. Juliette took the seat Ellie had occupied and began her ranting and raving. Nick still thought longingly about Ellie and wondered about the next time he would see her.

“I think I’m staying in his house,” Ellie told her best friend Delia as she plopped down onto the guest bed. It was a day later and she had finally settled in, well as much as she could. “I mean I remember when the two of us came and looked at this house. We were torn over it. I thought it looked too much like a bachelor pad because of all the windows and glass, but he loved it. I guess he must have come back and bought it.” It kind of hurt being in the house, not only because it was where he lived but because of the memories it brought to her about how happy they had been then. She remembered joking around with him.

“That’s fucked up,” Delia cried. “Why are you there?”

“That’s where his mom dropped my stuff off at.” Ellie had had no control. She had dumbly followed blindly and look where she had ended up.

“You need to get out of there,” cried Delia,” and fast.”

Ellie laughed. She had thought the same thing when she had first arrived. She had even pulled out her phone to call Marta and put her in her place and insist on better living accommodations, she didn’t expect the nicest, but she did expect something decent. After a moment of thinking it over, she realized she was overreacting. Nick was going to be in the hospital during her entire stay, she assumed, so she’d have the house to herself. The hardest thing was just being around all his stuff. She fought the need to go back to her old habits.

“It’s fine. He isn’t here. It’s just a place to stay. I don’t want to be difficult.” Ellie played with the edge of a pillow with her hand. She would fight how uncomfortable she felt. She was only due to be here for two weeks top anyway, then she had to return to her life.

Delia groaned. “I don’t know why you aren’t. You are doing him and his family a favor. They owe it to you….Eleanor,” she said her voice softening, ”if you need me just call, I’ll be there in five seconds you know that right.” 

“Yes of course.” Delia though a spoiled brat and the exact opposite of Ellie was Ellie’s closest  friend, basically a sister, even her Ellie’s parents considered her their adopted child. The two had been best friends since elementary school, when they had met, and had managed not to grow too far apart as life pulled them in separate directions. Delia’s mom had married a rich man, moving their family to the other side of town and along with the money came popularity for Delia. On the other hand Ellie had remained poor and very focused on her studies. In the end their differences were what made them so close. Delia would do anything for Ellie and Ellie anything for her. If Ellie was ever going to share Nick’s secret with anyone it would be with Delia. “I love you D.”

“I love you too, E.” Ellie smiled into the phone.

 “I have to go, though,” Delia continued, “big date tonight. Just text me if anything goes wrong or happens. I will be on the next plane out to rescue you, got it. “

“Okay, good luck,” Ellie answered. The two exchanged their quick goodbyes and Ellie hung up the phone. Just as she did, she heard a sound. She was instantly scared. She wasn’t familiar with the house, so she didn’t know where a possible criminal could be lying. She also didn’t know what kind of weapons could be hidden throughout the house. Even in Nick’s old house, the one she had frequented, before their relationship had fallen apart and they had come here, he had confessed he had a couple weapons stashed through the house.

Ellie  didn’t have to actually go through the house and look for said weapons because the intruder immediately began talking and it was a voice she would recognize anywhere, Nick’s. Pulling on a zip up she made her way into the foyer where Nick, Marta, Bianca, and Juliette were gathered. Nick sat in a wheelchair and all the women were fussing around him. As soon as Ellie entered the room, everyone looked up at her.

“What are you doing in my house?” Nick asked annoyed.  He stood up from the wheelchair pushing all the women in his life away and made his way to Ellie so he was right in her face. She had forgotten how much taller he was than her and how overbearing he was.

Regaining her composure, she took a step back and crossed her hands over her chest. “Your mom sent me here to stay. What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be at the hospital?”

“I was released this morning,” he answered his voice softening. “What do you mean you’re staying here?”

“This is where your mom had my stuff dropped off at. I assumed she was saving money and using your house since no one was going to be living in it… I guess that was naive of me considering she’d have more than enough money to put me up in a hotel.” The two turned to look at Marta, who had a shocked look on her face.

“Mamma,” Nick groaned looking to his mother. The two other women, Juliette and Bianca, also turned to look at Mrs. Lombardi. Bianca began to speak loudly and obviously annoyed at Marta. She made broad sweeps of her hand and even pointed at Nick and Ellie a couple of times. It was obvious she wasn’t happy.

Marta replied also in Italian. She too made broad gestures and pointed between the two. Juliette didn’t say anything, but the grimace she had on her face said more than enough. She didn’t want her boyfriend living with his ex-fiancé, which any sane woman wouldn’t approve.

The arguing between mother and daughter got louder and louder until Ellie finally cut in and said, “I can go. I can pay for my own hotel room, if that would help.” Working and not paying rent had afforded her a lot of wiggle room in her finances.

Bianca opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Nick who shook his head and said, “No it’s okay. You are here for me, so the least I could do is offer you a room.”

Ellie pursed her lips, she still wasn’t sure how she felt about living with Nick, though all of her things were unpacked and it wasn’t like they were hormonal teenagers, they could go a week or two without jumping each other’s bones.

“That’s not okay with me,” Juliette cut in finally speaking up. Once again she shot a look to Ellie. “You can’t live with her. She’s your ex.”

“Really I can afford a hotel room,” Ellie nervously added. She really didn’t want to make so much drama out of something so small.

“No,” Nick repeated. “You are staying here.” He ignored Juliette who pouted behind him. His focus was on Ellie, who nodded.

Juliette groaned and crossed her hand over her chest. “Nick seriously we are done. I can’t play these games with you. Call me when you know what you want.” Nick paid no attention. He was busy studying Ellie, who was doing anything she could to stop from looking back at him. She kissed Bianca on the cheeks and gave Marta much stiffer kisses. She was not happy with the woman. She had orchestrated this whole thing, but her culture told her she needed to respect her all the same. Juliette made her way out the glass doors already counting the hours it would take Nick to call and apologize.

“I am not okay with that bitch staying with him. Hasn’t she done enough?” Bianca said in English.

“Come on Bianca. I think it’s time for us to go. Ellie can take it from here.” Marta quickly jumped in and said.

Bianca grunted and mumbled something in Italian to Nick to which he replied a simple “Si.” Marta then shuffled the girl out of the room as quickly as she could, promising to visit again in the next few days. Then Nick and Ellie were alone.

“So you bought the house,” Ellie stated.

“Like you said it is the perfect bachelor pad,” he said walking around her into the living room. She followed knowing he wanted her too.  “Did you move back in with your Delia, Tori, and Kayla?”

“No they already signed a new lease. I’m living with my parents.” She watched him take a seat on one of his couches. He patted the seat next to him as an invitation for her to sit. She took a seat on another chair that was positioned near the one he was on.

“They must be so happy to have you back home and away from me. They hate me,” he joked.

“They didn’t hate you…” They really hadn’t.  They hadn’t hated him as a person. In general they weren’t too fond of anyone with an abundance of money. They had gotten used to him and had eventually accepted the idea of Nick and Ellie together and Nick joining the family.

“So in the hospital you said we needed to talk. Let’s talk.” He leaned back and shot a steely gaze at her.

Ellie didn’t know where to begin. She had a lot to say, to talk about. She needed to explain herself as well as let him have the opportunity to explain himself.

“Okay, well I’m sorry about the way I left things between us. I should have explained more let you explain, but I was just so upset about the miscarriage. I couldn’t think of anything else. I-I’m sorry.”

He nodded pursing his lips and she continued. “Nico, I really did and do love you. I really do. I mean I don’t know if I’ll ever love anyone else as much as I love you.” That was hard to admit but she knew it was the truth. Despite their differences, she knew in her heart that he was her soul mate. It sucked that they weren’t able to be together. It brought tears to her eyes. Nick didn’t react, he just watched her. “I-I didn’t think I was strong enough, strong enough to be married to a man who did what you do. The crimes, the death, the jail… I didn’t know if I could do it. Just seeing you in jail that day killed me.  I was scared this is what we would be like. How we would live, you in and out of jail, and me trying to console our children, while fearing for our lives.”

Once again Nick was quiet. He was an observer. He usually listened to someone entirely before giving his point of view. His piercing eyes met hers, and she found she couldn’t look away. She didn’t want to look away. After minutes of staring she finally managed to break eye contact and pull away, she focused her attention on her now empty ring finger. “Then I got pregnant Nick. At first I was angry, I didn’t want it. It wasn’t in the plan. Then I was scared unsure of how you would take it or how our life path would now lead. But finally I was happy. I was happy that I was carrying a piece of you. One half me and one half you, our perfect little creation. I knew you wouldn’t be happy, it was obvious, but I thought maybe just maybe deep down inside you would find some spark of excitement. “ Her voice cracked. The baby wasn’t something she talked about. Her parents and friends barely knew anything about it.  A tear came down her face. “But then you told me to abort it. I didn’t expect you to be happy, but I hadn’t expected that. You asked me to kill our child.” Ellie broke down and began to sob. She knew Nick hated when women cried, but she couldn’t hold it in. This was the first time, in a long time, maybe even the first time, she really talked about what happened.

Nick shifted uncomfortably. He never really knew what to do when women cried, especially when Ellie did. Everything she was saying really hit home for him. He had been too harsh, hadn’t really understood the bond she had formed with the life that had lived within her, to him it was as if the child was not real. He couldn’t see it or touch it, and he was used to death and being the one to order it on someone else, it hadn’t even phased him. Ellie on the other hand had barely dealt with death. She had only even had to suffer through the death of one grandparent, and she hadn’t been close to the man and his passing was quick and easy.

Ellie calmed herself and continued. “Then I lost my baby. I blamed you. I blamed you for stressing me out, I blamed you for hurting me, and I blamed you for wishing this upon the baby. So I left you. I didn’t want or could I imagine raising a child in the environment you grew up in. The money, drugs and privilege, it was everything I was taught to avoid. I don’t regret what I did, it was for the best, but I do regret how I did it. I should have explained everthing as I am doing now.”

Nick nodded and a silence ensued. A familiar song rang out of Nick’s phone, and he looked down at it to read the caller ID. “It’s Juliette,” he said. “I have to take this.” Defusing the situation, he got up off the couch and walked into what she presumed was his bedroom and talked to his girlfriend.

Sighing, Ellie knew this wasn’t over. She didn’t want to nag, but she needed to hear what he had to say. Rubbing her hands over her forehead, she let more tears fall from her eyes. She knew she couldn’t solve anything tonight, she made her way into her room. They would deal with their issues later.

They were back together. Ellie had to be deaf not to have figured that out. Juliette had made sure she knew, all through the night. Ellie knew how great Nick was in bed and though he was great, he was definitely not as great as Juliette made it sound. No one was that great.

Yawning, Ellie thought about just how awkward it had been overhearing it. It has made her literally feel sick to her stomach, imagining Nick with her. Just thinking about that things they’d done together, similar things she had done with him, had kept her up till the sun had begun to rise.

Ellie pulled a flowy blouse over her body and contemplated leaving her room. It would be awkward; she knew it, especially if Juliette was still around. Ellie wanted to avoid that for as long as possible. Knowing she couldn’t keep herself cooped up her room any longer, she made her exit. She made her way down Nick’s long hallway, into what was his kitchen, where she was met by Juliette draped in a silky robe, cooking an omelet. Ellie took a seat at the island, and watched her.

“Good Morning,” Ellie said trying her best to remain as nice as possible to the woman. She really had no real reason to be mad at her. Nick wasn’t her boyfriend, she was Juliette’s, and Juliette had every right to be intimate with him in his home.

“Oh good morning,” Juliette replied grimacing before turning back to her task.

“Hi Juliette,” Ellie replied. Once again Ellie understood. She placed herself in a similar situation. When she and Nick had been together, she knew she would have hated it if Juliette had come to stay with them.

Ellie remained quiet trying to figure out how to go about making conversation with Juliette. She wanted the tension between them to ease. “So I see you and Nick have worked things out,” Ellie smiled saying it as amicably as possible.

“Yeah,” Juliette once again snarled, with an evil smile on her face. “Everything between us is perfect now.”  At that moment Nick entered the room and took a seat beside Ellie. His presence increased the awkward tension the girls felt toward each other.

“Good morning Nick,” Ellie said once again trying to break the tension. In typical early Nick fashion, he grunted out something that kind of sounded like a good morning.

At that moment Juliette turned around with the omelet placed on a plate and put it in front of Nick. “There you go baby,” she said as she leaned in for a kiss, which he quickly obliged. Ellie kept a smile on her face despite how much it was killing her. Watching Juliette exaggerated why she and Nick couldn’t be together. The type of girl he wanted and needed was someone that would be willing to stay at home and take of the home, the kinds and him. Not an independent woman, who wanted to make something of herself. He needed the homemaker not the corporate ladder climber.

“So what do you guys have planned for today?” Ellie asked trying to keep the conversation going to avoid those awkward pauses.

“Well Nick and I are going to go to Nina and Gio’s house for their dinner party. So I think Nick and I are going to go shop for some outfits for tonight.” Juliette made sure to exaggerate the Nick and I everytime she said it.

“That sounds so fun,” Ellie replied trying to stay positive.

“Actually Juliette, I think I’m going to hold back on the shopping,” Nick said speaking up for the first time. “Take my card and get something for both of us okay. “

Juliette didn’t argue. She couldn’t resist the idea of shopping on Nick’s tab and she was trying to avoid pushing him away, but playing the jealous girlfriend. Despite everything he had done, she still wanted to desperately be with him. Deep down inside she was upset that the Ellie and Nick would now have the opportunity to be alone.

“That’s sounds like so much fun, guys,” Ellie said. “Nina and Gio are so great.”

“Yeah they really are,” Juliette said quietly. “Well I need to get ready to go a long day of shopping awaits.” Juliette decided in her mind that if Nick was going to be spending some quality time with Ellie alone in his home, she would be spending some quality time with his credit card, buying everything her heart desired. Juliette walked out of the room to go change and prepare, leaving just Nick and Ellie alone sitting at the island.

Nick took the last few bites of his omelet before pushing the plate aside.

“I think-“ Ellie began but was cut off by Nick suddenly getting up and leaving, following in the same direction as Juliette, to his bedroom. Ellie sat alone at the island for a few seconds before she too finally got up and went to her room.

Two hours or so later, Ellie sat in her room flipping through the channels on the tv. It was amazing to her that despite all the channels cable gave you to choose from, there could still be nothing on. She heard a soft knock on her door, and looked up to see it slowly opening. Nick stood at the other side of it.

“Hey, Nina wanted to know if you were coming to her dinner party thing tonight,” he asked.

Ellie frowned, “I didn’t know I was invited.”

Nick shrugged in reply.

Ellie had a conundrum in front of her. She didn’t want to encroached on Nick and Juliette’s night out together, but she did desperately want to see Nina again and have the opportunity to talk to her again. Finally coming to a conclusion she said, ‘no’. she figured she would explain it to Nina and hang out with her at another point in time away from the entire Lombardi clan.

“Okay,” Nick shrugged again in reply. He leaned against the door frame of Ellie’s room. “So how are you doing? Having fun?”

Ellie laughed, “well I haven’t really done anything but attempt to watch tv. As far as that, it hasn’t been really successful.” She pointed at the tv on which currently an infomercial was playing. “You can come in Nick. You don’t have to be scared of me.”

A smile touched Nick’s lips as he moved into the room and onto the bed, sitting closely to Ellie, “I am not afraid of you.” He looked into her eyes sending chills down her neck.

Clearing her throat, Ellie smiled in reply having no idea how to answer that. She could see a glint in Nick’s eyes. She knew he was enjoying making her feel uncomfortable. He placed his hand on top of Ellie’s making her quickly pull back her hand and retreat to lean back against the dressers across from the bed. “Nick,” she warned.

“What,” he asked innocently following her and cornering her between his hands, both of which he leaned against the dresser on either side of her body. Before Ellie could even defend herself from him, he placed his lips on hers and began to kiss her. She had forgotten how good it could feel to be in his arms and soon found herself kissing him back with no protest. In the back of her mind she remembered Juliette and the little voice in the back of her head kept reminding her that she needed to be the better person, and being the other girl was not how she was going to accomplish that. She quieted that voice and pushed it to the back of her mind, so much so that she didn’t even notice when Nick lifted her up onto the dresser and settled himself in between her legs. She didn’t stop him until she felt his hands inching up her shirt right to the edge of her bra.

Pulling away and pushing down his hands she frowned. “Stop, you have a girlfriend and I’m not doing this to her. “

“She knows the deal,” he mumbled attempting to pull her back in.

“Well I don’t and I’m not so sure she does either after what I heard last night.  Regardless, I’m not going to sleep with you. I have more integrity than that. I won’t be treated like a whore.” She pushed past him and hopped down of the dresser straightening her clothes. “Nick,” she said again turning to him, softening her tone. “We still need to finish talking.”

She saw a glint of anger now pass through his eyes. She knew he didn’t like being rejected. He wasn’t exactly familiar with it. His entire life he had always gotten whatever he wanted and whatever he asked for. She braced herself for whatever he was about to say or do.

“What about that fucking baby and the fucking miscarriage. It’s gone and we are over! It’s what you wanted.” He said this in a calm way once again not losing his composure. “Or about you refusing me. It is not like you were pushing me off of you minutes ago. You were practically begging me to fuck you, you slut. What will your boyfriend think now?”

“Stop it Nick,” Ellie said her eyes beginning to water despite herself. The rough tone he had spoken about their baby and what he had called her was just too much. She had never felt this attacked by him before. He truly was angry with her. More than she had ever imagined.

“No you stop it,” he replied moving closer to her once again. “You know I could have anyone woman in this entire town. You should feel privileged that you even had the opportunity to be with me. It’s probably the most you’ll ever have in your entire pitiful life.”

This was the side of Nick Ellie had always heard described. He was pompous and rude. He didn’t think of others when he spoke and would do anything to bring anyone down. Ellie had assumed that was behind him, apparently she was wrong.

Tears began to fall as Ellie thought of how far the two had really grown apart. She never would have imagined him talking to her like this in past. If anyone ever had there surely would have been a fight. She still loved him so much, that made his words even more razor sharp.

“Nicki stop it,” She said wiping at the tears. “I’m leaving okay. This was a horrible idea for me to come here. I don’t know why I did it.” She sniffed a little looking up at him. The anger had left his eyes and what was left was a face of sadness.

He stared at her truly seeing the effect his words had on her. He hated when women cryed, especially Ellie. He was rarely the one to cause it, but being the one that had made it worse. He reached out a hand and layed it on her wet cheek. Ellie quickly shifted her head so that his hand was shifted off. “Just leave Nick.” She looked up into his eyes and said, “please.”

Feeling like he had already done enough. He mumbled a quick “We’ll talk soon. Tonight” and made his way out of the room. Just before he left her said a quick, “I’m sorry.”

Ellie had all of her bags packed by early that next morning. She had not yet figured out how to change all of her flight stuff since it was in Marta’s possession, but the one thing she knew for sure was that she had to get out of Nick’s house, even if it meant putting herself up in a hotel for a few night.  She regretted even coming in the first place. She had not accomplished anything, she didn’t even help Nick. All she had managed to see was just how far they had grown apart from each other and how irreparable their relationship really was.  That was the part that really hurt her, because despite herself she knew deep down somewhere she had been hoping everything would end up okay between the two of them in the end.

Ellie threw her last thing into her bag and pushed down and zipped it up. Just as she finished, she heard a light knocking at the door. Knowing already who it was, she took in a deep breath and braced herself before calling, “come in.”

Nick slowly entered the room. He was dressed in a nice grey suit that was obviously tailor made to fit his physique perfectly. He tucked his hands into his pockets and leaned against the dresser where he had started out the night before.

“Hey,” Ellie said pursing her lips.

“Hey,” Nick answered not looking her straight in the eyes. An awkward silence followed. “So I’m assuming your leaving.”

“Yeah,” she answered, pulling her suitcase off the bed. “I’m all packed. I just have to call a cab.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take you to work,” he answered.

“Oh no, it’s fine, really!  I wouldn’t want to impose… I mean you’re already on your way to work. Don’t want to be late.”

“I’m the boss. I can be late,” he answered letting out a light laugh. “Plus I’m early anyway. Come on Elle. I want to. I mean it’s the least I could do after-“

She put out a hand before he could finish, signaling that he should stop. “I don’t want to talk about last night. I just want to move on.”

He nodded understanding. “Where are you going? What hotel I mean.”

Ellie shrugged.  “I have no idea. I just want something affordable.”

“My mom isn’t paying for this?”

“No I am.” Ellie felt strong and independent saying this. After feeling so weak next to him, the last time they spoke, this actually felt good.

“Well you’re here for me. At least let me pick up the tab.” He reached out a hand to touch her shoulder, but she quickly moved away.

“No Nick, I’m taking care of myself.” Once again she felt great standing up for herself. She missed this part of herself, the strong part.

“Okay,” he nodded. “I’ll take you somewhere on the north side. It’ll be cheaper than downtown, but still safe. “

“Perfect,” Ellie smiled. Nick reached out to grab a bag, and so did Ellie. They both made their way out to Nick’s little sports car and loaded it up as best as they could. Then they both took their seats. Before leaving Ellie asked, “you’re okay to drive? Your doctor approved everything?”

“Yeah of course. My body is completely fine, again.” He shifted the car into drive and made his way out into the street.  The pair zoomed through the streets of the city the sound of the radio and the wind entering the car concealing the silence that occurred between the two. It felt so weird for Ellie that she and Nick weren’t holding hands down the center console, or that he didn’t have his hand on her knee as he drove.  Even though they weren’t the most touchy feely couple, the car was the one place that Nick was really willing to show any light forms of PDA.

They arrived at the hotel soon enough and Nick parked his car in one of the spots. It obviously wasn’t what he was used to because it was so opposite of the one they had stayed in during their engagement.  There was no valet, and no high rise. When they entered there was no one to unload the car and take up her bags, she was left to do that on her own. Nick assisted  and before she knew it, she was moved into her single hotel room.

“Thank you so much Nick,” she said smiling.

He smiled in acknowledgement of her appreciation.  “When are you leaving?”

“I’m not sure. I haven’t worked out everything with the airline.”

“I know I have no right to ask this, but could you tell me before you do?”

“Yeah Nick of course I can do that,” she accidently reached out and touched his hand and before she could remember to pull away, he wrapped his hand around hers and squeezed.  She didn’t pull away.

“Can we finish our talk? I have some things I need to tell you,” he said.

“Yeah,” Ellie said biting her lip and smiling.

“I have work all day, but what if for dinner, I bring takeout back here and we just talk,” he said moving his thumb back and forth over her hand, rubbing little circles into it, something he was obviously doing subconsciously, but at the same time was so intimate.

Everything was getting to be too much and she didn’t want to fall into the same position she had been in last time, so she pulled her hand back and ran it through her hair, pulling back the long locks. She didn’t know what to say. She wanted so desperately to get everything out and in the open, but at the same time she knew that she and Nick weren’t good for each other. Everytime they had too much time alone, something went wrong. She knew it was time for them to pull apart. To break the painful cords that held them together and split for the long run. “Yeah that sounds great,” she finally answered after a few moments. She figured this would be their last interaction and after settling things between them she could finally go her own way freely.

“I’ll see you tonight with Indian?” he asked as he backed away toward the door. She nodded and smiled as he made his way out the door. Once she heard the door close behind him she made her way to the bed in the studio hotel room and laid on it.

The knock at her door came as no surprise. She had been expecting it ever since the clock had ticked six and it was now 8:30. She had prepared herself with exactness, trying her best to appear as if she had spent no time getting ready. She dressed herself in her best sweats and t-shirt. If this was going to be the last time she saw Nick, she did want him to remember her as good looking.

Answering the door she was met by a bit more disheveled Nick. His hair had the obvious look of someone who had run a hand through it several times of the day. Messy, but not completely messed up. Sex hair perhaps. His suit jacket was removed from the overall suit and his white button up had the sleeves rolled up to right below his elbow. His navy blue tie was loosened and he held the great smelling Indian in his hands.

“Come in,” Ellie said opening the door wider.

“Sorry, I’m so late,” Nick apologized making his way inward.

“It’s okay, “ she answered. Looking around she tried to find somewhere they could sit, but before she could try and find some sort of table she watched Nick take a seat on the floor, leaning against the side of her bed. She followed suit and sat beside him. This was so out of Nick’s character to willing take a seat on the floor, especially of late with his pissy attitude.

They quickly split the food between the two of them and before either of them knew it, they were joking and laughing like they used to. Even Nick was even making jokes, jokes that may not be funny to everyone, but they were hilarious to Ellie. They got each other. That’s why they used to work so well together. Not just anyone got to hear Nick crack a joke, but again not just anyone would find it funny. Only those closest to him got the opportunity.

The two’s laughter started to come to a lull and Nick looked closely into Ellie’s eyes and said, “Elle I am so sorry. I’ve been a real ass and it took me this long to figure that out.”

Ellie bit her lip. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want him to think the way he had treated her was okay. “You really hurt me yesterday. You hurt me so much.”

“I know. If someone had spoken to you the way I had I would have- I would have killed them,” he let out a groan and closed his eyes. “Especially what I said to you in the hospital, Elle that isn’t all you are to me. You weren’t a sex object and you aren’t now. You are so much more… so much.”

“Nicki,” she said laying a light hand on his shoulder. “You were hurt. We both were. I’m not saying what you said was okay but I know that was your anger speaking.”

He nodded. “Elle about the baby,” he started.

Ellie couldn’t help herself. She took in a large breath and held it, closing her eyes.

“I didn’t want a baby and I’m not going to take that back. I thought we were too young. We just graduated from college and you haven’t had time to settle yourself career wise, which I know is important to you. We weren’t married. I had a plan for us, a perfect plan. The baby just didn’t finish. In my mind it was a mess up.”

Ellie nodded. She knew Nick was a perfectionist and that he didn’t like surprises or anything that didn’t go as planned. That’s one reason why their divorce was probably killing him. “Nicki I know but asking me to get an abortion-“

“It was wrong, but it was the only way I could see to fix the problem. Elle I wanted babies with you. I’ve imagined them before, you know, when I used to think of us in the future. The thing is none of them come before our wedding it just didn’t fit and I wanted to solve that problem…. Elle when I heard about the miscarriage, when you told me, and when I saw your face, I wanted to do anything to make you happy again. I didn’t care if you wanted hundreds of kids out of wedlock I was ready to give them all to you. You were my everything and I couldn’t live without you. ” he sighed and looked away. Ellie had never seen Nick this vulnerable in all the years they had been together. She almost thought she had seen some moisture in his eyes, but wasn’t sure if it was just a glare or not. “Then you put that ring in my hand and I became cold. I began to self-destruct and do anything that dulled the pain or made me forget you. It began with Juliette and expanded to drugs, alcohol, and sex.” He looked at her and she could see the regret he had in his eyes. “It didn’t help . When I was drunk or high all I could do was sit and think about you and when I was with the women I spent the time wishing it were you.”

“Nicki stop,” Ellie squeaked out not wanting to hear any more about Nick and other women. It disgusted her to think about just how many women he had been in. It seemed to make the times they were together a little less special, thinking that other woman had experienced the same thing.

“Then you came and told me about your boyfriend. That’s when I knew I had blown it. You had moved on and I was still stuck on my adolescent path and that pissed me off.”

“Nicki, there is no boyfriend,” ellie confessed. “I just said it to make you jealous. You had you’re women, and…I-I I don’t know.”

His eyes seemed to light up. “So you haven’t been with anyone since us?” He knew how Ellie was, everyone did. She did not do the casual hook up thing. She has always been the good girl.

Ellie closed her eyes ashamed of herself. “That’s not exactly true…. I- I tried the one night stand thing.” Nick’s eyes turned cloudy with what appeared as a little bit of anger. He didn’t act on it. Ellie continued, “it was horrible. I felt so dirty. I felt like whore.” Thinking back on the time reminded her of how low she had felt. A few tears began to fall before she could stop them. She quickly wiped at her eyes once she noticed Nick watching her.

“He didn’t hurt you, did he? I mean emotionally or- or… physically.” Nick questioned. It was obvious that he was restraining himself from being angry because he knew he had no right to be. She wasn’t his and she was allowed to do what he had done hundreds of times over.

“No Nicky, he didn’t. He was very… gentle.” She whispered the last part, feeling kind of weird talking to Nick about her time with another man. She knew that if she didn’t reassure him though, he would imagine the worst.

Nick nodded  and let out a grunt taking it in for a second. He had never imagined her with another man. He had been her first and even in the times they had broken up he liked to think she had remained waiting for him, even though deep down inside he knew this was most likely not true, especially since she had had a quick fling during one of those break ups.

“I was drunk Nick and so was he. It meant nothing. It was obviously nothing like me and you.” Once again she let the end come out as a whisper. It was the truth. Noting had ever compared to what she felt when she was with Nick. He was her second half.

Nick looked up at her and into her eyes. Eyes he had become so familiar with in the last few years. Leaning in Ellie laid a chaste kiss on Nick’s lips, suprising even herself. Just as she began to pull away, she felt him deepen the kiss and pull her head in closer. She knew it was wrong and didn’t want a repeat of last night, but she couldn’t help herself. She was powerless when it came to him.

Their kiss changed from desperate to a familiar softness, each person just enjoying the feel of the other lips upon theirs. Ellie pushed aside the food that sat between them blindly and crawled over so that she was sitting on top of Nick. She brushed against his crotch accidently and felt a familiar buldge, which she ground her hips against just out of habit enticing a groan out of him.

Nick let his hands wander from her head down her body, brushing the side of her covered chest, down to her but which he gave a light squeeze and pulled in closer to his body. He let his hands roam again up to the hem of her shirt where he began to play with the ends slowly pushing them up. Soon enough her entire side was bare up to her bra. Lifting her hands, Ellie signaled that it was okay for Nick to remove her shirt, which he did gladly. He lifted his hands and stuck them under the cups of her bra and began to rub. Nick always said Ellie’s breasts were his favorite of her body parts. At a B cup she didn’t have very large ones and was usually pretty insecure about it too. She loved that Nick loved them though because it in turn made her feel good about a part of her she didn’t necessarily love. Those were the little ways he made her feel so good about herself.

Ellie began to work on Nick’s shirt, unbuttoning it and pushing it aside. She kissed his chest letting her hand and lips roam all the way down to his abs and over his strong back. Despite the time he had spent in the hospital, Ellie noticed Nick had not grown any flabbier. He had continued to keep his body in good shape despite the other types of abuse he put it through.

Nick unclipped her bra and her small breasts flowed out from the strapless material as it fell to the floor. Without wasting time, he positioned her nipples between his thumb and pointer and began to rub them. Despite herself, Ellie let out a groan of passion, something she felt all the way down to the pit of her stomach. She felt him twitch against her thigh. Pulling away from him, she began to once again trail kisses down to his body till she got to his pants, which she in turn unbuttoned and removed with his assistance, followed by his briefs, ones she had bought him. His familiar body was now on display before her and she leaned in and took him into her hand and began to rub. Something she hadn’t really done since the early days of their relationship when she was just beginning to hook up with him and he was teaching her new things.

“Piccolina,” he called as his breathing became heavier and heavier. Smiling up at him for a second Ellie let go and let her mouth continue the job. The moment Nick figured out what she was doing her pulled her up and said, “you don’t have to do that. You don’t have to do this.”

She looked up at him with lust filled eyes and said, “I want to, Nicky.” Once again she leaned in and continued. Nick began to mumble in Italian and he wrapped his fingers through her hair enjoying the feeling of what she was doing to him. He pulled her up off of him again minutes after and pulled them both up to their feet and led them to the bed. He laid her down on the bed and softly finished undressing the rest of her. Climbing on top of her, he positioned himself so he was ready , but before thrusting in he once again asked, “are you sure you want to do this? I can stop right now. Ellie are you sure about this?”

Ellie thought of all the other women and Juliette. She didn’t want to be just another tally mark in a long line, but she loved him so much, she just wanted to be with him one last time. She didn’t want to be the other woman, but still wanted to take full advantage of this opportunity that she may never see again. The last time she would be able to enjoy her other half so fully. She deserved that. They both did. Looking into his eyes she let out a nod and he laid a kiss on her lips as he moved inside of her.

He moved in an out each time just as slow as the first. The two laid there staring deeply into each other’s eyes, just taking in the moment as much as possible and enjoying  the feel of each other’s bodies on the other.  Ellie’s groans began to grow as she felt herself building to a release. She reached around and squeezed Nick as she felt that feeling of release go through her body. She had almost forgotten how great it could feel. Nick watched her comedown relishing in her beauty. He mumbled a feeling filled, “I love you Eleanore. I love you so much more than you could imagine, Piccolina.”

Ellie answered with a soft, “I love you too Nicky. I’ve never stopped loving you and never will.” Nick began to mumble a few lines of something into Ellie’s ear in Italian.They kissed as Nick picked up speed and Ellie once again felt herself building up to a climax. She came moments before Nick did, this time feeling even better than the first. He collapsed onto her body and the two remained laying on each other for a few moments, not wanting to separate.

In those moments intense feelings of guilt began to hit Ellie. She once again thought of Juliette, Nick’s girlfriend and immediately hated what she had done. She was the slut, the other woman. She couldn’t keep the thought out of her mind even as Nick rolled over onto the other side of the bed.

“So what number does that make me?” She asked slightly bitter and slightly trying to lighten the mood. “Number 98?”

He shot his head sideways to look at her. “You are nothing like those other women. You aren’t something I count? You are always number one.”

“Are you safe with them Nick. I mean protection wise,” Ellie asked concerned about the women he’d been with during their breakup.

“Of course Ellie.” He sounded a little annoyed that she would even ask.

“Nick we didn’t use a condom. I’m not on the pill anymore… I haven’t needed it.” Ellie said becoming worried.

“I’ll buy you Plan B,” he stated. “I’ll take care of it.”

“I’ll get it,” Ellie said trying to stick to the original plan of not seeing him again. Ellie took in a deep breath and turned to look at Nick. “That was goodbye sex Nick, you know that right?”

He nodded slowly. “Yes of course you are leaving soon. It was just our last time together.”

“I think you should go,” she suggested sitting up and pulling the white sheet up to her body.

He stared at her for a second before finally obliging. He got out of the bed fully unclothed, to which Ellie turned her face from, and pulled on his clothes. Before he left he turned to Ellie and laid a soft slow kiss on her lips. Leaning in close to her ear he said, “I love you Elle and I wish things could have been different…. I wish you could have been my wife.”

“Me too,” she said in return, holding the sheet closer. The two exchanged one last slow and deep kiss before Nick turned and made his way out of her hotel room expecting never to see her in person again.

6 months later

Ellie came home and took of her shoes and took a nice relaxing sit on her couch with her feet up. Looking around, she thought of how nice it was to have her own place finally. There was no one there to nag her or question her. She was free to do what she wanted when she wanted. The last few months of her stay at home with her parents had gotten tough with the questioning and tension, so she had been forced to move out and there was no way she could have lived with her friends in her current state, so Ellie had taken the initiative to go out and find her own apartment. She had a stable job and enough income to cover it, so why not. It was close to her work and near a school, the perfect place for her and her baby to stay. Thinking of her baby, she rubbed her belly and smiled. At six months, she was really getting big and she could really feel it throughout her body. Her little baby boy she thought smiling again. She had just found at her last appointment that she was having a boy which was exactly what she wanted, though she had to admit she would have been happy with any healthy baby. She was so happy she already had a name picked out Isaac, Isaac Luca Johnson.

Ellie thought back to how she had found out about little Isaac. She had denied and denied it for so long, just telling herself that her period would come the next day, then the next day, but after 2 months and signs of morning sickness, which she got throughout the day, she knew she had to go to her doctor. Just as she had expected the doctor told her that she was indeed pregnant. In semi shock she questioned the doctor why the plan B had not worked, she had taken it quickly the next morning right after waking up. Dr. Meyer’s answer was simply that it did not work after one had gotten pregnant, and that all it could do was prevent pregnancy. That meant that within those few hours after and in the morning she had managed to become pregnant.

Ellie had left the doctor’s office confused about everything. Should she get an abortion? If she kept it should she choose adoption? And last of all should she tell the father? Did he get a choice? She left feeling confused about everything. She didn’t even know what she would tell everyone, she was way too embarrassed to ever tell them that she had hooked up with Nick again. Her parents and her friends would be so disappointed. Especially Delia who knew everything that had happened between them minus the last day.

It took a couple weeks to the point where Ellie was almost showing for her to finally decide what to do. She told friends first that she was pregnant, deflecting the questions of who the father is and just telling everyone it was some one night stand from a while ago. She could see in their eyes that they didn’t believe her, but she continued telling them the lie anyway. She had barely admitted to herself who the father was, having not said his name out loud for months. Her friends helped her come to the decision that she should keep the baby. And she mad the internal decision that it was not the best interest for her or her child to go back to Nick.

She moved on next to telling her family, her mother and father, and her successful married older sister. That’s where she saw true disappointment, especially when she lied and told them she didn’t know who the father was. For that she received a slap across the face from her strict mother, who told her she had not raised her daughter like this. It was obvious they were contrasting Ellie and her sister Kathryn. Kathryn was married to an African American doctor that her family loved and whom she had 3 kids with. Kathryn worked part time as a surgical nurse, only working half the time so that she could be at home with her kids when they got back from school. Ellie on the other hand was their daughter who had previously been engaged to an Italian trust fund baby, who barely had to work a day of his life and now after her broken engagement was pregnant with a man she didn’t know’s baby. Ellie was obviously not the trophy child like Kathryn. Kathryn, who had never been that close to Ellie due to their age difference.The tension for the week after in the Johnson household was tangible leading Ellie to the decision that she should move out and make a home for herself and her baby. Here she was four months later. Her relationship with her family had been healed as healed as it was going to get and she was living comfortably working during the day and relaxing at night, everything was perfect.

Ellie flipped on her television and  just as she settled in, she heard a knock at her front door. Knowing who it was, she called “come in. It’s open.”

Seconds later she heard the clicking of heals on the wood floor as Delia entered carrying several DVDs. It was their tradition that every Wednesday they would stay in and watch movies together. Delia held up the new romatic comedy she had gotten and watched as Ellie groaned. She knew how much Ellie hated movies like that. She just found them way too unbelievable.

“Oh god Delia,” Ellie cried frowning. “What’s this one about.”

“Some Mafia romance thing,” Delia answered shrugging and putting in the DVD. “I guess the main character falls in love with the head of the mob. It looked good?”

Ellie’s breath caught in the back of her throat and she felt little Isaac move around in her belly. “Sounds interesting,” she finally managed to croak out putting a hand on her belly.

“Are you okay,” Delia asked coming back to sit next to her. “You look a little pale.”

Ellie felt pale. “Oh no, it’s just the baby, “ she answered rubbing at where she felt what she assumed was Issacs leg jutting out.

“You aren’t having like contractions,” Delia questioned looking down at Ellie’s belly and frowning.

Ellie laughed and shook her head no.

“Okay good, “ she replied and pushed play on the movie. The two sat and watched laughing at the appropriate sections and each getting deeply invested in the outcome of each character. AS typical romcoms went the mafia boss and the average girl did end up together. He ended up leaving the mafia and running away with her to another country where he could never be found. They ended up having and raising a family and living happily ever after.

Ellie let out a sigh, and accidently said out loud, “if only life was that simple.”

“What?” Delia questioned even though she knew exactly what Ellie had said.

“Oh, nothing,” Ellie replied realizing she had said it out loud.

Delia turned off the DVD player and turned to Ellie with a serious face. “You know you’re best friend, right?”

“Yeah and you’re mine,” Ellie smiled loving that the pair had been friend since their youth. They had a bond that would and could never be broken. Delia was more like a sister to Ellie than Kathryn ever had been.

“Well I’m going to say something you aren’t going to like and I need you to know it’s because I love you!”

Ellie braced herself confused.

“You need to tell him. He should know about the baby. He should have to help.”

“What… I mean I don’t know who he is.” Ellie tried to continue the lie without success.

“Ellie I know you better than that and I know you have only had one night stand and you cried about it for days. There is no way you would ever do that again. I know Nick is the father. I don’t know what happened when you went back there, but I do know it must have led to that little guy.” Delia smiled down at Ellie’s stomach and laid a hand on it. To her the baby was like a nephew.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Ellie said

“Yes you do,” Delia continued. “ I know it’s his. Everyone knows. It’s the giant fucking elephant in every room.”

“…. I can’t Del, he’s not good for me or the baby. We are better off like this,” she said finally giving in and admitting it.

“What happened with you two anyway?” Delia asked confused.

“Nothing. Nothing I want to talk about.” Ellie ran a hand through her hair. “Nothing I can talk about.”

“Okay, I trust you. I trust that you know what you are talking about, but Ellie what about child support? What about your baby? He’s going to want to know his father at the very least know him. Wouldn’t you want that?”

Ellie bit her lip. She had thought of all those things. Child support she could go without. She had enough for herself and her baby. They wouldn’t live extravagantly, but they would be okay and comfortable. She just hadn’t been able to answer what she would do about her baby, and his potential questions.  She had simply brushed it aside telling herself that she would cross that bridge when it came. “I don’t need his money, and I’ll talk to my son about his dad when it comes up. I’ll tell him the truth.”

“Which is?”

“Delia I don’t need to be handling that right now. I just- I’m tired.” Ellie feigned sleepiness trying her best to get Delia out of her hair.

“Alright Ellie,” she answered. “I just think that he deserves to know and if you don’t want to do it for him, then do it for Isaac, your baby.” Delia began to pack up her stuff and once she was done she laid a hand on Ellie’s belly and said, “I love you to it.” Then she looked up to Ellie and laid a kiss on her cheek. “I just want what is best for you and the baby.”

Ellie nodded and the two friends said their goodbye. Once Ellie heard the door close behind Delia she put her hand on her belly and began to speak to it. “We are going to be okay, right? Just you and me, you and mommy.” She smiled at the taught trying to console herself.

“Hello,” Delia heard the other voice on the line answer.

“Hey, this is Delia,” she answered and heard silence on the other end of the phone.

“Is there something wrong with...” he asked. She heard worry in his voice.

“No… well maybe. I just need to talk to you about something. I think you should know this.”

Ellie grimaced at the sight of her 45 year old client checking her out despite the fact she was 6 months pregnant. Mr. Cooper was a vile man, but he was also a very rich one, so that meant she had to keep kissing his ass until she got what she needed out of him, a contract. Ellie smiled at him and continued on pulling out paperwork to show him her plan, even though he did not look away from her growing chest. After she finished describing it to him, she asked, “so what do you think?”

“Sounds great,” he said barely paying attention. “Where do I sign.” For the first time he quickly glanced up at her face.

“Right here,” Ellie said pointing at the spot on the paperwork with a pen and then handing it to him.

Once he finished he asked, “are you married Ms. Johnson?”

“Oh No,” she laughed trying to avoid what she expected to come next. Mr. Cooper really was a giant skeez ball, asking out a pregnant girl half his age. “But I’m very busy planning for my baby. Actually I have to go now, back to the office. My boss is going to want these papers ASAP. “ She began to pack up her stuff and make her escape. Cooper got up and joined her. As they both finished up he reached out a hand laid it on her shoulder.

“Ellie will you-“ he was cut off by Ellie’s sharp intake of breath as she watched a man enter the restaurant, a very familiar man. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she smiled looking back at Cooper. “I’ll see you next week then, to finalize everything.” She continued to smile at him until he nodded and made his way off. Once he was out of eyesight, Ellie sat back down and looked at the familiar face she had seen earlier for conformation. She had been correct, she saw on further inspection it was Nick, and of course he was positioned in a spot where he would see her leaving.

Ellie cursed instead, trying to think up ways to hide her stomach from him. After literal minutes of thinking, she had come up with nothing and she actually did need to get back to the office and tell her boss the news. So reconciling with just trying her best to make as quick of an exit as possible and hiding herself as much as possible, she pulled her purse over her shoulder and headed out of the restaurant.

She was just getting out the door, when she heard Nick’s voice cry, “Ellie.” Ignoring Ellie continued on to the valet and requested her company car. Nick continued to call her name and she could tell he was getting closer and closer to her. She prayed that her car would pull up in time for her to make her exit. Alas,  her prayers didn’t work and she felt a hand on her shoulder. “Ellie?”

Putting her hand over her belly in a last attempt to hide her pregnancy, Ellie turned to face the music. Nick looked no different except for the fact he currently had a 5 o’ clock shadow, but underneath it he was his normal attractive self.

“Oh hi Nick,” Ellie said as casually as possible.

His eyes automatically dropped to her large belly, which was currently assaulting her with butterflies from the movement of Isaac. “What the fuck,” he questioned. “Is it-?“

“No,” Ellie answered. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I will worry about it,” he answered reaching out and laying a hand on her shoulder. Just as she did, Ellie saw the simple silver ring glisten in the light on his left ring finger.

“You’re married,” she quietly whispered.

“Yeah,” he replied pulling his hand back in. “For 3 months now.”

“To who?”

“Juliette,” he answered quietly.

“Oh that’s… that’s great Nick,” she answered putting on a fake smile.

“Ma’am your car,” the valet called handing the keys back to her.

“Well Nick,” Ellie said plastering a smile on her face. “It was great catching up, but I have to get back to the office.”

“Yeah, Ellie,” he replied his eyes obviously dropping to her stomach. “Hopefully I see you around.”

Ellie headed to her car and drove away. It didn’t take long for silent tears to fall down her face.

Late on at home, Ellie sat in front of her television, watching a mindless reality show going over her encounter with Nick over and over again. It had been such a scary moment for her, she hadn’t wanted him to find out about her baby, and she hadn’t wanted to know that he had moved on from her. She didn’t want to talk to anyone about it, that was why she hadn’t called Delia, and she was surprised by the knock that suddenly came at her door.

Confused Ellie got up to answer it, not before looking through the peep hole and being met by the face of Nick Lombardi, much to her surprise.

“What are you doing here,” she asked crossing her hands over her chest and laying them on her belly.

“I couldn’t get it out of my head. You’re baby… It has to be mine. There’s no other way.”

Ellie’s jaw dropped. Quickly realizing what she was doing, she picked it back up and regained her composure. “No Nick! It’s not yours.”

“Whose then? Whose,” he was practically yelling this

Realizing that the neighbors could most likely hear every word that was being said between the two of them, Ellie pulled Nick into her apartment as she mumbled, “it’s none of your business.”

“I thought about this all day, Elle. You’re about six months pregnant, right. Six months ago you came to see me. It was after my accident. We had sex, and without a condom.”

“I took Plan B, Nick,” she stated matter of factly trying anything to get him off her back.

“I talked to Nina,” he said this time laying a hand on her belly. “It isn’t fool proof.”

Stepping back and away from his touch, Ellie cried, “Nina knows?”

Nick nodded like it was no big deal.  Not understanding the enormity of what he said.

“Nick this wasn’t for you to tell. You don’t just get to show up in my town, see me for one second and start telling people all about my life.”

“I do when it’s my baby too,” he answered getting defensive.

“And what if it is your baby? Huh? How is your little wife going to feel about this? You were with her when we apparently conceived this baby.”

“I’ll handle my wife,” he grunted in reply.

“It’s not your baby,” she replied trying to sound convincing.

“You can’t even look me in the eyes when you say that Ellie. You suck at lying to me,” he replied stepping closer to her. “Look me in the eyes.”

She refused until she once again heard him yell, “look me in the eyes dammit.”

She tried her best, but failed miserably. After just a few seconds she had to look away. She really wasn’t a good liar when it came to Nick.

“A baby Ellie,” he cried with a genuine smile on his face. “We are having a baby, together.”

“I know,” she said smiling back. “We are…” Before she knew it she felt Nick’s lips on hers for a just one quick second, before he pulled away and got on his knees in front of her stomach and kissed her belly.

"I think that we need to talk Nick," Ellie said after pushing him away.  She walked toward the couch in her living room and took a seat, takign the weight off of her already swollen ankles.

"Okay," he answered and followed taking a seat across from her. "What do we need to talk about?"

"Well for one... why are you here? In my hometown I mean?" Ellie already had a clue, but she wanted to hear him say it out loud.

Nick wasn't one to beat around the bush or really to lie even. "Delia told me that I need to stop by and see you. She said that something was wrong. I figured you did it for me once, the least I could do is do the same for you."

Ellie pursed her lips and frowned trying to hold back the anger she felt. She was so mad at Delia she could scream. It wasn’t Delia’s place to be messing with Ellie’s personal life. “Okay,” she simply groaned in reply.

“I’m glad she did. How long were you going to try and keep this from me?”

Ellie shrugged and said, “you said you didn’t want children. I didn’t want to burden you like I did last time. I mean this time we aren’t even together, and based off of what you said to me, I knew it wasn’t going to be good.” Ellie couldn’t help it. The anger was slipping through her words.

Nick shot Ellie a dirty look, visibly upset that she was bringing up the past, specifically a past they had already discussed and worked through. “I already apologized for that Elle.”

“Yeah I know. I’m sorry. That really was out of line. I’m just pissed at Delia.”

There was a heavy silence between the two of them.

“Okay Nick,” Ellie continued breaking the silence. “So what are we going to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you have a wife and I’m carrying your child,” Ellie answered. “This literally goes against everything you believe in.”

“I’m leaving Juliette and marrying you,” he said matter-of-fact. “Ellie it’s a sign. We are meant to be.”

“Nick, you aren’t doing that. I’m not going to be a homewrecker, okay. You and Juliette were happy before this, so why ruin something that’s working, for something that is not.”

He ran a hand through his hair. “Well I am not bringing a child into a broken family. I want my son or daughter to grow up just like I did. In one family with just one mom or dad.”

“What about what I want for my own son. What about what I want for myself?  What if I don’t want to marry you.” Before Ellie knew it she was yelling. She was suddenly so angry, which she blamed on the hormones. “You know Niko, I’m not so sure I want my child around what you do. Around death and violence and fear. Maybe I don’t want a child that goes to clubs and drinks when they are just 15. What about what I want?” By the end Ellie was breathing heavily.

Nick just sat and stared at Ellie and watched her breath.  He waited till her breath came back down to its regular level. “Are you okay now?”

“Yes I’m fine.”

“You don’t need to get so worked up. I doubt its good for the baby.”

“Nick I’ve been the one watching out for what’s good for the baby for the last six months. I don’t need you to tell me what to do.”

“Alright Ellie, so what do you suggest we do about our situation?”

“I suggest that we handle it like mature people living the 21st century, rather than people from the Victorian ages. People do this stuff all the time. We will co-parent. You’ll get to see him some weekends and me others. Maybe even take him on vacation once in a while.  Juliette will be his stepmom and we’ll live happily ever after.”

“I don’t want my kids to have stepmothers. I don’t want them calling any other man daddy either, and I don’t want you with anyone else. Elle it’s not like we aren’t in love. I remember the last time we talked…” He let his voice trail off as memories rushed back into Ellie’s head.

I love you too Nicky. I’ve never stopped loving you and never will.

I love you Eleanore. I love you so much more than you could imagine, Piccolina.

“You meant what you said, didn’t you Ellie?”

“Yes of course I did Nick. I meant it, and I meant all of it, including the part where I said we don’t work. Nick, we do more damage to each other than good. You know that.”

“We can work on that. We can get counseling… Ellie I don’t beg. Please don’t make me beg again.” He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “Piccolina-“

“Don’t,” Ellie cut in. “Don’t call me that. I’m not you’re Piccolina, Juliette is now…. Let’s stop discussing this subject in general. You know it’s not happening for us. Why bother pretending?”

Just as he opened his mouth to say more his phone rang. He chekced it and then looked back up to Ellie. “I have some business to attend to so I’m going to head back to the hotel.” He got up and made his way to the door.  Before answering his phone and walking out he quickly mumbled, “we’ll discuss this further later.”

Ellie groaned after the door slammed closed. She had no idea how she was going to get Nick, the man no one ever said no to, to understand that when she said no she was one hundred percent serious.

Lunch with Delia was awkward for Ellie to say the least. There was an unresolved tension between the two that was only made worse because they were sitting and discussing Ellie’s baby shower.

“So I was thinking we could do an soft orange with some green accents. I know you don’t like the traditional blue,” Delia stated making notes on her notepad.

Ellie sighed and said, “We can talk about this now or we can continue faking being civil.”

Delia feigned confusion, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Yes you do. Nick told me you’re the one who told him.”

“I’m sorry Ellie. I really am… I just thought he needed to know and I know you wanted to let him know, deep down inside. Just it’s his baby too, ya know. I thought he should know.”

“I’m glad you told him, but what I’m not happy about is that you went behind my back. You can’t tell other people’s secrets. It’s not your place.”

“I know I know. I just thought of it as looking out for my godson to be. Are you mad? Please don’t be. I just wanted what was best for you.”

“Yeah I know.” Ellie replied grimacing. “Just don’t ever do anything like this again. If I tell you something in confidence or even if you just suspect something, do not ever tell anyone else.”

“Yeah I won’t. You know I won’t. Are you mad Elle?”

“I’m not not mad… but I’ll get over it eventually.”

Delia let out a big sigh of relief. “Good because I have a party to throw for you… So back to games we are going to play…”

 Ellie stopped paying attention. She didn’t actually care much about what was going on. Her thoughts began to wander as Delia continued talking. She began to think about Nick and his family and what they would all think, Nina especially. Marta would of course be upset because it would be tainting the bloodline especially for Nick’s oldest son to be born to a black woman and out of wedlock. Then she remembered Bianca who would just be pissed that she would even be returning and of course Juliette who would rightfully be pissed. Ellie was the other woman in this scenerio who helped Nick cheat, even seduced him, while he was dating his wife. Just as her thoughts came to a close she thought of Nick’s dad and really wondered what he would think. He was a kind man, but would he be accepting of this? He was in fact one of the most powerful men in perhaps America. For some reason she felt a pang, and realized that she really did not want to disappoint him.

Cutting off whatever Delia had been talking about at that moment, Ellie said, “we have to invite his family.”

“What?”

“We have to invite Nick’s sisters and his wife?”

“His wife?”

“Yeah Nick married Juliette.”

“What! It’s been like 4 months.”

“- well 6 actually,” Ellie giggled rubbing her stomach. “I don’t want to discuss it anymore, but yeah we need to invite them. Since you told him, we need to make them apart of this whole baby thing.”

“Alrighty, I will add them to the guest list. Okay moving on…” Delia continued talking on and on about the party.

Ellie rubbed lotion on to her belly as she laid in her bed ready to go to sleep for the night. Just as she finished and put the bottle on the table by her bedside, she heard the sound of her phone ringing. Reaching over she answered without checking the caller ID. “Hello.”

“Oh hey Ellie,” Nick breathed out on the other end.

“How can I help you?” Ellie asked.

“I just wanted to hear your voice Ellie.”

“Stop.” She was frustrated. “ Nick I need to go to sleep. “

“Yeah I know. Quick question though, is it a boy or a girl?”

Ellie had completely forgotten she hadn’t told him. “It’s a boy.”

He let out a breath and whispered “a boy. My first son.”

“Yeah, a son. I’m naming him Isaac Luca Lombardi. I thought Luca was good for the whole Italian theme that your family goes for.”

“Yeah it perfect. I have a second cousin or something name Luca.””

“Yeah,” Ellie answered again. “Hey Nick it really is getting late. I really do have to get to bed. Ihave to work in the morning.”

“Yeah okay,” he said. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, bye.”

“Bye.”

“Get off the chair,” Nick calmly told Ellie as he watched her put up orange and green streamers. Despite Ellie telling him he didn’t have to, Nick insisted on helping set up for the baby shower. It was obvious the moment they started though, that he had never set up anything in his life before. Twenty minutes into the work he began to complain, saying that “I could have just paid someone to do this.” He also continuously took phone calls, of course in between bossing Ellie around for ‘the safety of the baby.’

“I’m fine Nick, just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean I can’t hang up a few streamers.” Of course just as she said it, she felt herself loose balance and almost slip off the chair which could have potentially happened if Nick hadn’t been there to make sure she didn’t. Instead of saying anything with his lips, he just said it all with his eyes.

“Okay Nick,why don’t you get up here and do it then.” She climbed down from the chair and crossed her hands over her chest. “Stop being so lazy and actually help.”

“Okay,” he said unsure. “I’m not completely sure what to do.”

Ellie explained to him how to hang streamers and before she knew it, he was up there hanging them just as fast as she had been.  Ten minutes into working, he looked down at Ellie and smiled.

“What?” she questioned thinking that there was something wrong, like food on her face or that she looked bad.

“You just look so pretty Ellie. Pregnancy really suits you,” he replied, the silly smile still plastered on his face.

Ellie frowned and shot a look around the room to see if any of her friends and family had overheard.  “Stop,” she said. “You can’t say things like that.”

He groaned and then continued on working. “Elle I just want to let you know this is the most amount of physical labor I’ve done my entire life.”

Ellie laughed a little bit as she felt little Isaac kick. “Issac says thank’s daddy,” she replied smiling and putting a hand up to her stomach and rubbing where she felt his head. Looking up she noticed that Nick had continued staring at her as she had shared that intimate moment with her child.

“He moves,” Nick questioned. “You can like feel it?”

“Yeah,” Ellie laughed. “Do you want to feel?  He’s moving around right now.”

Nick quickly got down from the chair. Ellie took his right hand and placed it on her stomach at a spot where the baby was currently moving. She placed her hand on top of Nicks and watched his reaction of pure awe.

“That’s amazing,” he stated smiling. “He seems so much more real. I’m going to be someone’s dad.”

“Yeah and I’m going to be someone’ s mom. It’s the miracle of life.” The two continued to stare at each other, Ellie’s hand over Nicks, as the world began to disappear around them. They no longer heard the chatter of Delia yelling out commands or the rest of Ellie’s friends complaining. For a few seconds it was just him and her.

“Ellie, I-“ Nick began, but suddenly Delia came up ot the two of them saying, “are you done with the streamers?”

Quickly Ellie was pulled out of the moment and realized what she was doing. She took her hand off of Nicks and smiled over to Delia and asked “What?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Delia replied. “Am I interrupting?” She gave Ellie a weird questioning look, which Ellie knew she would be answering to later.

“The baby was kicking. Nick just wanted to feel it,” Ellie realized Nick still had his hand on her stomach.

Realizing he was acting strangely he pulled his hand away and ran it through his hair. “Yeah,” he said sheepishly.

“You don’t need to explain yourself to me,” Delia answered. “Anyway are you guys done with the streamers, because if you are we do need some help setting up tables.”

“Yeah we are almost done. Just one or two more rows.” Ellie looked up and saw where they left off. She knew she was exaggerating how much was actually done. It was a bit more than just two more rows. Delia looked up too and said confused, “yeah okay… two more… just get them done and then come help. Party’s in like an hour or so.” Delia shot Ellie one more look and then walked away to go pester someone else.

“So I guess we should finish this,” Ellie said picking up the roll of streamers off the floor. She handed them to Nick who instead just grabbed her wrist.

“Ellie I-“ he once again began.

“Don’t say it,” she replied. “Your family is on their way here, including your wife. Don’t ruin this by making it more than it is. Just hang these streamers okay.” She pulled her wrist away from him and handed him the streamers.

He groaned and took them and they continued putting them up.

“This is so beautiful Ellie,” Nina said smiling. Gio stood next to each other holding hands infront of Ellie and Nick whom Ellie made sure to stand at least a person away from.

“Thank you Nina. Honestly Delia, my best friend, did the whole thing,” she laughed. “Everything was her idea. We just followed her plan.”

“Well it all came out beautifully,” Nina said smiling. “Are we the first of the Lombardi’s to get here?”

“I think so,” Nick answered. “Juliette told me she and ma were going to be late. I’m sure the rest of the girls are with them.”

“Thank you so much for flying out here,” Ellie thanked. “Sorry it was such late notice.”

“It’s no problem at all. We would never miss our first nephew’s baby shower,” Gio said smiling. “Excuse me while I talk to my brother.”  Gio and Nick excused themselves and made their way to another side of the room to talk. Ellie heard them speak in Italian, per usual, meaning that even if they stayed she would not have been able to understand them.

Turning to Nina, Ellie asked point blank, “they aren’t talking about me are they?”

Nina, being the type of woman she was, simply said, “it’s men talk. Don’t worry.”

“So they are?” she said. “It irkes me that you all speak a language I don’t know. I’m going to have Isaac translate for me when he’s old enough.”

Nina laughed. “So you’re going to teach him Italian?”

“I figured to have the last name Lombardi, you had to,” she replied drily.

“I guess that’s true. What about you?”

“What about me? I’m not a Lombardi…”

Nina pulled Ellie closer to her. “I’m not supposed to know this,” she said quietly, “but Nick’s been talking to Gio about leaving Juliette and about being with you. He loves you…”

Ellie groaned. “I told him no and I mean it. Aren’t you guys supposed to be super Catholic and isn’t Catholicism all about, not getting divorced.”

The corners of Nina’s lips went up into a smile. “There are ways around it when you are powerful. Just know that little Nicky is smitten. I’ve never seen him like this over a girl before. I mean he recruited me for help, to talk to you. He never does that.”

Ellie groaned once again. “Is that what they are talking about over there? Are you supposed to be swaying me right now.”

Nina just smiled. “Are you excited for the baby?”

Rolling her eyes at Nina’s obvious subject change, she replied, “I’m scared. Labor sounds horrible.”

“It’s not so bad. You forget all about it the moment you look into your baby’s eyes. It’s really beautiful actually.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that. I’m just worried about the whole thing. I don’t  handle pain very well.”

“Well I’m sure Nick will do whatever he can to help you. I mean, if he isn’t freaking out himself over you being in so much pain. Nick is so calm in some situations, but when it comes to other things he goes crazy. I feel like this would be one of them.”

Ellie sighed. She hadn’t even thought about that. She hadn’t thought much of the birth since Nick had come back into their lives. She couldn’t image him being in the room watching their baby come out from between her legs, something she wasn’t so sure she wanted him to see. For some reason, despite how hard she tried not to care, she still wanted him to see her as beautiful. Something about birth made her think he wouldn’t.

“I’m not so sure I want him in the room.” Ellie knew how Nick was when a situation was out of his control. He didn’t take it well. The one time the family had thought Bella had run away, he had freaked out for days, making non- stop calls and staying up hours into the night and not sleeping. He hadn’t been very nice to her either. He had yelled at her about stupid things, like leaving her books all over his apartment, or even trying to comfort him. “He can be pretty mean when he’s frustrated, especially to ‘the help’”

“He’s his mom’s spoiled last son,” Nina laughed. “You have to have him in the room. It wouldn’t be fair to him. It’s a shared experience between the two of you. Trust me, you’ll want it.”

Ellie nodded still not sure what she was going to do, so she nodded to appease Nina. She heard Delia great very loudly, “Hi. You must be Nick’s family. Come in.”

Ellie looked over and watched as the rest of the Lombardi family made their way into the small restaurant. It was such a contrast seeing each of them there. They were dressed in from head to toe in designer, typical Lombardi fashion. If someone walked into the room, it would be easy to tell who was a Lombardi, to who was not.

Frowning Ellie excused herself from Nina, and made her way to the rest of the Lombardi clan. She could feel Nina’s eyes on her as she walked away.

“Hi thank you for coming,” Ellie greeted standing next to Delia and smiling at the women , including Juliette who didn’t even offer a smile. No one said anything, until Allegra rescued the situation and said, “of course. It is my nephew.”

“Well Nick is around here somewhere,” Ellie said. “Last I saw of him, he was talking to Gio.”

Marta nodded her lips pursed and the group turned away to find Nick.

Ellie was confused. Last she had seen of Marta, everything between the two of them had been okay, but now all of a sudden she was acting cold toward her. She had no idea if it was because of the out of wedlock thing, or if Marta was back to her old ways.

“Wow, that was intense,” Delia stated letting out a breath. “That’s what you had to deal with when you were with him?” Ellie offered a small nod as she continued to ponder where she stood with this family. 

“You still have to explain what happened between you too earlier,” Delia reminded. 

“Yeah,” Ellie said distracted. She watched as everyone greeted Nick, Gio and Nina, who had rejoined the group after Ellie had left her. Nick gave each of his sisters a hug. He picked up Bella whom he swung around and a rare smile spread across her face. Ally he gave a big hug and rubbed a hand through her hair, to which she frowned at and fixed. She watched as he laid to kisses on each of Bianca’s cheeks and asked her some questions that she nodded to. To his mother he was so sweet to. He placed kisses on both of her cheeks and gave her a long hug. Last came his wife and Ellie painfully watched on. He gave her a kiss on the lips and grabbed her hand.  Ellie continued to watch, despite the hurt she felt inside. She couldn’t stop herself from thinking,  that should be me as she watched on. She knew it was wrong to think that, but she couldn’t help herself.She blamed ie on the hormones, thinking it was making her feel things more than she should be.

Nick’s eyes flashed toward her, and just as they met eyes, she looked away. She hoped he hadn’t seen her staring, but knew there was no way he hadn’t.

 “Is that the new wife,” Delia asked. “I mean she’s nothing compared to you.”

“D,” Ellie laughed. “It’s okay. You don’t have to lie. She’s beautiful. They all are.”

“You’re beautiful,” Delia said sensing that Ellie was in a depressed mood.

“…Even pregnant?”

“…Evan pregnant.”

“And that’s why you’re my best friend,” Ellie said smiling. The two laughed and then hugged each other. Once they parted from their hug though, they watched as Nick approach them.

“Ellie can I talk to you,” he asked, looking at Delia he added, “in private.”

She nodded and led him into a side room of the restaurant, where all the wait staff would wait if there had been a bigger party going on with courses and what not. “What’s up?” she asked, sitting down in a chair and getting a load off of her feet.

Nick turned around and locked the door behind him, before walking up to Ellie till her was right in front of her face. “I don’t love her,” he said.

Ellie frowned and said, “I don’t care.”

“Stop with the hard ass attitude Elle. I know you better than anyone else. I know it’s killing you. It’s killing me too.” He placed a hand on her cheeks and rubbed his thumb back and forth.

“You’re the one that married her,” she said, her anger coming at full force. “I’m the single, miserable one carrying your baby. I’m the one that spent three months of my life suffering puking for hours in my bathroom. I’m the fat one and I’m the one that can’t sleep at night because I can’t find a position our baby likes. Don’t you dare try and pretend that you feel the same way I do right now. I’m the one in pain with no husband. You’re the one with a beautiful wife and house, who is going to get to play house with my baby and your wife.” Tears were coming down her face. She hadn’t even noticed it until she felt a tear fall over her lip and fall into her mouth. She wiped them away with the back of her hand.

“I’m leaving her,” Nick said matter- of – factly. “I’ve talked it out with everyone. They all think it’s what is best.”

“Everyone,” she asked skeptically.

“Well Gio. He says I should go for what I want. I don’t care what my mom or Bianca thinks. I want you. I need you, and I need my son to have a family.”

Ellie just sniffed as he laid a kiss on her nose. He moved to her neck just below her ear. He whispered a few words she of course couldn’t understand in Italian and laid kisses on her there. “Please say yes Eleanore. Please.”

Ellie sniffed and closed her eyes. She felt drunk off of the pure smell of Nick and the feel of his lips on her body.

“We could have the 2.5 kids, the car, the house, everything, “ he said continuing his kisses. “You could stay at home with our kids and work part time, and I’ll work full time nine to five, everyday and on weekends we could take the kids to the waterparks or camping. “

“No,” Ellie said pushing Nick off of her. The moment he talked about himself working, she remembered everything she was trying to avoid with Nick. “Your wife is better suited for your lifestyle.”

He dropped his head defeated. “Ellie I don’t know what you do to me. I’ve never been like this with a woman before. I’ve never begged. I’ve never not gotten what I want. I don’t’ know what to do . I can’t buy you and I can’t force you. I can’t treat you like I’d treat anyone else, because I love you. Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it. Leave the family business? If it means you and my son together, then you have it. I’m done.”

Ellie thought long and hard about what to say in reply to that. She knew it would solve the major problem the two of them had with each other. They could be happy and together, instead of in this strained relationship. On the other hand, she knew she could never ask that of him. The business was part of him, it was what made him a  Lombardi. She wouldn’t be able to live with the resentment, she is sure he would feel deep within him, even if he didn’t outwardly show it.

“You know I can’t ask you to do that,” was her simple reply.

“Tell me then, tell me what to do,” he said.

“There isn’t anything you can do. The last time we were together, when we conceived this little baby, I told you, this is the last time we would be together, and I meant it Nick. We can’t do this forever, this back and forth thing. It won’t work.”  

Just as she finished her statement, there was a light knock on the door followed by Delia’s voice. “Hey Nick, Ellie , we are about to start the activities. We need you out on here. I suggest you leave one at a time with at least ten minutes between each of you or else everyone will be suspicious.”

“Thanks D,” Ellie said back through the door. Turning back to Nick she asked, “so who’s going first?”

Grabbing hold of both sides of her face he said, “I’m not done fighting for you or our family and I won’t stop. “ He placed a hard kiss on her lips before she could deflect it, then exited the room quickly, not letting Ellie have a single word.

Touching what she assumed were bright pink lips, she frowned as she thought of what she was in store for.

He instated on driving her home and leaving his car at the venue. He said that he would just drive her car home and return it in the morning take a cab and return her car. He said he didn’t want her driving herself in the mood she was in. He claimed that he wanted to go with her to open the baby shower gifts. It was obvious to anyone with brain that he just wanted to be alone with her. He knew she knew and she knew he knew she knew.

“Why are you doing this,” Ellie questioned after he closed the door for her and walked to his side of the car and got in. “I’m not a delicate flower. I don’t need you to do this. I’m just pregnant.”

He groaned and turned the ignition. “I want to help you, to make up for those missed months… I want you to know I’m there for you.”

Ellie nodded her lips pursed as they made their way onto the road. She pulled her hair up, which she had curled for the party, and pulled it up into a messy bun. She was annoyed at Nick, but still excited to relax.

“You looked beautiful today,” Nick mumbled shooting Ellie a quick look.

Rolling her eyes she answered with, “so what did you tell your wife we were doing tonight? What was your excuse for having to drop me off?”

He frowned. “I hate when you do that.”

“Wouldn’t want you to forget you were married? Would I?” Ellie smirked knowing she had tripped him up. She glanced over at his gold wedding band, which he played with and continued. “How was the wedding? Beautiful? Simple? Did all of your family come? Did hers? I was a little sad I didn’t receive an invitation… “She watched him grip the steering wheel tighter. She knew he was getting mad. She didn’t know why she continued. Was it to hurt him? Was it to hurt herself? “The honeymoon… was it in the city? Did you go somewhere tropical? Was it beautiful and passionate? Did you guys fuck all night long? Did you fuck all day too?” He gripped the steering wheel tighter if that was even possible. “How many times did you guys fuck? Per night I mean… once, twice, three times… I mean, the most we’ve ever fucked in one night is-“

At that moment, he pulled the car over and parked it on the side of the road. Turning to her, she saw flames of anger in his eyes. He reached out, grabbed her hand, and grunted, “I’ve never fucked you.”

Ellie cowered a little, ashamed of what she had done. Her heart pounded as she looked into his eyes.

“You don’t know what it’s like to be fucked by me. I’m not a nice guy. There is a reason for my reputation. I don’t rub backs. I don’t kiss until they fall asleep. I don’t talk to them after I get what I want. Once I get what I want I’m done, I get dressed and leave. I don’t fuck you Ellie.”

“Well I should be so honored,” Ellie replied sarcastically, shaking his hand off of her.  “Me and Juliette both.”

“Jealousy doesn’t suit you,” Nick snickered.

Ellie shot him the dirtiest look she could muster up, unlocked her door and got out. Her house was only a 10 minute walk from where they had stopped. She could make it. It may make her swollen ankles worse, but at that moment getting away from Nick was all she could think about.

“What are you doing?” he said getting out after her.

She ignored him and kept walking. He run up after her and caught up, which was especially easy because she had swollen ankles and was carrying around an extra 10 pounds. “Stay away from me,” she yelled.

He grabbed her shoulder and stopped her, turning her toward himself. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled leaning in toward her ear.

“Sorry is not okay,” she said tears beginning to fall. He kissed some of her tears on her face until finally reaching her lips where he gave her a deep kiss. She could taste the salt of her own tears on her lips.

“I know, I know,” he replied pulling her in toward his chest.

“I am jealous Nick. I’m jealous she has everything I want,” she continued beginning to cry harder. “That she gets to live the life I want… the life I dreamed of, that I always thought would be mine.” She looked up into his deep blue eyes and whispered, “I never thought we’d end up like this.”

“Me neither Piccolina,” he mumbled against her hair, laying soft kisses on it.

“I’m tired,” a sleepy Ellie mumbled as she entered her apartment. Nick had finally coerced her into her car and had managed to take her home. She rubbed her back and made her way to her couch, Nick followed standing before her.

She bent down to rub her ankles. They were more swollen than ever from the party to the fight with Nick, she had been on her feet all day.

“I can do that for you,” Nick offered placing her car keys down on the counter next to him.  Before she could answer he was by her side slipping her shoes off and rubbing her ankles.

“You don’t have to do that,” she mumbled even though deep down inside she loved the feeling. “Seriously, I got this.”

“I’m here. It’s the least I could do,” he answered, “I mean you are carrying my son.” He smiled up at her. “Here I’ll rub your back too he offered.”

She knew what he was doing, but she still turned and let him rub her back. She couldn’t say no, it was great finally having someone that was willing to get the kinks out of her back. It was amazing how much pain, just standing around could cause her. Especially in these later months of her pregnancy, and the extra hours she was working to prepare for the baby, her muscles had gotten really tense.

Her thoughts were confirmed when she felt wet lips on her neck. Ellie pursed her lips and turned toward Nick and mumbled, “you can’t just do that.”

“Do what?,” he questioned pretending to be oblivious as he leaned in and laid a soft kiss on her lips. He was about to go in for another when she stopped him.

“No you can’t just kiss me after what I told you today.”

“You don’t want to be married to me. You just want part of me and I’m willing to give you that. You can have just the parts you want. I’ll give you whatever you want. You won’t have to work and we’ll be together, but not together.” He leaned in to kiss her again, which Ellie quickly avoided extremely annoyed.

“I can’t believe you just asked me to be your mistress. I’m fucking pregnant and you’re asking me to be your mistress,” she pushed herself off the couch. Despite how much she wanted to sit right now, she wanted to be away from Nick more than that.

Nick sighed. “That’s not what I said.”

“Yes it is. You’ll set me up real nice. You’ll come in for the weekend play house with me and the baby for a while, maybe even vacations sometimes. Then during the weekdays you’ll go home back to your wife and your real life. We’ll be together, but not together.  How do you cheat so easily? Do you even think about the other person involved?”

Nick rubbed his forehead and mumbled, “do you think about me?”

“What did you say,” Ellie questioned crossing her hands over her chest.

“Nothing,” he mumbled.

“No say it. I wanna hear what you have to fucking say,” she yelled.

“Okay then,” he answered getting more and more angry. He stood up from the couch and approached her. “What about what I want. What about what we want? Stop thinking about my fucking wife. Stop thinking…”

“Well someone has to,” she answered.

“You know what else Eleanore. Stop telling me how to act in my marriage. It’s my marriage, NOT yours. I can deal with my fucking wife.” He walked up closer to her and was pretty much yelling.

Ellie was not one to just sit back and listen. She gave as good as she got and yelled, “then don’t ask me to be a part of it. Don’t hit on me. Don’t ask me to be your whore and don’t offer to do things like rub my feet.”

“You know what… you’re a tease and you always have been. I should know… I’m the one who had to suffer through all the blue balls in college. But you’ve always been little precious Ellie. So clean, untouched and corrupted by big bad Nick. No one knows what a fucking tease you are,” he growled stepping back from her.

“Are you kidding me,” she returned. “You’re really bringing that up. I was scared Nick. I know you lost your virginity in the womb or whatever, but some of us didn’t, some of us wanted to wait for someone we love and make it special. Some of us waited for that special moment and a drunken hookup in any location including cars, no matter how nice, your room, or a rando’s room is not romantic.  And you know what… it’s scary and it hurts okay. Sorry if that was inconvenient for you at the time. Also are you really going to stand there and call me a tease as I sit here single and pregnant with your baby? Not to mention it’s not the first of your baby’s that I’ve carried.  I think anyone would say that’s a bit of an oxymoron. Some might even say I was a home wrecking slut.”

He shot her a dirty look, “don’t say that again.”

“Say what,” she questioned caught off guard.

“Call yourself a slut.” He frowned.

“Oh,” she mumbled unsure on how to answer. An awkward silence followed as no one knew how to continue.

“Was it special?” Nick asked slowly.

“What?” Ellie asked confused.

He walked toward her. “You’re first time.”

“Uhhh… yea,” she answered once again caught off guard.

She thought back to it. Nick had taken her into the city for a romantic date on their one year anniversary in a rented apartment. He had taken her out to a romantic dinner and brought her back to the high rise which was emptied out except for a single mattress on the floor. Flowers and candles were scattered around the room. At first she had been mad that he would assume she would sleep with him that night. He had kind of started nagging her more and more about it. She had personally been surprised Nick had gone so long without having sex. They had messed around and done other things, but they had never gotten to the final stage. He had quickly reassured her he didn’t expect anything at all. He just wanted to sleep next to her. One thing led to another though and she soon found she had given it up to him. ‘Are you sure about this,’ he had asked as he slowly slid inside her, until he felt that precious thin layer of skin. ‘We can stop.’ Scared she had nodded her head no and braced herself for the pain. He kissed her hard on the lips as he pushed through. He had been nice and gentle and tried his best to make it as painless as possible and make it the best for her as possible. He had mumbled how much he loved her into her ear and looked deep into her eyes. They had done it several more times that night and the next morning. Her friends had been disappointed in her, but she was happy with the decision she had made. Everything had been perfect.

He laid a hand on her cheek and she said, “of course it was… it was perfect.”

“Can we stop fighting,” he mumbled. “I hate it. We’ve literally been at it for hours.”

“Yeah,” she replied breathlessly. She knew pregnancy made one more sexually inclined, but she hadn’t felt any of that until now. Just the thought of her first time with Nick was enough. She knew she needed to get away from him because if he made a move she wouldn’t be able to stop him.

Clearing her head, she backed away from him and cleared her throat. “I think you should go. Just return my car in the morning.”

He nodded and left.

Days passed and the two of them never talked about or brought up the last time they had been together. They went to doctor visits together, shopped for baby supplies together, splitting the price of everything in half because Ellie had insisted on it. They talked amicably together and talk about Nick leaving his wife seemed to stop. Everything was the way Ellie wanted it to be, or so she thought and before she knew it she was already eight and a half months pregnant and feeling very large and full.

Just as Ellie started to settle into her couch and watch some television, she heard her doorbell ring. Groaning, she pushed herself up and the doorbell rang once again. Ellie grimaced at the door annoyed at whoever it was. “Sorry I’m pregnant,” she mumbled in reply to whoever was ringing the doorbell. Finally standing she made the way to the door and as she did, the doorbell rang with every step she took. Frowning Ellie pulled it open and was surprised to be met by a grimacing, but fabulously dressed Juliette.

“Hi Juliette?” Ellie said with somewhat of a question in her voice.

“Hi you home wrecking whore,” she cried pushing her way past Ellie into the apartment.

“Excuse me?” Ellie mumbled turning around. She crossed/ rested her hand above her stomach.

“You heard me,” Juliette cried. “If you weren’t pregnant, I would hit you in your smug little face.” She paced back and forth. “I can’t believe you would do this to me. I was making an effort to be nice to you.”

“What are you talking about?” Ellie was confused and also defensive. She made her way behind a counter to cover her stomach and leave as much room between herself and Juliette.

“This!” Juliette screamed and threw paper onto the counter in front of Ellie. “And don’t pretend you don’t know.”

Picking up the papers, Ellie looked through them and saw at the top the words: Petition for Divorce. Looking through them she saw that Nick had signed them and cited irreconcilable differences on the paper. Looking up at Juliette, Ellie frowned feeling bad for the woman. “I didn’t ask him to do this.”

“Sure you didn’t,” a defeated Juliette mumbled resting against a wall.

“I swear I didn’t. I asked him not to do this even. I don’t know why he’s doing it.” Ellie frowned. “When did you get this?  I’ll talk to him. Don’t sign it yet.”

Juliette looked skeptically at her. “You mean you aren’t with him. He isn’t leaving me for you.”

“No,” Ellie answered, “he isn’t. Even if he left you, I still wouldn’t be with him.“

Juliette let out a breath, which was soon followed by a cry. Tears flowed out of the young woman’s eyes, making Ellie walk to her and wrap her arms around her. “Come sit down.”

Juliette followed her to her couch. “I don’t know why any of this is happening. I worked so hard to be his perfect housewife. I even supported him when he told me you were pregnant. I forgave him for everything he ever did to me. I was just so good to him.”

“Yeah… Men suck. Nick sucks.” Ellie sighed. She thought of how bizarre the situation was. She was sitting in her apartment comforting the woman whose husband had impregnated her. It was almost humorous.  “Not to intrude on your personal life, but why are you even with him… with the way he treats you.”

“Honestly,” she mumbled looking into Ellie’s eyes. “It’s more of a family thing. We are the two everyone expects to get married. Our entire lives it has always been that way. When you two broke up I was pressured by my family to get back together with him. I’m sure he was by his and our marriage was also orchestrated by our families. I mean I love him, but I think we both knew we were trying to force something.” She played with her engagement ring and wedding band.

“Well I think you need to talk this over with him. How did you get here? Did you fly in specifically to yell at me?” Ellie smiled a bit.

“No… I had booked the flight because I wanted to surprise Nick, but then right before I boarded I was served this letter…”

“I think you should go back to him tonight and talk this out with him. Neither of you needs to do anything hasty,” she mumbled.

Wiping at her tears, Juliette conceded. “Yeah I guess you’re right.” She stood to her feet. “You’re not as bad as I thought you were. You are making it harder to hate you.” She made her way to the front door and opened it. “Thank you Ellie,” she said before leaving.

“You filed for divorce,” Ellie questioned the next time she was with Nick on her way to home from an ultrasound.

“It’s none of your business,” he mumbled in reply keeping his eyes on the road as he drove the car.

“It is my business when your wife comes to my door yelling at me.” She sighed, “why are you doing this?”

“You know why I’m doing this,” he once again mumbled gripping the steering wheel tighter.

“If it’s me then-“

“It’s not you,” he said. “It’s plenty of things.  I talked to Gio and he thinks I’m doing the right thing. Juliette will get over this… She always does.”

“She seemed really upset though Nick,” Ellie sighed in reply. “Did you at least hear her out?”

“Once again Ellie… my marriage…”  He turned into her apartment complex and parked the car. Turning to her he said, “we do need to talk though. Can I come upstairs?”

“Yeah,” she answered opening her door. “Sure” He followed her into the complex and up the stairs to her apartment. Once inside her small apartment, she pointed toward her set of couches and mumbled, “shall we.”

They both took a seat and she patiently waited for Nick to start speaking.

“I think we need to come up with a custody situation for the baby. I mean I think this should be ironed out before he is born.”

“I agree,” Ellie smiled. She had been thinking the same. She knew both she and Nick would need awhile to agree. They were both headstrong people, who at the time being, did not seem to be able to agree about much. “I was thinking I’ll take him for the year and you get a month with him over the summers and we’ll do every other Christmas. I mean that is after he turns one. For the first year I think it’s important that he’s with me most of the time.”

Nick shook his head annoyed, “What about me and my family. I’ll see my son for 4 or 5 weeks per year?”

“Well we just live so far away from each other. We can’t have our kid flying back and forth every week. That would be a selfish decision made on our part…”

Nick nodded agreeing, “It would be. You have to understand that I want to be a part of this kid’s life too. My family does too. We are a big close Italian family, he needs to know about that side of his culture too.”

Sighing Ellie mumbled, “There are things about your culture I need to protect him from.”

“What did you say?” Nick questioned shooting her a glare.

Ellie let out a loud sigh once again. “I may as well say this now. I don’t support this ‘crime’ thing your family is a part of and I don’t really want my child to become a part of it either.”

“Why are you being so condescending?”

“I’m not…”

“Whatever Elle. He’s my son... my first son. My heir… If anyone needs to know about my line of work it’s him. “

“Why are you the heir to this ‘thing’? Gio is older than you.”

“He had a family when we made the agreement. He decided to handle the paperwork and I everything else. In exchange I took the inheritance so he could be with his family. No one, especially myself, expected that I would ever have a child or a family.  I was destined to be a forever bachelor…”

Ellie scoffed annoyed. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t want my child around all that crime, the drugs, the alcohol. I’m not having a kid who thinks it’s okay to go to a club when he’s underage. I’m not raising a spoiled brat.”

Nick’s hands balled up into fists. “Are you saying my parents didn’t do a good job raising me or my siblings? Are you insinuating something?”

Ellie remained silent for a while. Tension built between the two. Finally after several minutes she spoke. “Nick obviously I want you in the babies life now… otherwise I would have found a way to get away from you-“

“I would never let you do that…” he cut in.

Rolling her eyes she continued, “We need to work something out for this child. You know how I feel about what your family does and I want you to respect that. Save the inheritance for your first legitimate child. Leave this one out.”

He pursed his lips. “He’s legitimate.”

“You know what I mean.”

“We’ll discuss this late Elle,” he mumbled getting up. “I’m going to head home. I’ll see you later. I’ll be out of town for a week, but after that I’ll be back in time until the birth. We can talk then.” With that he made his way out of her front door.

As she had expected, nothing had been settled.

The contractions were getting stronger. She knew to ignore them until they got closer together, but it was getting harder and harder to act normal through the pain.

“Are you okay?” Delia questioned staring at her friend.

Ellie pursed her lips through the final fragments of pain. “Yes,” she finally let out once it settled. “Just contractions.”

“Shouldn’t we be taking you to the hospital? Should I call ‘the douche’” Tori asked alarm reaching her eyes.

Ellie shot Tori a glare. “No… You can’t call him that. He’s the father of my baby, at least pretend to be nice.”

Tori rolled her eyes. “Just don’t pop out a fetus here in our living room.”

“Ha Ha Ha,” Ellie sarcastically replied adjusting her body to a more comfortable position.

“Babe you should probably at least text him and let him know,” Delia  frowned.

Ellie literally made a motion with her hand as if she was brushing away the comment. She was still annoyed with Nick over their previous ‘discussion’ over custody. She didn’t like the idea of him trying to take away her child.

“Speaking of the douche,” Kayla continued.  “How’s he been? How’s his marriage? You guys looked pretty close at your baby shower?”

“Nothing is going on.” She hadn’t realized she hadn’t really spoken to any of her friends since the shower. She had subconsciously been avoiding them knowing they would question her behavior at the event.

“What about when I found you guys in that supply room?” Delia let the cat out of the bag.

“I literally hate you,” Ellie mumbled glaring at her friend as Kayla and Tori let out a stream of Whats and profanities. “We were talking.”

“You seemed pretty close when I came by.”

“If you don’t shut up Delia… We really were just talking. That thing between us, that ship has sailed. He is a married man.”

“Soon to be divorced, “ Delia once again answered. When Ellie shot her a questioning look she continued. “He told me.”

“Do you guys like talk or something?”

“He asked me to look out for you. He also mentioned one or two things.”

“If you guys get back together Ellie,” Kayla interjected. “I will literally kill you. I can’t handle another ride on the Ellie-Niko crazy train.”  

“Trust me that isn’t happening. I don’t want another ride on that train either.” Ellie once again cringed in pain. She tried her best to lean into the couch and rub her belly and ease the pain. It took a while for the pain to subside.

“Babe those were pretty close together. I think you should go to the hospital.” Delia pursed her lips worried about her friend.

“I’ll be f-“ Ellie started to say just as she felt a warm liquid run down her leg. “Oh shit.”

“It looks like you wet your pants,” Tori grimaced.

“My water just broke. I’ve got to get to the hospital ASAP” Ellie cried out.

“Where is she?” Nick asked almost yelling into his phone as he quickly walked into the hospital. “Where’s Ellie?”

“Calm down Nick…” Delia sighed into the phone. “Just go to the front desk and ask for her. We are on the 3rd floor.”

Nick hung up as he approached the receptionist. “Hi. My-my,” he stuttered through the word not knowing how to describe her. He finally settled on one for simplicity’s sake. “My girlfriend is currently in labor.”

“Okay,” the receptionist smiled. “What’s the first and last name and can I have an ID.”

He nodded and gave her all the information. She then verified everything and gave him directions to the west wing of the hospital and up to the third floor. Once again in a rush, Nick walked as quickly as possible and made his way to Ellie’s room as soon as he could.

As he entered he heard her yell out in pain. Everything around him began to blur besides from the sight of her face as she grimaced through what some had described as the most painful thing her body would ever have to go through. It continued on for several minutes before she finally relaxed and took in some deep heavy breaths. Now able to finally relax, Nick looked and took note of his surroundings. The white room was split in half by a heavy blue curtain, on the other side of which, he assumed was another woman. In one corner was a chair, in which Ellie’s mother sat, and next to the rolling bed was another chair, in which Delia sat holding Ellie’s hand.

“Finally you’re here,” Delia cried. “My hand can get a break. I’ll leave you in here for now. They have this two person policy here for some reason.”

“Wait! What? You’re leaving,” Ellie cried out frowning. “I don’t know if I want him in the room for this.” She mumbled quietly, but the entire room could still hear.

“You’ll be fine. He’s your baby daddy. I’m sure you’ll want to share this with him.” Delia pulled herself away and walked toward Nick. Before leaving the room she whispered some advice, “try and stay calm for her. She’s already freaking out as it is.” Nick nodded as he watched her leave the room.

Pulling off his jacket and scarf he turned to her mother. “Hello,” he greeted kindly.

“Hi Nick,” she greeted kindly. “how are you?”

The two exchanged a quick conversation as he made his way to Ellie’s side. He placed his jacket and scarf on the back of the chair and sat down next to the heavily pregnant woman. “How are you feeling,” he asked dumbly.

“Like shit,” she replied annoyance thick in her voice. “You know you did this to me… You got do all the enjoying while I get to do all of the suffering.”

Nick pursed his lips knowing it was better to be silent. “Why are you in this room,” he asked. “You have no privacy.”

“I can’t afford more Nick,” she mumbled. She had a feeling he would complain. “More isn’t covered in my insurance.”

He rolled his eyes. “The least I can do is pay for this. I mean I did do it to you.”

She smiled and in that moment he thought she was absolutely glowing. She had no makeup on and her hair clung around her face from the sweat due to her stressful labor pains.

In that moment pain once again came to her. She immediately grabbed his hand and squeezed for dear life as she called out curses. Once again after a few minutes the pain passed and she settled.

“Isn’t there medicine they could give you,” Nick asked annoyed that Ellie was in so much pain.

“Yes. I’m waiting for the doctor to come back with an anesthesiologist for the epidural. It’s been a while though…” As the words left he mouth she knew they were the wrong. Spoiled and entitled Nick never waited for anything and that feeling was amplified when it came to making something he cared about wait. “I’m fine though, I can wait. I think he’s probably busy “ she said trying to rectify the situation.

It was too late, the look of determination was already in his eyes. “I’m going go figure out what’s going on and then I’m going to get you moved.”

He began to stand up to move, but Ellie put a hand up on his shoulder to stop him. “No… I want you here with me.”

Pursing his lips once again, he lowered himself back in his seat and nodded. He nodded liking the way he felt needed. He once again grabbed her hand and laid a kiss on her knuckles. “Of course.”

Ellie looked to her mother and smiled. “Mom is there anyway you could hunt down the doctors and get them in here. Can you ask for another room for me?” Her mother agreed and went on her way.

“Did you tell your family?” Ellie asked. “Are they coming? Who do I need to emotionally prepare to see?”

“I told them. They are all flying in now. I told them not to worry about coming on the red eye I took.” He paused and held on tighter to her hand. “You don’t need to worry about any of them. I promise. You have me to protect you.”

“Is your wife coming?” It was almost a whisper.

“My ex-wife is not,” he replied matter-of-factly.   “My family will be on their best behavior. They are coming to meet their grandson nothing else.”

Ellie nodded and whispered, once again, “good.” She didn’t want to dampen what should be one of the happiest days of her life with any type of drama.

Just as Ellie opened her mouth to say something, she saw her mother behind her reenter the hospital room with a woman in tow.

“Ellie and Mr. Joh-“ the woman.

“No Lombardi,” Nick immediately corrected.

“I’m sorry Mr Lombardi, we talked to staff and we do have a premium suite available up a floor if you are still interested in upgrading. They talked to your insurance and you would have to cover the price difference on your own.”

Ellie opened her mouth to object, but Nick was quicker. “It’s fine. We just want a big private suite.”

“Alright,” the woman continued, “I’ll have a couple of orderly’s in here to move you and then I’ll have the anesthesiologist right up to administer the epidural.” She then excused herself and left the room.

Suddenly because she was a premium paying patient everything moved much smoother She was moved in minutes and the anesthesiologist actually came in right away to give her the medicine. Soon she found herself in a relaxed state and much more comfortable. It seemed money could buy certain pleasures.

The worst was over. Her son, no their son, was born and was as beautiful as anyone could expect. Both families gathered together, though separate in the hospital room and passed around the baby. Ellie looked on from her bed as Nick held his first son in his hands and smiled. It was odd to her to see someone she considered such a strong man trying to be so delicate and soft with this fragile new human being. It was a side of him even she had never seen. He looked over at Ellie catching her eye, before carefully handing the baby off Nina. He made his way toward the recovering mother.

Before she could protest or push away, he leaned in and laid a soft gentle kiss on her lips. Ellie panicked looked around the room to make sure no one had seen. Luckily Isaac was distracting enough.

“Thank you,” Nick said quietly looking deep into her eyes.

Rather than be annoyed and mar a good day with a discussion about previous events she smiled and replied, “thank you.”

Once again he leaned in and kissed her. This time she kissed back knowing that no one was looking.

That night everyone left the hospital to go to their separate hotel rooms or homes. They all left with promises to come back in the morning. Nick insisted on staying with Ellie and the baby, whose cart had been pushed close to Ellie’s bed, through the night. He came out of the bathroom, outfitted in relaxing clothes that he had made Juliette bring down to him. Apparently despite the divorce papers they were still going on as a married couple. Ellie had to admit the two of them were bizarre.

“How are you feeling,” he asked her taking his place on the couch beside her . He had requested sheets so that he could sleep there through the night.

“I’m good,” she smiled looking over at her baby. “We’re good.” A comfortable silence fell over the two as they looked at each other. Suddenly feeling a need to confront all of the past’s demons Ellie frowned, “we need to talk.”

“I had a feeling this was coming,” he mumbled sitting straight up.

“Earlier… you kissed me. You kissed me in front of your wife.”

He just nodded.

“Don’t you have anything to say?”

“No. I’ve told you what I want and you won’t accept it. Now I’m content celebrating my family the only way I know how.”

Ellie sighed. She knew in a way he was right. She had kissed him back. She wanted him, but she also didn’t want to be a home wrecker. She decided she would just ignore the kiss and move on.  “Now that the baby is here what is going to be the arrangement? You and Juliette get a month in the summer maybe?”

Nick frowned. “I hate this. I don’t want us shuffling him back and forth. He deserves a solid family.”

Ellie agreed in agreement. Now that Isaac was in the world, she now felt all the wants and needs she had for him in this life. “I know. He deserves the best. He deserves the world.”

“He’ll have the world,” mumbled Nick quietly. “You’ll both have the world.”

“Nick-“ she started.

“No! Ellie I’m not taking this crap anymore. You want me. I want you. We both want our son to have two stable parents. Why are we holding ourselves back?”

Ellie opened her mouth but couldn’t find a good reason. Finally remember the elephant in the room she stuttered, “your- your job…”

“I told you I would leave… You’re more important to me than that.” He stood and made his way to the edge of her bed and took her hand. “I love you. These months without you have been hell. You’re all I think about. When I’m working, when I’m eating, when I’m sleeping.”

“What about your wife Nick,” she stammered feeling emotion boil up in her body.

“When I’m with her I pretend it’s you. I fuck her, but I dream of making love with you, of making more babies. I want to wake up beside you. I want to know that if I’m coming home you and our family is who I’m returning to. I want to raise our child, our children together. I want to grow old with you, I want to die as your husband. I want to share my name with you.  I want-“

Tears welled up in Ellie’s eyes. She wanted all of that. She really did, but she couldn’t she knew she couldn’t. “I can’t make you stop doing what you love. Not for me.” Tears fell from her eyes.

Nick sighed and tears welled up in his eyes. He laid his head into Ellie’s shoulder and let out a soft cry. She had never seen him cry actually let tears fall and sob before. She knew she was witnessing something very private and special. She ran a hand through his now messy hair and frowned. Her heart ached.

“We can work something out?” he reasoned. “I can keep you very far from the illegitimate and keep you safe. I would give my life for you.”

Her mind flashed back to the time at the club, where he laid on top of her to protect her. He was not kidding when he said he would give his life.

“Today’s not the day for this. Let’s be happy. We can talk about our family later.” Scooting over, she made room for him to crawl into her hospital bed. It was very spacious due to the upgrade but not necessarily made for two. It was okay because both of them just wanted to be close to the other.

“Good morning,” Nina called into the room the next morning. Gio and her had decided to return to the hospital early to get some alone time with the two and their new baby. They planned on leaving later that evening to get back to their kids and wanted as much time as possible. “Oh” she gasped seeing the sight before her. Nick and Ellie laid together on her bed , Nick spooning her with his arm wrapped tightly across her body.

The couple shuffled awake quickly realizing they had company. Nick climbed out of the bed and Ellie sat up blushing at the thought she had been caught with a technically married man.

“How are you guys,” Nina called awkwardly. “How was the night?” She entered the room of course dressed at her best in her typical stilettos and skinny jeans, top, and structured designer purse.

“It was good,” said a still groggy Ellie.

“How was the baby?” Gio asked making his way to Isaac.

“Great. He actually slept through most of the night.”

“Don’t worry that’s the quite before the storm. By the time you take him home he’ll be waking up several times at night.” Nina joked also looking down at a sleepy Isaac. Slowly she picked up the sleeping baby, whose eyes opened due to the motion. Just as quick as they opened they closed. Nina looked over the baby and smiled toward Nick, “he looks just like Junior when he was born, though he is a bit tanner. He’s a Lombardi that’s for sure.”  Nina walked to the couch next to Nick and sat beside her brother-in-law. “Who would have thought you would be able to create something so cute?” she joked.

Nick smiled in response. He agreed.

“Nicky, why don’t you go with Gio, freshen up and come back? I’ll stay here and watch over the baby and Ellie.” Even though she proposed it as a question everyone knew that she was basically commanding him to do it. For the first time in his life, Nick did not put up a fight but groggily went with his brother. Before leaving he laid a soft kiss on his son’s forehead and a light kiss on the corner of Ellie’s lips. Once again she didn’t fight back.

Once the two left Nina turned to Ellie still holding Isaac in her arms. “So…” she started, they both immediately knew what she was getting at.

“I don’t know,” Ellie quickly answered.

“He’s leaving her you know,” she continued. “He’s leaving her to fight for you.”

Ellie pursed her lips. She didn’t know how to react. She had to admit that it did touch her that he was working so hard for her, for their family, but on the other hand she didn’t understand how to make this work.

“He loves you and you love him. I don’t understand what the issue is between you two.” Nina looked down at Isaac as he shifted slightly in her arms and let out a small whine. “And now you have an even bigger motivator to make it work.”

Ellie sighed. “I want the best for Isaac. I want to be with Nicky, but once again the issue of your family’s line of work is what is unsettling.”

Nina nodded. “I guess it’s hard for me to understand because I always grew up around it. It’s been my life forever… I do have to say though that Nick has mentioned getting out of the family business once or twice. We think he’s considering it for you.”

Ellie let out a heavy breath. “He told me he would do it. I told him not to. I can’t take something he loves from him.”

Nina sighed. “All I have to say Ellie is you need to think about your happiness as well. Don’t sit and deprive your child and yourself from something because your mind is telling you that is what’s best. Sometime you need to follow your heart. I know that Nicky loves you more than his work, maybe it’s time you let him sacrifice one of his loves for the thing he loves most in this world.”  

Ellie’s family came to visit once more in the afternoon before soon leaving right as the Lombardi’s came back for their final visit before they all flew out tomorrow. They played with the child, Ellie was mostly ignored except for the polite questions about how she was doing. She had heard that was typical of new mothers, everyone just wanted to be around the new baby. They loved on Isaac though which was most important to Ellie. No one, including Juliette, acted spiteful towards the tiny child. He was well loved that was for sure. Everyone eventually said their goodbyes. Chris Lombardi gave Ellie a hug as well as his son whom he gave a congratulatory pat on the back as well as whispered advice. Ally and Bella each said a quick goodbye and a hug to both Nick and Ellie. Bianca gave a grudging goodbye to Ellie and a soft playful goodbye to her brother. Marta followed suit.

Tensions grew as Juliette approached Ellie’s bedside. Ellie could feel everyone eyes on this interaction. Juliette has already said goodbye to her husband, exchanging cold hugs with each other before she moved on to Ellie’s bedside.

“Congratulations,” Juliette managed to get out quietly. “He’s a beautiful baby.”  

“Thank you so much for coming to see him. It means a lot to me.”

“Yes of course. Anything for family…” the last part came out as a whisper. The elephant in the room became apparent. Were they family? And if they were, how much longer would that be for?

Ellie reached up and gave the woman a hug to break the tension and end the moment.

The Lombardi clan soon departed.

“The doctors say we can go home tomorrow,” Nick smiled. “I’ve bought a car for us, a good family SUV, a Mercedes GL450. I hooked up the car seat you bought, I found it in your apartment, so we are good to go.” He made his way closer to the baby, lifting him out of his hospital crib.

“Nick, you can’t do things like that. You can’t go out and buy a car for … us…” Ellie sighed.

“I wasn’t going to let the most important people in my life drive around in you metal deathtrap.”

Ellie rolled her eyes. Her car wasn’t exactly brand new, but it was nowhere near as bad as Nick always tried to claim it was. It was a 2000 Toyota Camry, a perfectly okay car. “Some of us weren’t raised in the lap of luxury and have to make due. We don’t just go out and buy a car because we ‘feel like it.’”

She watched as she looked right into their child’s face and whispered, “my son will be raised in the lap of luxury.”

Ellie accepted the car. She knew she would never win and in a way after depriving herself of the luxuries that came with bearing a Lombardi, she figured it would be nice to indulge a little.

“I want to talk about things before we leave the hospital. I want to figure out what’s going on with us and the baby.”

Nick nodded, still cradling his son. “You know where I stand.”

“I do. I-I’m considering standing with you and changing my postion.”

He looked up shocked and even somewhat skeptical. “What?”

“Obviously I’m not considering anything until you are divorced, but after that I think we could think of getting back to where we were.”

Nick layed Isaac back into his crib carefully before making his way to Ellie and taking her hand. “You know I would want nothing more picollina.”

She smiled at his pet name. “Let’s take it one step at a time. You and Juliette need to figure out what’s going on with each other. When do you have to get back home?”

“I was planning on working from here like I’ve been doing and staying for at least a month with a couple of weekend and day trips back and forth.”

“And you were going to stay…”

“I thought it would be easiest to stay at your apartment so I can help out with the baby, but of course I can and will always have the hotel booked. As long as that’s okay with you… ”

Ellie nodded, “Sounds good to me.” She knew that she didn’t want to be the only one up at night taking care of Isaac when he became restless.

“My divorce will be done by the end of the month,” he added quietly. “The papers are signed and we just have a few things to work out, but after that I’ll be single.”

Ellie nodded once again. She was ready to try again with Nick, but she refused to date him while he was married and she also understood there were many things they needed to work out.