Selena

43 | Reborn

SELENA M. ANDERSON

The cold wind of the city brushes past my face as I loop around the park.

Everything was more peaceful at night. The corporate robots and fashion students crowded the streets during the day.

I had been running for over an hour, but the sun would start rising soon. Sophia would also be leaving for her shift at the hospital in half an hour.

After I accepted my pregnancy as a reality, Penny came back to the hospital to visit me. She had told me that circumstances of situation made the FBI fall to their knees.

The injuries I sustained in Italy had convinced them that I was an unwilling hostage. Because of the whole situation and my psychologist's file not being properly sealed, I could apparently sue the government.

They obviously didn't want that and neither did Penny.

She had been working hard with a legal team while I was away to get my case reassessed, dismissed, and expunged.

The only thing I was arrested for was hacking into a government database. The contract killing, illegal street fighting, and a slew of other felonies had no proof behind them.

My jaw literally dropped while she was telling me all of this.

It was all at the discretion of the FBI so all I had to due was stay on the straight and narrow for a probationary period of two years. And I was generously compensated for all my physical and emotional trauma.

Penny also told me that if the father of my child was someone that was in the higher ranks of the mafia, I would have to be put in protective custody. If not, I just needed to change my name.

I just told her he was unimportant and probably dead by now.

If I had been put in protective custody, Adam would never be able to find me. I just had to wait till I was out of the hospital to contact him.

I spent the next month in the hospital. When the doctor discharged me, I moved in with Sophia.

We grew close faster than I expected and she offered me the empty room in her townhouse. Sophia's parents are celebrity therapists who have done well for themselves and loved to spoil their only child.

They came to visit me in the hospital and let's just say they were fascinated. The both of them were actually the ones to insist on me moving in.

Sophia told me that her parents were big haters in the 'system' and hated how it always failed the people who needed it the most.

I have no fucking clue what 'system' she was talking about, but I guess that means they liked me.

As soon as I moved in, I tried everything I could to contact Adam.

Nothing worked.

Antonio reworked the entire system that I had helped him with and every time I tried to get it in, I was immediately kicked out. I couldn't just fly to Italy because of my probation and I was being heavily monitored online.

At this point, I just had to wait until I could hop on a plane again.

Sophia was surprisingly chill about me being a reformed criminal and everything. She actually came to watch some of the underground fights I was in last month. But apparently fighting while being five months pregnant wasn't my best idea.

After a broken nose, I switched to some safer hobbies.

So now I'm going for a run at around 4 am in the morning.

I jog up the steps of Sophia's Upper East Side townhouse and open the door to the scent of freshly baked pastries.

Did I forget to mention Sophia was always baking or cooking in her free time?

Well, she is. And everything she makes is either out of this world or inedible.

"Hey Soph, I'm back from my run!" I kick off my shoes in the entryway and toss my pepper spray and gun on front table.

"In the kitchen!" She yells and I enter the kitchen to see island covered in an assortment of pastries. When I left, she was already baking and now I got to eat the fruits of her labor.

"Busy morning?" Sophia wearing her signature pink scrubs picks apart one of the croissants in front of her.

"Not yet," I shrug and grab a blueberry muffin. "But it was honestly a little tiring running this morning."

Sophia stops eating when she hears this.

"You should probably lay off the high-intensity cardio for a while since you're in your third trimester."

"Eh it's fine. I just started really showing anyways," I mumble my mouth half full.

"Do you have a hit coming up?" She places both hands on her hips looking at me sternly. I just take another bite of my muffin and look away from her motherly gaze.

Sophia always seemed to know when I was lying so I just gave up on trying at all.

She rubs her temples to ease the stress I'm causing her. "Selena! You're six weeks away from your due date. You can't go out on rooftops to stake out then kill some potentially dangerous person."

"This is the last one I swear!" I hold up my hands in surrender.

"Plus, six weeks is a long ways away," I point out and grab a buttery croissant off one of the decorative plates.

"Your due date is an estimate remember. We only had a rough timeline to work off of for your–"

Sophia's work alarm starts ringing on her phone, dragging her attention off of me. She checks her phone, sighing. "Fine, just be careful. I'll see you in 48 hours."

I doubt I could be very careful considering my next hit was the rising leader of the American mafia.

I nod my head enthusiastically and hold two thumbs up. Sophia rolls her eyes and grabs her lunch from the fridge.

"Have fun!" I salute at her gleefully.

What Sophia doesn't know won't hurt her.