𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐁𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝

23

Mila

"Can I tell you something?" I ask Victoria as she's straightening my hair, my fingers pick at my cuticles as I try to calm my nerves.

Victoria's brows pulled together as she looked down at my hands and then looked at me in the mirror, she was helping me get ready for the party we were hosting for the family.

Apparently, it's tradition for us to host a party for the family the night before the wedding, Ariel's words, I was starting to think she was making these traditions up.

Her husband, Marco was attending so I wasn't so thrilled about that, something about that man's energy doesn't sit right with me.

"Anything," she says as she grabs another piece of hair running the straightener through it, perfectly straightening the piece. "You're not pregnant are you?" She jokes.

I give her a blank look before chuckling. "No, I'm not pregnant," I say as I stop picking my cuticles.

"What's up?"

"It's going to sound bad," I say as my bottom lip pulls in between my teeth.

"Girl, trust me whatever you're about to tell me, I've heard worse-"

"The kids are Giovanni's." I spit out quickly and look down at my fingers, my face cringes when she doesn't say anything, I slowly lift my head to look at her expression in the mirror. "We met at my job five years ago, it just happened, I didn't know his name or anything so I had no way to contact him and tell him, and he coincidentally kidnaps me all these years later... do you hate me?" I say quickly, it all just spills out of me because of how long I've kept it in.

"Why would I hate you?" She asks, as she grabs another piece of my hair running the straightener down the long strand.

"Because I lied, to everyone.. he doesn't even know yet."

"I'm not going to lie Mila... I kinda figured, but now that you confirm it, those kids look like they're the same make and model." She says and I nod, because it was true. "I don't think you were wrong for hiding it, you weren't ready."

"But it's been five years."

"You only met him again a few weeks ago, no one can blame you for wanting to do this on your own time." She says and I nod. "But I do think you should tell him, he deserves to know."

"I know that... I think I'm going to tonight, then he can decide if he wants to go through with this whole marriage thing, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I go through with it and he didn't know."

"I understand that you're doing the right thing, who else knows?" She puts her hands on her cheeks as she smiles widely. "Was I the first to know?!" She shrieks and I shake my head kidding her buzz.

I laugh. "No, Luca just kinda knew... he didn't even ask me, he just knew."

"Sounds like Luca."

She finished the last bit of my hair and helps me with my dress, it was a red dress that fit me like a glove, there was a slit going up the side and exposing my thigh, and the straps were thin, we paired it with some heels and some jewelry that was found in my room.

Victoria also helped me with my makeup, she insisted I do a red lip matching the dress, I never liked red lipstick on myself, but she somehow made it work.

I can already hear all the commotion downstairs as Giovanni's family makes their way here, the loud chatter gets me nervous, I hear Ariel's high-pitched voice as she greets every one of the guests along with Marcos's low one as he talks amongst them.