Mafia Queen

Chapter Twelve

Luca

"I'm home!" I called as I walked through the front door. For the last hour, I sat down the street in my car, trying to figure out how I could possibly explain this to Charlotte. As I rehearsed and rehearsed, nothing seemed adequate.

"Daddy!" Layla came prancing around the corner with Leo close at her heals. She had on her Wonder Woman costume from last Halloween and Leo was following her every move. They had so much love for each other, no matter how much he annoyed her at times.

"Hi guys!" I bent down, kissing Layla up on her cheek and picking Leo up. "How was your day?"

"It was good. Are those for me?" Layla eyed the bouquet of roses I brought home for Charlotte. A little buttering up never hurt anything.

"Sorry munchkin. These are for momma." I smiled, pushing a few pieces of her long dark hair out of her face.

"Come on, Leo. You're my slave. I need you to sharpen my sword for battle." Layla said, heading off into the living room. Leo bounded out of my arms and followed her.

"Uh, that's a pretend sword, right?" I arched an eyebrow, calling after them. You could never be too careful with those two.

"Of course, daddy." Layla huffed, clearly irritated with me.

I followed the smell of steak into the kitchen and found Charlotte standing over the stove with Cole on her hip. She was humming, swaying her hips back and forth to whatever song was on the radio. She was completely relaxed and content, and the fact that I was about to ruin that was numbing. Husbands are supposed to fix things for their wives, make things better. And here I was, minutes away from telling her something I knew was going to tear her world apart.

"Hey baby." I said.

Char whirled around with a surprised smile on her face. "Hey! You're home early!"

"Yeah, it was a quick day." I smiled, pressing my lips to hers. "Hey big guy." I took Cole out of her arms.

Charlotte took the flowers out of my hands to make it easier for me to hold them. "These are beautiful."

"I saw them at a street market and they made me think of you." I said.

"Street fair? That doesn't sound like you." She laughed, making herself busy cutting the stems and putting them into a vase.

"I was working over in Soho today."

"Really?" She scrunched her nose. "You have clients there?"

"A new one." I desperately tried to change the subject. Why did I have to tell her where I bought the damn things? "Can I help you with anything for dinner?"

"Nope, I'm almost done." She smiled. "Why don't you just go play with the kids and I'll call you when it's ready?"

I bent down and kissed her cheek. "Sounds good, baby."

Cole and I followed the big it's into the living room. They were running wild, and I had to play referee in their "battle." Mostly Layla was playing, and Leo was following her around like a little puppy. At least Ralph got a break when we had the boys.

After a few minutes, Charlotte called us into the kitchen and we all sat down for dinner. Everything felt so normal it was almost eerie. It wasn't often that I got to sit down to dinner with my family, and it filled me with an overwhelming sense of calm.

It was ironic that we were doing this together on the very night I was about to tell Charlotte something that could tear us apart. I tried to push those thoughts out of my mind for now, and focus on the perfection that was this moment.