Mafia Queen

Chapter Sixteen

Charlotte

"... You're the smartest cookie. You fill my heart with pride. In every race you take first place because you're sweet inside! You're the sharpest crayon, you make the dark skies light. With you, no day is every gray, you are so rainbow......"

"Bright!" Leo exclaimed, clapping his hands together, right as Luca finished the story.

"Can you tell it again, daddy?" Layla said, holding the phone. As he promised, Luca called the kids at bedtime and happily obliged when they begged him to read a story. It was one of their favorites, and I knew that Luca had the words memorized and didn't even have the book with him.

I should be used to it by now, but it still moved me to tears when I saw how incredible he was with our kids. For all the problems he and I had, I couldn't have dreamt up a better father. I wiped a tear off my cheek quickly so the kids wouldn't see me crying. Layla's admission to Luca this afternoon was at the front of my mind and even though these were happy tears, I didn't want her to mistake them.

"I have to get going, baby. I'll be home soon, though."

"Can you come wake me up when you get home?" Layla asked. She'd morphed back into her sweet, loving self by now.

"I'll come check on you, sure. Can you give the phone back to mommy now?"

"Bye Daddy!" They both said at the same time.

"I love you guys." Luca was saying, right as Layla handed me the phone.

I took Luca off of Facetime, and put the phone to my ear. "Hi."

"Hey baby, how was the rest of the night?" He asked.

"It was good. Layla is back to herself. How did your meeting go?"

"Fine." He said shortly. "I have a few things left to finish up, and then I'll be heading home."

"Sounds good. I left leftovers in the microwave for you."

"Thank you. I'll see you soon. I love you Charlotte, this is almost over."

I hesitated, wanting so badly to believe him, but knowing that if I let myself relax and then something happened, I'd be crushed. "I love you, too, Luca." My voice was almost a whisper. Since all of this came to a head, it was the first time I'd said it to him.

"Wait up for me, okay?" He sounded so hopeful.

"Okay." I agreed.

"Bye, Charlotte."

"Bye."

I hung up the phone and finished putting the kids to bed. If Luca was still finishing up a few things, that probably meant I had two hours or so to myself before he actually got home.

I knew he was going to want to talk when he got home, and I felt conflicted about it. In my heart, I knew Luca would never cheat, but I also felt naïve to believe him when there were so many pictures and receipts. Luca hadn't always been honest with me, and I hadn't always been honest with him and even though we were a long way past that, I know we both still carried some resentment and uncertainty.

But even if he hadn't cheated, was the lying and sneaking around any better? He was very obviously keeping things from me again and I was almost as angry about that.

I poured myself a glass of wine and was just about to head upstairs to take a bubble bath when I heard a knock at the door. Jenni was standing there with a bottle of wine when I opened it.

"You've started without me." She pouted, eyeing my wine glass and brushing past me into the house.

"I didn't realize you were coming over." I let out a sharp laugh, shutting the front door and following her into the kitchen.