Faustini ✔️

quarantasei

Vittoria was seated at Stefano's circular dinner table as he frantically paced with his hands in his hair. "You cannot be bearing my child- that's impossible- we've never-" Stefano gulped, stopping as Vittoria's sinister eyes remained on him. "I would remember."

"Or would you?" Vittoria questioned.

"Yes I would." Stefano insisted. "I don't even know that you're pregnant, you could just have a pillow in there!"

"You're a doctor, Stef. Get your stethoscope." Vittoria slouched back in her chair. "I have yet to find out their gender, so if you could take care of that too..." Stefano glared at her, though silent, his mind was running wild with unaired feelings. "If you do, maybe I'll be able to elaborate more on how and why I did it."

Stefano pouted, he went over to a cabinet and retrieved a stethoscope. Vittoria pushed back her chair and rotated her body as Stefano walked over. He attached the device to his ears and hesitantly moved his hand towards Vittoria's belly. Vittoria placed her hand atop Stefano's as he paled upon hearing a heartbeat. Soon enough, he was on his knees, hand still in place. He stood there silent, still listening to the heartbeat. Vittoria leaned forward and played with his hair. "I'll always have a part of you with me."

"That still doesn't prove it's mine, it just proves you have a baby." Stefano tried to back away, but Vittoria pushed him back to her. "I would've remembered, I'm sure."

"Would you remember if you were narcotised?" Vittoria proposed the idea. Stefano successfully backed away from her.

"No, there's no way-" Stefano's eyes became pleading. "How could you do something like that to me?"

"You knew right from the start how terribly I take rejection, that's on you." Vittoria remained seated.

"It's my fault that I didn't want to be with a twenty year old?" Stefano foolishly expected Vittoria to be of mind enough to be reasonable. She was not. "Vittoria, you're-"

"Don't start with me, I know what I want. You live in New York and you're rich, you should be fine with our age difference. Many other men your age are fine with it." Vittoria crossed her arms over her stomach as Stefano turned away, running his hands through his hair. In order to get his attention, she uncrossed her arms and felt her belly. "I'm thinking I'll name him Gianni- it sounds kind of close to Giuseppe, doesn't it?"

"When?" Stefano uttered.

"When what?" Vittoria waited for him to elaborate.

Stefano turned back to her. "When did this happen? When did you-"

"Some time after you took Ezio and I to Giuseppe's home." Vittoria became flushed, she rubbed her neck. "I never would have gained the confidence to do what I wanted if Giuseppe and I hadn't shared our deepest darkest secrets. He wouldn't leave me alone once I'd told him of the drug combination I'd curated. He even used it on a few of the victims. Once I figured out a healthy dosage, I used them on you. Now you and I always be connected no matter what."

"So you two were going to frame me? Why?" Stefano gritted his teeth. "You were going to tear me away from a child?" Stefano paused to collect himself, struck by a theory, he began to speak again. "You weren't even going to tell me, weren't you? That's all changed because everyone now knows the strangler is Giuseppe!"

"I begged him not to frame you just as much as he begged me not to see you. He finally allowed me to. I guess he wanted privacy today, he prefers it that way." Vittoria explained further.

Stefano sat in front of Vittoria, his hand still covering his face. "How are we going to do this? How are we going to co-parent our child?"

"What do you mean?" Vittoria stammered.