Seductive Salvation (Book One of The Mafia Heiress Series)

Chapter Sixteen

Giovanni

Why was she being so stubborn? Italian women must have stubbornness in their damn DNA. I tried to get her to eat but she just threw the bowl at my head. I was done trying to reason with her insane ass. I had even tried the food to show her that we hadn't done anything to it but that wasn't enough apparently. Hopefully the Boss would understand. He surely knew how to stubborn she could be just from raising her mother, right?

I walked down the hall towards his office, overhearing a conversation when I arrived. "What do you expect from me, Sergei? You gave the girl back to her rightful family and now you regret it? For what you think is love? I will never hand her over to anyone else ever again. I regret falling into the trap that my daughter's husband made be believe was in her best interest. Look where giving her away got me. She ended up with your family as a whore. How many times was she passed around from man to man? How many times was she tainted? She is Bianchi royalty, not some whore to be given for peace. She will marry a man capable of protecting her, giving heirs to this family, and who can keep her in line."

There was silence for a moment and then glass shattering filled the house. "I'll take care of the problem. No heir of mine will be carrying a Russian child no matter how badly you or she wants it. I'll allow you one conversation with her and you will tell her to get rid of the baby. It needs to be done Sergei, we can't mix bloodlines. It will only cause even more chaos than there is. I want peace but no way in hell am I getting it this way. I'll give her a phone and have her call you."

Don Bianchi walked out of his office and saw me standing there, "I take it you overheard the conversation I was having. What do you have to say, Gio?"

I scrambled to think of something to say but what I couldn't let her get hurt anymore than she already had been. She'd never trust any of us regardless of what happened. "It's not a Russian baby." I have no clue how this would all pan out but it would be better than the alternative.

"Do you know something that none of us know, boy?" He looked angry but maybe this would soften the blow to either Valeria or myself.

"I know for a fact that it is not the enemies child." There was certainly no turning back now.

"And how do you know this?" His temper was rising.

"I know it because it's my baby." I prepared myself to get shot on the spot.

"Am I hearing things or did you just claim that the child my granddaughter is carrying is yours?" He didn't look like he was going to kill me so at least was a good sign.

"Yes, Don. The child Valeria is carrying is mine."

"Then let us go see my granddaughter so you can both explain how this happened and how you plan to do right by her." I nodded and followed him up the stairs towards Valeria's room. I prayed to Mother Mary that this went smoothly and she didn't completely blow it all to pieces.

I followed Don Bianchi to Valeria's room and he knocked on her door loudly. "Valeria, we have some things we need to discuss." He knocked loudly again. The door flung open and the most cranky, annoyed, and bitchy woman I ever met stood there with her hands on her hips.

"Are you just going to yell at me more or is there an actual reason you are standing outside fo my room?"

"Giovanni and I need to discuss some things with you, Valeria."

"You said that already so please just get on with it."

"I think this conversation should be had in private, not in the middle of the hallway." Boss motioned for her to step back into her room. Surprisingly, she did as she was told. "I received a phone call today from Sergei. He wanted to inform me that you were pregnant and that it was his child. Giovanni overheard our private conversation and has now claimed that the child is his not Sergei's. I hope you see the problem here, Valeria."

Her face went white. I sent her a sympathetic look and hoped that she went along. "I don't see a problem."

"Valeria, this isn't a game. If the child you are carrying is Sergei's then it will need to be taken care of. If it's Giovanni's then a wedding needs to be planned before you start showing so that you don't disgrace this family."

"You are all the same. You think you can control me and force me into doing what you want. You think that if you puff up your chests' and demand that a woman listens to you, that she'll bend to your ever whim and hang on every syllable of your words."

"I will not have you disrespect me when you are acting as a whore by spreading your legs to men that you are not even betrothed to."

"I spread my legs for men because it was my job to get information. It was my job to bring you down. It was my job to make men so vulnerable that they would answer any question I asked and fall to their knees before me. It was easier than holding a gun to their heads and threatening their families to gain their submission. I did what I had to do to stay alive. Do you think that I liked my job? Do you think I liked being raped and beaten if I didn't do my job as I was directed? So please, continue to threaten me and call me names because it will not gain my submission nor my want to even be a part of your twisted family. But for whatever it's worth, the baby is Giovanni's. We have been sneaking around for months. So there, you have your pure Italian baby. Happy?"

My grandfather had a priceless look on his face filled with shock and instant regret. "Well, then I suppose we have a wedding to plan. I don't want this child being born a bastardo, after all he'll take over my legacy one day." Gio shrugged his shoulders and my grandfather walked out of the room. 

"I'm sorry that you're in this position but I promise that I'll do right by you and make sure that you and the baby are taken care of. I can protect you from all of the horrors you've been through in life. No one will ever hurt you again, I swear it. I know we don't love each other and probably never will but that doesn't meant that I won't go to hell and back for you. We can be happy and live the life that we want without any emotional commitment."

I sighed and sat down on the bed. "Thank you, Gio. I know that it can't be easy to lie and give up your whole life for someone you've only slept with once. Seriously, I'm okay if you want out of this at any point. I've taken care of myself my whole life so it's honestly not a big deal. I don't want you to be locked up in a life that you didn't plan on having."

He walked over and sat down on the bed next to me, "I have a habit of fixing things and people. You need someone on your side this time, not someone who claims to be on your side and is only saying they are because they have something to gain from it. Right now, you need someone in your corner to be there for you and you alone. I have nothing to gain from this except an amazing wife," he winked at me and I giggled like a nervous school girl. I laid my head on his shoulder and sighed. Maybe, just maybe, this will workout and be the best moments of my life.