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“I cannot believe you would do something like this, Sophia. It’s one thing to have been sleeping with the enemy but for you to have gotten pregnant.””
“I know. I made a mistake,” I say, my eyes fixed to the floor.
It feels like the universe is laughing at me. Like some cosmic joke. I can’t believe I’m pregnant. Scratch that, I can believe it. But right now, I can’t summon any other feelings in relation to it other than the fact that, there’s currently a baby growing inside of me and I need to find a resolution that doesn’t end with my family and the father’s family eviscerating one another.
We need a plan. Thankfully, no matter how angry my elder sister is, she’ll always have my best interests at heart. Katerina finally appears from her room. her eyes are swollen with tears and the sight has my heart clenching.
“We’re going to send a message to the De Luca’s. it’s time for a truce,” she announces.
All at once, there’s shouts from around the room.
“Like hell there is,” my dad snarls. “What are you saying, Katerina? We didn’t start this war and there’s no way in hell I’m taking the cowards way out and surrendering.”
“Papa, your daughter is pregnant! She’s carrying a man’s child. What do you intend to do? Continue fighting with her baby daddy’s family? Kill him and render her child fatherless?”
It’s a testament to how well she knows me that she’s already concluded that I wouldn’t want to get rid of the baby. No one’s asked me apart from Rico. And I immediately told him I wouldn’t. I can’t. I’ve always liked kids and I’m going to raise this baby. No matter the circumstances.
“We can’t continue, which means we have to find a middle ground. We need a resolution and an end to all this fighting!” Katerina shouts. This is the first time I’ve ever seen her stand her ground in front of father.
His eyes practically twitches as he stares at his eldest daughter.
“They want me dead, Katerina. That’s the only resolution they’ll accept.”
“No. I refuse to accept that. They’re not unreasonable. There has to be something we can do. We’ll talk to them and we’ll figure out something that will put an end to all this death once and for all.”
My father breathes heavily as he stares at her. Finally he looks away.
“What is it you plan to do, Katerina?” he questions, his jaw clenched.
“I already asked for a meeting,” she informs him and his eyes practically bulge. “Sorry, Papa. I figured it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission.”
“Did they agree to it?” Rico questions.
She nods. “Yes. We’re meeting them in the same place we did that first time. We’ll all show up and we’ll be on our best behavior.”
Rico nods once. Once she’s satisfied that there aren’t any more objections, her eyes narrow onto me.
“Let’s go,” she orders.
I don’t hesitate to get to my feet. I follow her into her room and take a seat on her bed. She starts to pace the length of the room and I watch her quietly for a couple of seconds.
“You lied to me,” is what she starts with.
“I wouldn’t say I lied,” I say, “I just obscured the truth a little, hid things from you.”
Her brown eyes are fierce and blazing with so much passion I’m forced to swallow. I’ve never seen her this angry before.
“Since the moment you were born, you became my responsibility. I did my best to be a good big sister. After mom died, I was all you had left. I made sure to become a person you could turn to, someone you could tell anything. I wanted to become your best friend, not just your sister, a confidante!”
“You are,” I say softly.
“Really, Sophia? Because you hid the most important truth from me. You hid away a relationship from me.”
“It wasn’t a relationship,” I quickly say. “We weren’t dating.”
Katerina observes me for a second, “Explain it to me. Tell me everything from the beginning. Now, Sophia.”
So I do. I tell her everything she doesn’t know. How real it felt between us, even in the beginning. How it felt to befriend Tony those first few weeks on the rooftop of the hotel. And then how worried I was that he would never forgive me when he found out I was a Mincetti.
