"Just checking on you both." He managed a tired smile. "How are you feeling?"
"Pregnant. Nauseous. Tired." She settled on the couch beside me. "But alive. We all are. That's what matters."
"Is it? Feels like we lost anyway."
"We didn't lose," I said firmly. "Viktor's in prison forever. Rosa's gone. We're here. We're building something real. That's winning, even if it doesn't feel like it yet."
Piero was quiet for a moment. "You're different. Since the wedding. Since Paola."
"I'm trying to be better. For her. For our baby."
"It suits you. Being human instead of just being the Don."
"I'm still the Don."
"But notjustthe Don. There's a difference."
After Piero left, Paola came and sat beside me on the couch.
"He's going to be okay," she said, handing me a plate. "Piero. He just needs time."
"I know. We all do."
"How are you doing? Really?"
I considered the question whilst drying the plate. "Better than I expected. Worse than I'd like."
"That's honest."
"I keep thinking about Rosa. How she was there for everything. My father's funeral. Piero's promotions. I saw her at the hospital after Piero's rescue—she brought him documents to sign while he was barely conscious." The betrayal still stung. "She played the role perfectly."
"Maybe not all of it was a lie," Paola said gently. "The first years, before Viktor got to her—those might have been real. Before she became whatever she became."
"Were they? Or was she always looking for an angle?"
"Does it matter now? She's gone. We're here. We survived."
She was right. I was spending too much energy on the past, not enough on the future.
The future currently growing in her belly.
"How are you feeling?" I asked, changing the subject deliberately. "You and the baby?"
"Tired. Nauseous at random times. But Dr. Lin says everything's progressing normally." She smiled, hand on her stomach. "Nine weeks down. Thirty-one to go."
"Thirty-one weeks. That's—"
“A little over seven months. Yes."
The timeline felt both impossibly long and terrifyingly short. Seven months until I became a father. Until our lives changed completely.
"Are you scared?" I asked.
"Terrified. You?"
"Absolutely."
We smiled at each other, sharing the fear and the anticipation in equal measure.
