Page 122 of Knocked Up by My Dad's Mafia Boss

I meet Papa at the bottom of the stairs. Dante’s waiting up at the top, the whole house outfitted with lilies and white fairy lights. Papa’s eyes are already wet when I take his hand. “You look incredible,cara mia.”

“You too, Papa. Where’s your girlfriend?” I’m teasing. I met Olivia a few times at the house, and I think she’s lovely. Keeps Papa on his toes.

“She’ll be late. Her son is in town. She’s meeting him at the airport and then they’re coming to the reception.”

“Good. I want you to have a date. You’ll be so lonely home without me.”

He frowns. “The honeymoon is only a week. I can make it a week.”

“Not alone, you can’t,” I tease, and he laughs, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck.

“Maybe not. Olivia will stay with me.” He pauses. “If that’s okay with you?”

I smile. “Of course it’s okay.”

We make our way up the stairs as the DJ cues the wedding march, and Dante’s ice-blue eyes meet mine as I step off the top step. They fill with tears as he takes in my dress, the huge baby bump. I wave a hand in front of my face as he takes my other one. “Don’t cry, you’re going to make me cry,” I hiss.

“I can’t help it.” He chuckles thickly, wiping at his eyes with his free hand while still holding mine in the other.

“We’re gathered here today—” the priest starts, and I look into Dante’s eyes. My stomach drops and then starts to cramp, but I ignore it. “I’ve been told you want to say your own vows.”

Dante nods. He looks down into my eyes. “I loved you from the first moment I saw you, Samantha. I wanted you then and I want you now, and every second in between. I choose you and our family every moment, and I’ll keep doing it until the day I die.”

My heart aches it feels so full, and my bottom lip trembles. “Dante, I don’t know when I fell in love with you, but once I did, it felt like everything else fell away. Like everyone else that had ever touched me was a mistake. I’m completely yours, and I always will be.”

There’s more I want to say, but pain rips through my lower back, around to my stomach, and something splashes on the floor between my legs. I look down to see bloody water trickling down my thighs.

“Oh my God,” Vaughn breathes, having come up the stairs behind me to join the wedding party. “Your water broke.”

Doc rushes to me. “This baby’s coming soon. We’d better get you to a hospital.”

Dante stares down at the bloody water on the floor. I cup his face and make him look at me. “It’s okay,” I say, but my voice is strained. “I’m going to be okay.”

But then another pain rips through me.

I scream bloody murder.

32

DANTE

Samantha’s screams echo in my head as I rush to grab her go-bag. We already packed one, thanks to Elio’s advice. He said when Samantha came, he didn’t have anything prepared for Grace, and it was hell.

We thought we were so prepared. But the baby’s coming now, not in two weeks like she’s supposed to.

I rush into the backseat of Doc’s SUV, cradling Samantha’s head in my lap. Her legs are spread and she’s screaming again, gripping my hand so tightly I fear the bones will crack.

We arrive at the hospital within a few moments. Doc drives like a bat out of hell, but I can’t blame him. The second we arrive, Doc throws the car into park. Elio pulls up behind us with Reese, Sofia and Vaughn.

A nurse runs out with a wheelchair. She lifts Samantha’s dress and her eyes widen visibly. “The baby’s crowning. We gotta go.” The nurse manages to get Samantha into the wheelchair and then I’m running. My head is spinning. I can’t think. I just throwSamantha’s bag over my shoulder and hurry to the back with her.

“Help her undress,” the nurse says quickly. “We need that dress off. I’m afraid it’s ruined.”

Samantha laughs wildly. “That dress cost forty thousand dollars,” she mourns.

“It doesn’t matter,” I say, fumbling with the little buttons on the back and cursing when they’re a bitch to undo. She helps me as much as she can, but she keeps stopping, going still and then nearly roaring in pain.

I hate every second of it. I wish I could do it for her.