Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Gio caught Lucian’s eye again.
There were only two men in the world who could withstand or cool Cat’s anger, and one was just a child who never made her angry because she adored him. The other, her husband.
“Dante,” Lucian and Gio said together.
He could clean the mess.
That’s what bosses were for, after all.
One and Done
Gio watched Kim hold tiny Andino as the quiet hum of the doctor’s waiting room surrounded them. His son was content there, snuggled in his mother’s arms. Andino slept despite the lights and the noise.
He was an easy baby.
A happy baby.
Oh, Gio adored his son.
He’d worried that the job of fatherhood would be one that might not treat him nicely. He’d worried that his instincts wouldn’t kick in and that he’d be inept at the duty of protecting and caring for someone other than himself and his wife.
Gio couldn’t have been more wrong.
Sure, he had his moments, the ones where he was left stunned and confused and calling his own parents for help. He had the choking moments—the ones that scared him enough to choke him silent, but those had come mostly before his son’s birth.
And a few times after.
But he knew ... staring at the distance in his wife’s eyes, the tiredness in her features, and the despondence in her posture as she held their boy ... one and done.
Andino would be their only child.
Gio couldn’t do this again, not to Kim.
It wasn’t his wife’s fault, that Gio knew. Kim’s pregnancy hadn’t been an easy one, but she had been happy and excited all the same. And then the birth happened. The trauma of the hemorrhage she suffered that nearly killed her and their child was enough to take away anyone’s spirit.
This wasn’t what Gio had been expecting when it came to being a father and having a child.
No one talked about this kind of stuff. No one talked about the sadness his wife couldn’t shake or how she handed Andino off to him more than he wanted to admit. No one talked about the quietness or the shadows under her eyes, never mind disinterest in almost anything.
No.
One.
Talked.
About.
This.
It was taboo, maybe. A topic that was whispered between women and doctors but not openly discussed at a dinner table. It was overlooked—ignored.
Depression. Gio knew it. He recognized the signs of it, especially in his usually upbeat and happy wife. PPD, they called it. Yeah, he went looking. It was likely that Kim didn’t even know what the problem was herself.
She was not to blame.
Gio was worried.
Kim’s soft sigh had Gio turning his head upward from their son’s peaceful features to find his wife looking at him.
“I love you, Gio.”
Gio smiled. “I know, bella.”
“I’m tired,” she whispered.
He knew that, too.
“It’ll get easier, right? That’s what everyone keeps saying.”
Kim nodded. “I love him, too.”
“Hey,” Gio murmured, catching Kim’s chin in his palm and forcing her to look at him. “You don’t have to tell me that, Kim. I know you love Andino.”
Kim’s gaze glimmered with unshed tears. “I want to be happy, Gio. I should be happy right now.”
“Kim—”
“I had to sit outside on the doorstep yesterday,” she interrupted quietly.
Gio frowned. “Why?”
He’d worked yesterday. It was the first time in the two weeks since their son’s birth that he left the home to resume his Capo position.
“Because he kept crying,” Kim said softly. “I couldn’t make him happy. I tried. And when he wouldn’t stop, I just got angry. I got scared. And I just .... I couldn’t do that, Gio. He’s a baby. I shouldn’t get angry with him—he doesn’t understand.”
Her words broke his heart.
And confirmed what he already believed.
PPD.
Gio searched Kim’s face for any hint of a lie of for something that said she might be hiding more from him. He found nothing.
“There’s something wrong with me,” Kim said.
“With you?” Gio asked, smiling sadly. “Nothing, babe. You’re just ... a little mixed up right now.”
Kim laughed bleakly. “Is that what you want to call it?”
“We’ll get it sorted out.”
“I don’t want to do this again.”
Gio sucked in a hard breath. He knew what she meant without asking. His decision had already been cemented, but he wanted to wait until whatever was going on with Kim blew over and then talk to her about the idea of only having one child.
“Just Andino,” Gio murmured.
Kim shrugged. “Yeah.”
“You’re worried this is going to happen again.”
“Aren’t you?” she asked.
A little ...
A lot.
“Yeah,” Gio confirmed. “And I’m worried the tear might reoccur and the next time, we might not be as lucky as we were to get the bleeding stopped in time. Yeah, it worries me, Kim.”
“Some Italians we are.”
Gio scoffed. “Not every Italian has a large family.”
“You loved having lots of siblings.”
“I loved kicking their asses, sure.”
Kim smiled, but it was faint. “Cute.”
“Andino will have lot of cousins. Lucian is having an army. He makes up for what Dante and me won’t have.”