Chapter 66

“That’s a strong and healthy Lamberti,” Ramiro spoke and handed me the sonogram. “Yes, she has a habit of kicking me.” I looked down at the picture with a smile on my face.

“Do you think she looks like me?” I asked excitedly and turned around the picture. “Hmm, it seems more like Christian to me.” He spoke while I frowned.

“Well, at least he knows he’s the father.” I giggled and observed the picture one more time. “Is there a way we can get this to him? I was going to take a picture, but I feel like that is meaningless.”

“Yes, I’ll get it to him as soon as possible.” He reassured me. At first, the idea of a family doctor taking care of me sounded strange to my ears, but after Christian had left—Ramiro had been nothing but nice to me, but there was one thing that had been bothering me.

If he was the family doctor, shouldn’t he be with Lucio?

“Is there something on your mind, beautiful?” He gave me a questioning look, but I forced a smile on my face and shook my head. “No, I was just thinking about Christian as a baby and as a person.”

“Christian?” Ramiro sighed out laughing. “Christian started walking at eight months and said his first words at nine months—throughout his childhood he had not changed, and he still hasn’t. Always pushing himself to be the best.” He spoke with a proud smile on his face. “That’s the kind of person he is.”

“That’s right.” I agreed with him. “I don’t want to be rude, but how do you know the family?”

“I used to go to university with Christian’s grandfather—he paid for my education and without him, I wouldn’t be a doctor.” Ramiro smiled. “After finishing school I worked at many hospitals—but it didn’t work out. Franco had bought a hospital at the time, and asked me for a favor.”

“So you have known them for a very long time, that must be nice.” I smiled, thinking about how many close friends the Lamberti’s had—and almost every single one was willing to help me, despite not knowing anything about me.

“My wife who I met in school has delivered Lucio and all of his children, and all of his grandchildren—our families get along very well.” He explained further.

“Then you guys must be very old!” I blurted out and covered my mouth, making him laugh. “That’s alright, just speak your mind.”

“Christian never told me about a family doctor.” I doubted myself. It seemed to be some kind of family tradition, which according to him I could not be part of because I wasn’t exactly family.

“Don’t take it personally, I asked him but he told me he did not want to pressure you—but now that the circumstances are different...”

He did not want to pressure me...

Hearing different stories about what Christian had been doing since the moment I had walked in, while all I had been doing was doubt him, made me feel guilty. “The woman who came here last night, is that your wife? Because she looks extremely young, like a teen almost.” I commented, but the smile on Ramiro’s face had disappeared as he shook his head. “My wife passed away a year ago, the one who will be assisting me is my granddaughter, Amanda.”

I felt bad and didn’t know what to say if I had only kept my big mouth shut. “So both of you are dropping your lives to protect me?”

“Yes, the three of us—my other daughter will also be here tomorrow.”

“Okay, cozy. It feels more like a vacation than a safe house.” I laughed to myself. I had expected it to be way different, I had expected to feel alone as I always had—but it was the complete opposite.

My thoughts got interrupted by the sound of the doorbell and I almost jumped up. That’s right, I wasn’t here for vacation—I was here because my life’s in danger. “That’s for you.”

“For me?” I wondered, but it wasn’t long after until I heard a few familiar voices call out my name. I gasped and looked at Ramiro in shock as he nodded his head in response. “Faith!” I yelled out and almost ran out of the room to make my way downstairs.

“Guys?” I yelled again and tried my hardest to follow to voices until I stood face to face with Faith, Luna, and Olivia. We all yelled and jumped up and down in a group hug. “What are you guys doing here? And why do you have suitcases?” I wondered as I stared down at their luggage.

“Surprise, we’re your new housemates.” Faith giggled. “M-my what?” I stuttered. If this was my surprise, I indeed felt like a kid in a candy store. “H-how?”

I had purposely not told them about anything, because I definitely learned from my mistakes with Vince—but Christian bringing them here by himself couldn’t have been any better.

“Your sugar daddy asked us to be here, he explained everything to us and we didn’t hesitate—so here we are.” Luna opened her arms.

“Yeah, some scary life you live—but we want to keep you company.” Olivia eyed Faith and Luna who were giggling. “And Christian offered us a lot of money.” She further explained, rolling her eyes.

“Don’t get me wrong, if money was not involved—I still would’ve been the—“ Olivia ranted, but I pulled her into a tight hug. “I don’t care, I’m just happy all of you are here!”

“Now give us a tour of this shoebox.” Luna walked around as we all followed her. Just as asked, I gave the girls a house tour, showed them the rooms, and introduced them to everyone.

“So what have you guys been up to?” I asked the girls as Faith and Olivia started to rant about their lives. Faith explained how she had left the club and went back to school, while Olivia explained she was very busy with job hunting.

“How about you, Luna?” I tried to involve her in to the conversation, but she shrugged her shoulders with visibly red cheeks. “Ah you know...the usual...just—“

“Screwing your cousin in law and your best friend’s brother.” Faith finished her sentence, causing all of us to laugh out loud. “Is it Emilio?” I asked, not even being a bit surprised. The look he had given her, and Johnny had given him—the day I met my family, was almost embarrassing to watch.

Luna shrugged her shoulders and looked down. “Johnny and your brother have both been blowing up my phone—and I don’t know how to reject either one of them!” She buried her head in my shoulder as I gave her an awkward pat.

“Just tell them you’re not interested.” Olivia shrugged as if it was nothing. “That’s not that easy, little girl.” Luna chuckled.

“Why are they giving you attention anyway. What have you done?” Faith wondered, as did I. If only things had been that easy with Christian.

“These type of men are not interested in us, they see me as an easy target because I’m a stripper.” She rolled her eyes before she gave me a pitiful look. “No offense, of course.”

“None was taken.” I chuckled. They did see us as an easy target, and that was the reason why I ended up pregnant in the first place.

“But I thought you went to Johnny’s house a few times,” I recalled. Luna sighed and leaned her head against Faith’s shoulder. “I did, for fun—I had no idea he wanted a real relationship.”

“And my brother?” I continued asking. “I only went on one date with him, at the end of the evening he gave me a handshake.”

We all looked at each other before we burst out laughing. “A handshake?” Olivia cracked, staring at the embarrassed look on her face.

“Wait, I have to take this.” I recovered myself when I saw Christian’s name appear on my phone, and quickly walked out of the room to accept the call.

“Chris!” I spoke excitement, but all I got in return was silence.

“Shit my bad, I didn’t mean to call you.” He spoke. “Wait, so you called me on accident?”

“Uhh...yes, I’ll call you later!” He tried to end the conversation as soon as he started it, but the only thing I could hear in the background were female voices. “Christian, what are you doing?” I asked, but before I could get an answer—I heard a different voice.

“Serena, don’t worry I’ll take care of him!” Marc told me, but I was not convinced. “W-why am I hearing girls laughing in the background? Where are you guys?”

“I took him to a club, so he can relax for once—we used to do this all the time, but he’s so boring now!” Marc who was drunk spoke, while I heard Christian struggling to get his phone back.

“Serena, that’s not true! He forced me to be here an—“

“Okay.” I laughed and slowly heard the music on the background fade away. “Okay?” Christian repeated.

“You should go and have fun, talk to whoever you want—I don’t care,” I told him. “You don’t?” He asked, but he sounded extremely irritated which was a mystery to me.

“Yeah, go and have fun for once!” I encouraged him. The last thing I wanted was to be a gatekeeper and once I had the baby I would probably do the same.

“So what you’re saying is that you don’t mind sharing me—just how I shared you with Vincenzo?” Christian double-checked while I was still trying to figure out why he sounded so irritated.

“Hmm, not the same case because we weren't together—but, no.” I gave it a second thought. “If the roles were reversed, I would’ve done the same.”

“Oh, really?” He spoke sarcastically, confusing me even more. “Yes...did I say something wrong?”

“No, not at all.” He said.

“In that case, I’ll follow your instructions and put myself up for advertisement, since you would’ve done the same.”

It took me a while but I finally got it, he misunderstood my words.

“Chris—“ I called out to him, but he had already hung up the phone. Why was he irritated by the idea of me not being jealous?

“Drama queen,” I muttered under my breath.