Chapter 214

“She’s here, isn’t she? I got her back. I’m not going to be that dumb again, I swear.” He huffs and squeezes me a little tighter. Sylvana scowls at him, then her face drops, and she heaves a sudden sigh, remembering her dilemma.

“This is what the so much worse is.” She flaps her hands with a dramatic sigh. “Marissa is here. In the sitting room.” She grimaces and both Jake and I tense up instantly. My breath catches painfully, but Jake is the first to speak.

“What the hell for?” He sounds angry, no, he sounds pissed as hell. Meanwhile I just feel sick, and emotional, and about ready to cry and storm away. This is turning into the day from hell for me.

“She’s staying with her family for the weekend and just showed up asking to see me and talk about things … She’s carrying my grandchild remember. I couldn’t turn her away!” Sylvana slaps her hands on her hips and glowers at her son.

Great. Of course, she lives near here, or is from here. When Jake met her, he was only fifteen! Why didn’t I realize this before agreeing to a house here?

“For the love of fucking God!” Jake curses, and moves me to a seat nearby, helping me slide down into it. He strokes me across the shoulder and plants a kiss on my cheek despite his obvious agitation. He moves off and gets me a glass of iced water before coming back to stand behind me, resting his hands on the back of my chair. He’s pacing to control the war of emotions going on in his head. I know his tells almost as well as he knows mine nowadays. “Fuck.” He grinds through gritted teeth.

I drink the water slowly, glad of the small task to focus

on and the cool liquid to quell my nausea; my head spinning out of control with a million emotions and crazy thoughts. The bitter pit of anxiety in my stomach expands at speed.

I wonder if you can blame murder on pregnancy hormones? Some sort of mental breakdown and loss of faculties?

“Language, Jacob!” Sylvana glares at him, then pats me on the shoulder, and walks to the fridge hauling out a bottle of wine.

“We need something stronger,” she exclaims, waving the bottle toward us with a wicked smile.

“Umm. No alcohol for Emma, Mamma.” It’s out before Jake even thinks about what he’s saying and Sylvana

spins. In an instant I see it and so does he. The clicking mind of a very sharp woman who has just registered that he carried me in looking sick, he’s been clucking around me ever since; more so than normal, and now, he’s refusing alcohol on my behalf in a tone that suggests … well suggests I’m pregnant. Her eyes widen, and her hand comes to cover her mouth in a swift gasp.

“Really?” Tears prick her eyes and she visibly shakes herself.

“Depends on what you’re asking?” Jake turns sheepish, trying to gauge his mother’s reaction, trying to figure out if she’s shocked happy or shocked pissed. I’m not counting on one more than the other as I just don’t know. Marissa’s baby puts a different spin on what would normally be a grandmother’s dream.

I, meanwhile, am still sitting thinking about the fact that Demon Bitch is sitting a few rooms away. The woman carrying my boyfriend’s baby. The woman he kissed not so long ago. She’s right here in his family home looking to talk to Sylvana about her future as the mother of Sylvana’s grandchild. The ironic timing of this situation is not lost on me. My stomach thumps hard and my heart aches with shattering pain. I still hate the bitch with a vengeance even if I am learning to forgive Jake.

“Are you pregnant?” She watches Jake closely, poised and still, barely breathing. Her voice is almost a whisper as though she daren’t believe it.

“Well not me personally, Mamma, but yeah, Emma

and I are having a lil’ Carrero.” Jake sounds pleased

and proud; for a tiny moment, I forget about her and

look at him with sheer love. It never ceases to surprise me seeing his reaction to our baby. The genuine happiness in his tone and no doubts whatsoever despite how crazy in turmoil I still feel every day. Any time he says it he always looks fit to burst with sheer joy. I can forgive him anything when he looks like this.

“Oh, my God.” Sylvana runs to her son, throwing

her arms around his big frame, dramatically, hauling him down to her height and kissing him on both cheeks in a

very Italian manner before bursting into fluent Italian

dialog. Jake answers her in a mix of English and Italian and

I have zero clue to what is being said, other than she cries and grins a lot. It’s emotional to watch and it’s obvious

she’s ecstatic. I can’t help but wonder how she reacted when he told her about Marissa’s child. I try to push away that lump of pain in my chest.

She turns to me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders, kissing me on the cheek from her position above me. Gushing and tweaking my cheeks with another bout of fluent Italian. I just blink back with a smile and have no idea what to respond with. Jake always seems oblivious to the fact that I need a translator sometimes. I’m not even sure that he’s aware of when they switch between languages.

“There’s more, Mamma. Emma and I are here to go see a house this weekend. A house I might want to buy for us.” He can barely contain the beaming happiness bouncing off him in giant waves.

I think it’s the first time I’ve seen a beautifully composed, graceful woman, like Sylvana, literally burst into a happy dance and sob at the same time. He just made her wildest dreams come true and it goes a long way to making me feel a better in an instant; forgetting about Demon Bitch for a few needed minutes.

“Is it close by?” She chirps ecstatically.

Jake glances at me for a second, I note the little flutter

of doubt, then he smiles slowly and cautiously and looks back at her.

“You can see it from here.” He nods toward the refrigerator wall facing him, indicating the direction, and Sylvana breaks into a huge grin.

“The Wilsons? They haven’t even told anyone it’s on the market yet … Jake it’s practically next door!” Sylvana is back to calling him Jake so I’m sure he’s just made her month. She really is the happiest woman alive and I am feeling a little buzz about his confession too. The Wilson house is next door, close enough to be a part of his family, and a small part of me is really warming to this idea.

Okay maybe not next door in New York sense; I mean they are far apart with grounds in between and a huge massive line of trees and security fencing … But next door as in a five-minute walk across the back grounds. If you didn’t have any fences to climb.

“You know I can’t leave her chatting with Clara in the sitting room forever, Jacob?” Sylvana finally points out when the excitement and chatter about the house dies down. She’s still holding a hand to her heart as though it’s fluttering. Her beautiful face radiating sheer motherly bliss. Clara is Sylvana’s assistant from her charity office and a very close friend who lives nearby.

Jake glances at me and I catch the flicker run across

his face. He has no clue how to play this. If it was just a case of it being Marissa and the baby he would go and speak to her; but now it’s a case of Jake having kissed Marissa, knowing his actions can affect me tremendously, affect what he’s trying to fix. I don’t want to tell him what to do. I want him to decide for himself. I want to trust him. If I’m ever going to move on, then I need to learn to trust him, especially when it comes to her.

I remain impassive, no expression or messages, just a blank look so he gets nothing from me. He frowns watching my face then finally sighs.

“I’m going to take Emma upstairs for a while, Mamma, let her lie down and have some time to recover. Just get Marissa to leave.” He kisses her on the cheek before coming to me and pulling my chair out. He catches my hand, kissing my palm before enveloping it in his and pulling me up, tugging me into his arms and toward the kitchen door. I don’t know how to really feel so I just allow him to take control and guide me.

“Jacob … Ordinarily I would agree, but this isn’t about any of you … It’s about a child. Now, more than ever, you should understand the importance of that.” Sylvana’s comment hits home and Jake stalls in front of me, his body stiffening and he sighs hard. She obviously knows how to get under his skin with very few words.

“What do you want me to do? I’m standing here with the love of my life, very aware of how close I came to fucking it all up with the girl in the next room, Mamma … There is a baby involved but I’m not going to ignore how this affects Emma and our baby, and our future together.”

He’s upset. I can feel the despair emanating from him and can only give him a sympathetic look. I hug

close to him as his arm tightens around my shoulder.

Complication at its best.