Page 187 of Mafia Billionaire's Surprise Baby

I think about what Marco told us. I haven’t revealed that to Elio yet either. There will be time for that.

There will be time for everything, I guess, once life settles in around the babies again.

“How are you doing, brother?” I ask Elio.

He shoots me a look. “I am… I don’t know,” he says honestly.

I tilt my head.

Elio sits back and shuts his eyes. “I am happy to have the babies here. I am happy to see my family. Being around Caterina makes every one of my days brighter,” he says, knocking his head lightly against the cement retaining wall that the bench is positioned against.

I nod, settling into the bench across from him. “Yeah. That’s kind of nice.”

“It is a dream, Sal. One that I did not think I could ever hope for,” Elio says softly.

I still.

My brother-in-law is a stoic man. He rarely shares anything about himself, and I’m pretty sure that Caterina is the only person who really knows him inside and out.

Well.

Caterina and Gia, of course.

“I did not think that, in this life, I could ever have such a treasure as a wife and children. Let alone a wife that I liked. Let alone one that I love as much as I love your sister.”

“You’re good for each other,” I say.

Elio nods. “The only thing missing today, is my sister.”

I freeze.

Continuing, Elio nods his head at me. “I know that you two had something. That was made clear to me after you took her back from Belarus. The fact that Gia consented to this marriage with the Irishman… I did not think it was real, Sal. I truly thought it was some kind of plot, made up by the fucking Irish to get back at us once again.”

“I did too,” I add.

“But then Stassi told us that Gia agreed to it. That she saw with her own eyes. But I have not yet heard from my sister. So I still do not believe that this is true,” Elio adds.

“So why haven’t you gone after her?”

“Gia is smarter than I am,” Elio says. “She is more ruthless. More competent. She is built for this in a way that I’m not. I trust that if Gia decided to do this, then she has her reasons, and she will someday tell them to me.”

I snort. “Yeah. Someday.”

“The biggest surprise, however, is that she decided to marry someone who wasn’t you.”

I freeze.

I don’t want to look at him, because if I do, I’m going to… I don’t know. I’ve kept my feelings about Gia on a pretty tight leash and bottled up deep inside my soul.

I can’t let them out, or I’m going to probably explode into a thousand pieces.

“Gia has never wanted to love someone. Not anyone other than myself, or Luna. She has always kept everyone at arm’s reach, because I think it would have been too big of a betrayal if they didn’t see her for who she was. For what she wanted. I didn’t think such a man could exist. And then you came along,” Elio looks at me. “You pulled her out of a burning building. You treat her like a queen. You recognize all that Gia is, and for the first time ever, her excuses were futile.”

“Futile?”

“She had no choice but to love you, Sal. I think for someone as in control of herself as Gia is, the inevitability of falling for you was probably more terrifying than anything. She could not control for the variable that was you, and it probably scared her.”

“And that’s why she married him?”