My Don Chose My Best Friend-So I Took His Empire novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: The Baby Shower

I walked into Dario's mother's front parlor with a gift bag in my hand and a smile I had practiced for three days in my father's mirror.

Eleven captains' wives sat on the good sofas with pink and blue cake plates on their knees.

The talking stopped.

A plate clinked against a saucer.

"Has she come to make a scene?" one of the wives whispered, not quietly enough.

"No," I said. "I came to say I'm sorry."

Lidia stood up from the armchair of honor.

She was sixteen weeks along now, and she had one hand spread over the round of her stomach and a cream cardigan buttoned over it.

Her face crumpled before she reached me.

"Gem," she said. "Oh, Gem, you came."

She threw her arms around my neck.

I put my arms around her back, and I held on.

Under my collar, pinned flat against the lining, a recorder the size of a lipstick was turning.

I had bought it the day before at a shop on Hylan, and I had not told anyone but Santino and Nino.

"I was cruel to you," I said into her hair, loud enough for the sofas. "I accused you of terrible things. I was sick, Lidia. Everyone said so, and everyone was right."

A wife near the fireplace let out a soft, pleased sound.

I hated her for it.

I hated that it worked.

"Don't," Lidia said, crying. "You were hurting. I never held it against you."

"You were the only one who never called me crazy."

"I never would."

She laughed wetly and kissed my cheek.

Dario's mother sat at the end of the room with her hands folded, and she watched me with no expression at all.

She did not say hello.

She did not need to.

I opened the gift bag and laid a blanket across Lidia's knees.

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