The Mafia's Babies by Kaycee Romano (howl and other poems txt) 📗

Now What's A Capo?

River sighed and stretched, groaning a bit when her back throbbed in protest. "First, I thought this was about my mom, but the way things are getting all tangled up, I think there is much more in to it. This got something to do with-"

"Me."

River scrunched up her face. What did he have to do with any of this?

"Because I saved your life a year ago or because my mom's defending your informant?" She asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"No, it's because-"

The door was pushed open and Susan Johnson walked in, with a bag of what must have be the muffin and the small box of chocolate milkshake in her hand.

"Mr. Adesso." She smiled as she walked over, setting the food down on the coffee table.

River could already smell the muffin. Yum.

"Where's Valerie?" She asked, looking around.

"She had stuff to do." River's voice was grave. She wondered if Michael had managed to get his hands on that little shit.

"Okay, so-"

"Mommy, we both need to talk. You should go home." River cut her off, keeping her voice emotionless.

"Everything alright babe?" Susan asked, her voice dripping with concern. She didn't think she could ever forgive herself if anything more happened because of her taking up that case. Little did she know that this situation was going in a completely different tangent.

"I am not sure, mom." River said honestly. "I will ask Shane to pick me up in the evening."

She nodded and went ahead to pick her coat up.

"Take care." She kissed her daughter's cheek, her eyes filled with concern and unanswered questions. But she trusted her daughter more than anyone else in the whole wide world, and had complete faith in her; whatever it is, River would handle it. And she also knew that her daughter wasn't someone who shied away from asking for help when she was stuck, so Susan knew that there was nothing that her kid couldn't handle. But still, she was her mother and she was always concerned for her little one and her little one's little ones.

"I will." River murmured, placing a kiss back.

Susan nodded at Mateo and walked out, glancing at River one last time before closing the door behind her.

Mateo went over and locked the door, the tension increasing ten-fold.

"How are you involved?" River asked him, feeling the dread begin to consume her. It wouldn't be a surprise if she had another panic attack from all the stress again.

If it had something to do with the bad guys River ended up putting behind bars a decade ago, she had a good chance at escaping with the kids if she moved cities. She was willing to even go live in Cambridge with her mom's parents. But if it had something to do with the mafia, there was no way out. Until death. At least that's what the myth was.

"Who is the kids' father?"

"He's not in the picture." River said without missing a beat. She was habituated to saying that when asked about the twins' dad. It had become more or less a reflex.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked, as emotionless as she was being. "Do you know who he is?"

River wanted to say yes and that it was none of his business. But the way he looked at her was how one who knew the truth looked at the other person, challenging them to lie.

"No. Okay? I don't know who it is, as unbelievable as that is." But then River paused, putting two and two together.

"You." His eyes widened as she said it.

"Do you know who he is?" River asked.

Mateo suddenly chuckled.

"Wait, that's it?? Their father is after my children?" She gasped, throwing her hand over her mouth. "Jesus, who the hell is he? How did he even figure it out?? And why the hell couldn't he approach me like a normal person?? Why kidnap-"

"It's me." Mateo cut her off and effectively shut her up. "I am the father of our children."

"Huh?" Is all that came out of River's mouth.

He pulled out his phone from his back pocket and tapped a few times and showed her the phone.

It was a paternity test result dated yesterday. Of Mateo Adesso and Kiara Johnson.

And her eyes scanned the page right to the end which said,

The alleged father in not excluded as the biological father of the tested child. Based on testing results obtained from analyses of the DNA loci listed, the probability of paternity is 99.99998%.

River looked up at Mateo, pursing her lips and feeling the tears well up in her eyes.

"How long have you known?"

"I had my doubts since the day they were kidnapped and I saw their photo. Lukey looks just like me. But I bribed the lab technician into doing the test yesterday and the reports came back today." He explained, slowly. He knew that River was in a delicate state after the revelation.

"Are you going to take them away from me?"

"What?? No!!!" He looked almost offended at what she asked. "Why would you think that?"

"Oh I don't know. That's the first question that came to my mind."

Mateo shook his head, not being able to control the smile – this woman was something else.

River's phone rang. She wiped her tears and picked it up to see it was Michael Jahn.

"Hey-"

"We lost her." He said before she could even greet him.

"That's okay." She said. "Thanks for the help, Mikey."

"Don't worry. We will find her for you."

With that he hung up and River turned to Mateo. "They lost her."

"It's fine. We know it's Mona Petrov." He explained. "She was after your mom at first but when she got the kids to blackmail your mom, she figured out that they were mine because Lukey looks exactly like my childhood self."

"What's their real names again?" He added.

River smiled. "You didn't see it in the reports?" She pointed at his phone.

He pursed his lips, realizing how much of a dumbass he was.

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