Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 491 -

*Olivia*

"Maybe you should slow down a bit," Dahlia remarked timidly.

She stared at me with blatant worry on her face, watching as I paced back and forth on the patio with a bottle of some kind of alcohol in my hand.

"Fuck that," I cursed, shutting my eyes tightly as I guzzled down whatever was in the bottle. Bourbon? Whiskey? Hell if I knew.

It had taken all of five seconds after leaving the sorry excuse of a sperm donor that was father to the hands of Gio before I decided I could not spend the rest of this night sober. Gio had severely cut back on his alcohol collection for the sake of our son, but that didn't mean he completely got rid of it.

Our son....

I swallowed the bitter liquid, letting it run down my parched throat, and hit the empty well that was my stomach. I hadn't eaten all day, not since dinner last night, and though I knew it was a bad idea to drink this much on an empty stomach, I couldn't give a damn right now.

I slammed the bottle in front of Dahlia, taking the seat beside her and slumping at the table.

"Fucking hell, that tastes awful," I wiped the corner of my mouth, grimacing at the aftertaste still lingering in my mouth.

Dahlia took a swig, almost immediately going to spit it out but she managed to hold on to the mouthful she took, swallowing it down with a glare at the bottle. "How the fuck does Gio even stomach this shit?"

"Who knows?" I shrugged, grabbing the bottle from her and taking another shot of the nasty-tasting alcohol. Whether it tasted bad or not, it would numb my mind, and that was all it needed to do.

I slid the bottle back to Dahlia but she just shook her head, shuddering at the sheer thought of taking another drink.

"All yours. I'll just try one of these instead," She grabbed the nearest bottle, popping it open masterfully. I shrugged, guzzling down another gulp.

I was halfway through the bottle by the time the screen door slid open and Gio stepped out onto the patio. There was a serious look in his eyes, a dark one like someone who had to deliver the news that a man who became cancer-free was now dying from a different kind of cancer.

"What did you replace out?" I asked, not liking the look on his face one bit.

He glanced at the bottles around us, a look of disapproval in his eyes as he noted the half-empty bottle in my hand and the one Dahlia was currently nursing. We probably looked like complete messes-a result of having gotten no sleep and no food and having cried practically all night.

But considering the circumstances, Gio smartly didn't say a word.

"Did you replace out where Elio is?" Dahlia asked, looking up at him hopefully.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair and pushing it away from his face. There were bags under his eyes, a pale look to his skin, and lines around his eyebrows from too much frowning. He looked just as bad as I did.

"We know Lorenz has Elio," Gio said grimly, "and he's not willing to give him up without getting what he wants in return."

"Which is what? Money?" I demanded, crossing my arms. "Is that his excuse? Kidnapping a one-year-old for cash? Is he that much of a greedy bastard that he'd harm our son just for this?"

"It would be a lot simpler if he just wanted money, carina." Gio grimaced, avoiding my eyes as he stared into the garden with a distant look. "Unfortunately, he's smarter than that."

"You can't be fucking serious," Dahlia growled, whirling on Gio with an incredulous look. "You can't be thinking of—"

"What choice do I have, Dahlia?" Gio shot back angrily. "Elio is probably terrified, surrounded by men he doesn't know who only want to hurt him! I'm not going to leave him there for any longer than necessary." "Back up" I cut in, giving them both stern looks. "What are you two talking about? What does Lorenz want?"

Dahlia huffed, turning away with a sour look as she took a large drink from the bottle. Gio sighed, finally looking me dead in the eyes. I had a sneaking suspicion of what he was going to say next, but I begged for anything else to come out of his lips and not what I was thinking.

"He wants me."

I shut my eyes tightly, gripping my wrist in one hand. I should've known. Things couldn't ever be simple, could they? It seemed like the whole world had it out for my family, to make sure none of us were ever happy. Was this the price?

To get my son back, would I really have to sacrifice my husband?

"No," I snapped, tears flooding the corner of my eyes. I bit down on my bottom lip, unable to say anymore without bursting into another round of sobs. I was so exhausted, too tired to continue my life like this.

The peaceful life I wanted was nothing more than an unattainable dream.

"Carina," I heard Gio whisper, heading straight for me.

I saw the edge of his shoes, the nice Italian ones he liked, but my eyes latched onto the tiny spots of red on top of them. Who it belonged to, I didn't know, but I had a pretty good guess. Like a glass bridge over a cliff, the fragile cracks finally broke through.

"I can't," I sobbed, hiding my face in my hands. "I can't lose you too! I want my son but I don't want to lose you to get him back! I just want him here, home! There has to be another way."

Silence answered me and I sobbed even harder, knowing how utterly selfish I sounded, but when it came to the safety of my husband and my son, I would bear that badge with pride. I wanted us to be together, to be happy and safe and not have to worry about all this bullshit of mafias and death and war and terror.

"I'll leave you two alone to talk," I heard Dahlia remark quietly.

I vaguely registered the sound of her shoes on the ground and the screen door shutting behind her. Gio heaved a sigh, sounding as exhausted as I felt. He knelt on one knee before me. "Carina," he called out, that sweet lift in his voice he always had. He gently pried my hand from my face, giving me a sad smile as he cupped my teary face.

"I'm not giving up just yet, carina," he told me. "Salvatore is going to try to get him back. Tallon and Alessandro are going with him to make sure he won't betray us a second time. We're going to get Elio back no matter what, and if all else fails-"

"No!" I shook my head, reaching out for his shirt and clutching it in my fists. "I won't lose you! Not like this."

His arms brushed against my shoulders, pulling me into his chest, and our foreheads collided gently. Gio's dark eyes stared into mine, the depth of his love for me breaking through all of the stress and misery I'd been feeling. I took a deep shuddering breath, focusing on him as he used his thumb to rub along the inside of my wrist.

"If all goes to plan, you won't," Gio told me softly. "But I love you and I love our son more than my own life. I would give up my own life to make sure the two of you are safe, Olivia. There is no hesitation in my mind." "But-" I protested.

He shushed me, giving me a wry smile as he used his thumb to brush away my stray tears.

"But I will do everything in my power to make sure that doesn't happen. If all goes well, Elio will be back in your arms tomorrow night and we can forget this nightmare. We'll all be safe and together."

"And if it doesn't?" I stared deep into his eyes, but we both already knew the answer. Gio just smiled, sad but loving as he gently brought my wrist to his lips and laid a tender kiss.

He didn't say anything more, but he didn't need to. I already knew everything he wanted to say.

"I'm going to meet Lorenz in two days," Gio informed me quietly. "That's when he won't be there. Salvatore will lead Tallon and Alessandro to their base, and they will replace Elio and bring him back safely."

I shut my eyes tightly, breathing in the presence of my husband. His hands were freezing against mine when normally he ran warm. I could feel his fluctuating emotions in tune with mine like they were my own.

For a brief moment, I wished everything could go back to Elio's birthday, to when Salvatore first showed up on my doorstep, claiming to be my father. If I had known then what I knew now, would I have made a different choice?

Would I have thrown him out of the gates, telling me to never come back? Would I have never let him in, to never give him the chance to rip my family apart?

Or maybe this all went much farther back than this, back to when I was a little girl, reading fairytales and dreaming of my father coming back on the back of a white horse.

Real life didn't have such neat endings, packaged with a perfect bow. Happy endings were for storybooks. But I didn't get a white horse or a knight in shining armor.

All I got was disappointment and more scars than I could count.

I don't know what I would've told that little girl if I could go back in time, or what I would tell myself a year ago before I let Salvatore into our lives. The only thing I knew was that if we had another option, I would never let Salvatore anywhere near my Elio.

I could never trust him, not after all he'd done.

But right now, he was the only one who stood a chance at getting my son back, at least not without sacrificing my husband like a pawn on a chessboard. It was still hard to believe what my life had come to.

An impossible choice meets with an unthinkable decision.

There was no good answer here, just like it had been since the first moment I touched down on Italian soil. It was always one chaos after another, one crisis leading to another string of bad decisions.

I laid my head on my husband's shoulders, feeling my heart cracking like porcelain as I struggled to hold myself together.

Was this ever going to stop?