Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 763 : Standing My Ground

*Cat*

Despite my burning anger at the threats I’d overheard, I feigned ignorance, sitting on the couch in my little nest, downing my iced tea, and watching cartoons just like normal when Elio came down. I could see his stress from miles away but just like I pretended that everything was fine, and so did he.

Throughout the day, Elio had several men arriving for secret meetings up in his study. He always kissed the top of my head, making sure I had everything I could want before heading up. I didn’t sneak up to spy on another meeting.

I had heard everything I needed to know.

It was hard to keep calm, knowing that me and my baby were being threatened and that people were being killed as examples of it, but this was the life I had signed up for. The ring on my finger grew heavier the more I knew of the consequences of this privileged life I lived.

Money and status came with a price, and it was our safety.

Elio came down after his fifth meeting of the day and it was already growing dark. I’d eaten dinner already as I watched him escort his last visitor to the door. He came in, his hair having become more and more wild from brushing it away and back from his face over and over.

My hands itched to fix it for him, to twirl his silky curls around my fingers, but I stayed silent as he came in. Our cook brought in his food. Luckily, it was still warm but a little overdone from being kept on the heat.

As he ate, the two of us were silent, only the sound of the cartoon sound effects and rambunctious music to light up the tense and indifferent atmosphere. I rubbed my stomach and was quieter than normal as I tried not to focus on him beside me.

Once he was done, the cook took away his plate and he sighed, leaning back into the couch. He turned to me with a tired look. “I’m sorry about all this. We received some pretty bad news and I’ve got to handle it carefully.”

“Hmmm,” I hummed quietly in response.

He frowned, sending me an odd look but didn’t question me as he said, “We’ve been trying to get a hold of everything but I’ll have to attend a few more meetings tonight. You should go to bed without me.”

“Okay.”

He stiffened, staring at me intently as he shifted so he was fully facing me. “I’ll also have to be at work all day tomorrow, so I won’t be here.”

“That’s fine.”

I could see my short responses doing their work, and he grit his teeth, glaring at me now full-force. “What’s wrong, Cat? You’re acting... weird.”

“Nothing,” I said cooly. “I just don’t want to get angry now and have you walk away for another meeting. Let me know when you have time for me, though.” I clicked off the TV, ignoring him calling my name as I stalked up to our bedroom. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

He wanted to keep hiding things from me? Fine, but that didn’t mean I would have to stay up waiting for him just to get some answers out of him. At this point, I wasn’t even surprised by his actions.

Angry, yes, but I could deal with that anger later once I felt like it. Right now, I was tired and I needed a good night’s rest, something, I thought a little pettily, he wouldn’t be getting.

I went through my evening routine just like it was any other day, taking a shower, brushing my teeth, and changing into a tank top and shorts. I grabbed my body pillow, ignoring the face I’d colored on it with a sharpie that I insisted looked like Elio, much to his chagrin.

I turned it face-down so I couldn’t see its stupid Sharpie face and then cuddled up, supporting my back as I snuggled down into the covers. I rubbed my belly for a moment, murmuring aloud as I recalled one of the many fairy tales I’d memorized since becoming pregnant, reciting it aloud for the baby.

Even if she couldn’t hear it, I wanted to get good practice for when she was born.

I fell asleep before I even got to Cinderella’s ball.

I only woke up once I felt something brush against my skin, jerking me awake.

“Sorry,” Elio whispered in the dark.

I relaxed once I knew it was him. He got into bed next to me, still sitting up, but he’d reached over to pull the blanket I’d kicked off in my sleep back onto my body.

I didn’t notice I was cold until he slipped the covers back on and I sighed in relief, snuggling up under my half of them. Sneaking a quick peek at him, Elio looked at me tiredly, but also with a deeper emotion I couldn’t place at the moment.

“I’m done for now,” he murmured.

I opened both eyes now, glancing up at him warily. “Did you want me to get angry at you now?”

“I don’t want you to be angry at all,” Elio whispered.

I sighed, now wide awake as I sat up. “But I am angry, Elio,” I told him with a frown. “Just because I’m not expressing it, doesn’t mean I don’t feel it.”

He frowned, looking like a lost tiny animal, confusion in his eyes, like he had no idea why I was so upset with him, my patience already dwindling due to his repeated behaviors and then limited even further by the hormones raging from my pregnancy.

I wasn’t going to hold back my punches anymore.

“Elio, I overheard your conversation earlier,” I told him point-blank, crossing my arms over my chest. There was no understanding or kindness left in me as I faced him. I wasn’t frothing at the mouth angry, ready to burst into tears, but just an indifferent sort of calm.

Elio’s eyes widened and he turned to me, looking like a kid caught with his hand in a cookie jar. The guilt in his eyes didn’t match the tick in his jaw though.

“How did you overhear it? You followed us, didn’t you?” he accused me.

“Yes, I did,” I said shamelessly, not an ounce of guilt for doing so. Not after what I had heard. “I’m tired of you keeping secrets from me, and if I have to follow you and eavesdrop to get information then I will. I am your fiance. I deserve to know everything that is going on. So tell me right here or you can sleep in your office.”

He swallowed, looking fully scolded as he saw how serious I was about this but of course, I knew all his tricks already. He gave me puppy-dog eyes, reaching out to pull me into his arms as he tried to coax me, “I didn’t mean to keep anything from you. I just don’t want the stress to affect you or the baby. You’re fragile–”

“The only fragile thing is your goddamn ego,” I snapped, fully losing it now as I stared him down, not buying a piece of his same old bullshit. “I have been clear with you multiple times over this same fucking issue and again and again, you prove that you have no consideration and no respect for me. You do whatever the fuck you think is best and treat me like I’m a pet you can keep home to protect and then take me out whenever you want. I’m fucking sick of it!”

Elio stared at me in utter shock, his mouth hanging open. But I wasn’t fucking done giving him a piece of my mind.

“I am more stressed by you insisting on keeping me in the dark because I’m not stupid, Elio!” I shouted, slapping his hand away as he tried to reach out to me. “I know when things are happening! I know when I’m involved because you’re not fucking subtle! I am in danger. Our child is in danger. And I am not going to stop fighting with everything I have to drag the truth out of you every time this happens because I am fucking over your protective bullshit.”

“Cat–” He tried to protest but I glowered at him, just fully done.

And where I’d normally be crying by now, feeling sadness, I felt nothing, just utter resentment for having him put me into this position once again.

He faltered at my hardened look. “I just don’t want you to get involved–”

“Well, guess what, Elio? You decided to fucking marry me.” I grabbed his hand, showing him our rings. “So I’m always going to be involved, no matter what you want or not. I have to know what’s going on so I can protect myself and my daughter because you can’t do everything. You are not superhuman. You won’t be around to protect us all the time. And if you think I won’t shoot anyone who threatens our daughter, you’re dead wrong.”

I threw his hand away and curled up like a stute as I watched the emotions flicker around his face–panic and fear, worry and guilt, everything he wouldn’t come to lean on me for boiling over and exposing itself.

He looked like I had taken a dagger and stabbed him straight through the heart. Despite how much I wanted to comfort him, to tell him I loved him still, I knew he had to hear this. We couldn’t go on like this, not again.

I had to protect our daughter, and this was the only way I knew how to get into his thick skull.

“I...” he stammered, then his shoulders slumped, all the fight leaving him in a breath of air. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you or cause you more stress. I just... want to protect you, both of you.”

“Then start by being honest with me,” I told him firmly, softening up just the tiniest bit as he nodded, finally giving in.

He told me everything.

“MS13 started coming after us about four months ago,” Elio explained. “It started with small stuff–small deliveries stolen, contracts breached, and contacts switching loyalties on us, the usual stuff that other families will do. We didn’t worry about it at first, but things started to escalate. One of our guys was mugged in broad daylight, a full warehouse was burned down, and now we have our men being killed and left up in public as a message to us.”

I took a shaky breath. “So they’re after me and the baby because they want you to leave the city?”

“That’s right. We don’t have all the information, but they want to be the only ones in this area, so they’re making threats against you and the baby to try to scare us off. I thought we had it handled until you got shot.” He sneered. “Clearly, I failed.”

I grabbed his hand. “What have you been doing to combat their attacks?”

Elio snorted, glancing at me with a dead-serious look. “What we always do. Eye for an eye, Cat.”

I nodded grimly, knowing exactly what he meant.

“It’s only escalated from there. Each attack we make back, they do something more vicious and vice-versa. It’s tiresome and losing us resources.” He sighed, looking resigned to something he didn’t want to do. “So, we’re not letting it continue.”

“What do you mean?” I frowned.

“I mean–” He gave me a wry smile. “That my last meeting tonight is with the head of MS13 in LA. We’re going to try to negotiate and call a truce.”