Married To The Mafia

34. Who's Pete?

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|| ANIKA KING ||

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"I will ask you one more time Annie, who's the f*cking father?" Caleb fisted my hair and twisted it around, making me whimper in pain.

"I.. d-don't.. k-know!!" I croaked out, only to have my head banged against the foot of my old bed.

"I know you know." He sounded so different. So manic. This wasn't my brother.

"Caleb please!" I begged him.

"I will let you go if you give me the money and tell me who the father is?" He spat onto my face while I sobbed, terrified of my only brother.

"Ca-"

He threw me to the floor and glared at me, "Either you tell me or it dies!"

"Caleb no!"

He pulled his foot up and brought it down on my stomach.

"NO!"

I started awake by the sound of my own screaming and the crashing of something. My head snapped to the side to see Gregory standing next to a broken bottle of beer, and then to my own stomach as I touched it and inspected it, becoming more aware of my own surrounding.

I quickly grabbed my phone as I breathed heavily, wiping away the sweat and tears from my face.

I facetimed Joanne but it was Olivia who picked up.

"Hey.." She whispered. "We just got back from work and these two adorable babies are fast asleep here and Jo's nowhere to be found." She panned the camera towards Ava and Wolverine sleeping together on the kitchen couch.

My little darling. She was alright.

"Oooh.. Chocochip cookies are baking!" Stella exclaimed from the background as she stared into the oven.

"You okay Annie? You look ill." Olivia moved out of the kitchen to the back porch.

"I just got up from a nap." I said. It was true.

"What time is it there, two?"

I nodded.

"Well you should be chilling right now. Why aren't you having fun?"

"I plan to head out around four."

"And I presume busy old Gregory isn't coming with you?"

"Uh.." I looked over at Gregory whose expression morphed into one of annoyance.

"SHIT!!" She whisper-yelled while I let out a giggle.

"Oh hey, there's Joanne. I will talk to you later!" She quickly hung up while I laughed some more, completely forgetting about my fear for those brief moments.

"Did you have a nightmare?" Gregory asked as he dialed the hotel landline.

I nodded. "Only it was in the middle of the day."

"This is from the penthouse suite, we need the housekeeping service." He said and hung up after a few moments.

He looked at me and sighed. "Something happened today. Did Joanne or Ava tell you?"

I nodded. "Joanne told me. Ava has been sleeping every time I tried to talk to her after that." I felt my eyes well up again. I had chosen the worst time to leave her by herself.