Chapter Thirteen

Alesso

We had spent another hour or so at Cian's before I called for a car and one of my men to come and collect mine considering I had had more drinks than I should have and I was not going to risk driving with Alice in the car when I was even a little intoxicated.

When the car arrived, we climbed in the back and sat in silence with Alice resting her head on my shoulder. I knew that my brothers would have to know about what we had found out today and the sooner the better because Cian had asked, or more like demanded a meeting to discuss security for Alice.

We arrived at my brother's house and climbed out still in silence until we reached the front door. "Alesso, do you mind telling your brother about this? I need to lie down. Today has been a lot and I have a headache." I looked down at Alice and hated how sad, fragile, and pale she looked.

"Of course, piccolo. Get some rest. I will wake you for dinner. I'll have someone bring you water and painkillers." I kissed Alice's forehead and wrapped my arms around her then watched her walk away from me and all I wanted to do was run after her and hold her until she felt better.

Sighing when Alice disappeared from view, I walked through the house and made sure that Alice would get her water and painkillers before making my way to my brother's office where I found my brother with Ana on his knee kissing and giggling.

I hated to disturb them in such a beautiful moment after everything they had been through but this was too important.

I coughed, getting their attention. "Is there something you need, Alesso?" I rolled my eyes when I heard the anger in my brother's voice but understood because I would be just as pissed if someone interrupted a moment like this with Alice.

"We have a new development." Ana's shoulders tensed and my brother's hands balled into fists.

"What the fuck has happened now?"

"We have to talk about Alice." This made my brother frown in confusion and Ana frown with obvious worry.

"Is Alice, okay?" Ana was just about to stand up but my smile made her stop and relax a little.

"She's fine. She's gone for a lie down because she had a headache but that's not why I'm here. Something has come to light that we need to discuss." I took the seat in front of my brother's desk as both Ana and Christian waited for what I had to tell them.

"Should we call Arturo and Cillian down for this?" Christian was already reaching for his phone.

"I think that's a good idea. What I have to tell you affects us all." Christian dialled Arturo's number and we listened to it ring out, which was unlike Arturo. Frowning I watched Christian dial another number.

"Mark, can you find Arturo and have him come to my office? Try his room first." Christian hung up and we waited in silence for Arturo to appear. A few minutes later the door to the office opened but instead of our brother, Mark walked in holding a note.

"I think you need to read this, boss." Christian took the note and read it silently making me impatient before folding it with a smirk on his face.

"Christian, what the fuck did the note say?"

"It would seem our brother, Cillian, and the lovely Jessica decided to fly to Vegas and make their relationship official." Christian chuckled and I shook my head though I couldn't deny the pinch of jealousy because I would love nothing more than to do the same with Alice.

Though no doubt given who I know she is now, when we are married the wedding will be over the top and very extravagant.

"Can you call the phone on the plane? We all need to know what I have found out." My tone was harsh which I needed to fix because I was happy for my brother, despite my jealousy.

I heard Ana muttering under her breath but couldn't quite hear what she was saying as she shook her head and smiled while rubbing her stomach lovingly, making me smile with excitement to meet my niece or nephew.

It was then that I remembered to text Addy to come here.

'Hey, little sis. You're needed at Christian's ASAP.'

It didn't take a second for her to reply.

'On my way. Everything okay?' xxx

'Yeah, we just have something we need to talk about. All of us.'

'We are on our way'

I didn't reply knowing that it would only take a few minutes to get here.

I placed my phone on the desk and waited until Christian got through to the plane phone. It had rang out a few times until finally it was picked up and the familiar yet breathy and slightly frustrated sound of Arturo's voice filled the air.

"Who's this?" Christian shook his head at the tone of our brother's voice and I couldn't help but smile knowing we had likely just interrupted something I would give anything to be doing with Alice right now.

"You left a fucking note to tell us you were getting married?" Christian had just finished his last word when the door burst open with a breathless Adelina followed by an equally breathless and furious-looking Luca.

"I told you to slow the fuck down, Addy. Jesus, woman you could have tripped. What about the fucking baby?" Addy waved Luca off her rolling her eyes.

"I'm fine. Stop fussing. Who the fuck is getting married?"

"Addy, I told you to come over to discuss something. I told you it wasn't serious. Luca's right you shouldn't be running, for fuck's sake!" I was furious with my sister who ignored me.

"Who the fuck is getting married?"

"Arturo, you wanna tell our sister what's happening?" Christian wrapped his arms around Ana and kissed her shoulder smiling.

"Well, Cillian, Jessica, and I decided we wanted to get married and we all know how impatient we are in this family so we decided after everything that's happened to say fuck it and get on the jet and fly to Vegas so that's what we are doing. We are just discussing who should make it legal and which one has a blessing. Sorry, we didn't tell you."

"I can't believe you have robbed me of the chance to plan a wedding. Do you realize how selfish that is?"

"Oh shush, little sister. You have Ana's wedding and we will celebrate this one when we get back. So, if that's all you want. I will call you when we land." I knew that he was seconds away from hanging up. So, I quickly spoke, stopping him before he could.

"No, wait. There is something that we need to talk about before you go."

"Can't it wait until we are back?"

"Look, the sooner I say what I have to say the sooner you can get back to your plans! So, will you all shut the fuck up and let me talk?" My tone seemed to shock everyone into silence because I was never one for harsh tones when it came to how I spoke to my family.

"Fine. Jeez, who pissed in your fucking cereal." Adelina was rolling her eyes as she took a seat on the sofa next to her husband.

"Sorry. It's just been a long day." I pinched the bridge of my nose feeling a headache coming on and all I wanted was to be upstairs lying beside my woman.

"You all know after what happened this morning, Alice wanted to see her mom and grandmother." Everyone nodded but stayed silent.

"Well, I didn't know that the other reason that she wanted to see her mom was because she had some questions, she needed the answers to."

"Questions about what? She didn't tell her mom what happened, did she? We can't have that, Alesso. You will need to get a handle on that."

"Calm down, Christian. She didn't tell her mom about what happened. She had questions about her father."

"Oh, well that makes sense given the fact that Isabelle and Gino were father and daughter and she just watched them be killed." Ana's look of concern made me once more grateful that she was in Alice's life knowing that she would always protect her and be in her corner.

"That wasn't why." Ana's look of concern turned into a frown as the room remained silent as they waited for me to tell them what was going on. "Alice figured something out this morning and she wasn't the only one."

"Oh, come on, brother. Just spit it out." Addy was bouncing her knee impatiently as was her oh so charming way.

"Cian is Alice's father." I took a deep breath and waited for the fall out which didn't take too long in coming as questions came flying at me from everyone, everyone apart from Ana who looked thoughtful.

"What the fuck! "What did Cian say?" Christian was the first to speak, followed by Arturo, then Addy.

"How the fuck? Does Cian know?"

"Oh my god!"

"Guys, can you stop fucking yelling at me? You're giving me a headache." I sighed with relief when everyone stopped yelling and silence filled the room.

"Oh god, how did we not see it before? They look so much alike." Ana's soft voice broke the silence in the room.

"Yeah…fuck! Well, now we know, I can't unsee it."

I had to agree with Addy.

"So, what does this mean for us? Does Cian know?" Christian's business head was clearly on now that the chaos had died down.

"Yeah, we have been at Cian's all morning, pretty much."

"How the fuck is this possible?" I gave Christian a little shrug.

"Turns out, Cian and his wife split for a short while and he dated Alice's mom for a little bit. Then I don't know if you guys remember what happened with Cian and his sister?"

"Yeah. She was a messed-up fuck. How he let her get away so easily I'll never know." I could hear the anger in Arturo's voice from over the phone, which I shared as did the rest of us, apart from Ana who looked confused. If there was one thing, we don't tolerate, it's hurting innocent women or children.

"What happened?" I felt bad because Ana was the only one in the room that had no idea what happened but I couldn't go through that part of the story again.

"Christian can explain later. Just trust me Cian let her off easily for what she did."

"Well, can you at least tell me what Cian did to her?"

"He shot her." I didn't wait for Ana's reply. I just continued talking. "What Cian didn't realise that night was when he shot his sister, Alice's mom was at the restaurant because she was supposed to be meeting Cian for dinner but she had arrived early and somehow she saw him shoot his sister and ran. As you can imagine from that moment on, she was terrified of him. Then when she found out she was pregnant she stayed away. She wasn't just scared of Cian physically she was scared he would take Alice away from her. After all, Cian has a lot of money and a lot of power."

"That makes sense." Addy was staring at her hands speaking without looking up and when I looked around the room at everyone else, I noticed the looks of shock that had been written all over everyone's faces only moments ago were now replaced with looks of concern and sadness because let's face it, the whole situation was tragic.

"So, what's going to happen now?" I noticed that Christian had wrapped his arms tighter around Ana who was once again rubbing her stomach affectionately.

"For now, Cian wants to arrange a meeting to discuss Alice's security and given what just happened to his other child you can see why he won't risk Alice. Especially, considering he has only just found out about her. I would expect him to go into full-on overprotective father mode and you won't hear any complaints about that from me. As long as he doesn't interfere in my relationship with Alice."

The office phone began to ring but I think everyone was too stunned to register the sound, so I leaned over to pick it up after a few minutes but the phone stopped ringing before I could reach it.

"Well, this is a lot to take in." I smiled when I heard Cillian sound as shocked as we all had been with all the revelations of today. "Where is Alice? Is she okay?"

"She's gone for a lie-down. She had a headache but I suspect she needed some time alone to take everything in."

"I can Imagine. This is a lot for us to take in, so Alice's head must be all over the place. Is there anything that we can do?" Addy had moved forward in her seat, concern written all over her face.

"I think what she is going to need is just for us to be there for her. I don't think we should pressure her to talk about things if she isn't ready but just to let her know that we are here if she ever needs or wants to. This is a whole new world for her now, and while she has been somewhat involved since meeting me, this is different. She faces threats now not just because of her being with me but once word gets out that Cian is her father the threats that come with this lifestyle will double."

"Which is why my daughter's security is our priority right now!"

We all turned to see Cian standing by the office door with a flustered Mark behind him. "Sorry, boss. He just stormed past security. I tried calling but there was no answer."

"It's okay. Go back to the gate." Christian waved his hand dismissively at Mark who walked away with a pissed-off look at Cian who hadn't noticed because his eyes hadn't left Christian's

"Cian, please come in and take a seat. It would seem we have a lot to discuss." Christian waved his hand at the empty seat beside me and Cian didn't hesitate to take the seat.

Ana

I made my way upstairs with Christian behind me closing the door as I sat on the bed rubbing the back of my neck. We had spent hours in the office as everyone discussed Alice's security and I suddenly felt so sorry for her. Alesso had thought her security would be doubled but it was so much worse.

Cian had insisted that as long as Alice remained living here not only did he want all of the background information on all of Christian's security so that he could review it he also wanted all of the information on the house staff and we'd had to call Carla to discuss everything because Cian wanted the same checks to her staff, due to how closely Carla worked with Christian.

Poor Alice was effectively going to be living in a gilded cage that whenever or if ever she was let out she would have more security than the US president. I thought I had it bad but I had it so easy compared to Alice.

However, when I saw Christian listening so intently to all the reasons Alice needed so much security I worried that he would be just as insane when It came to our child, or even me.

Christian sat beside me and wrapped his arms around me and I rested my head on his shoulder, sighing with relief to be alone.

That was until Christian started to speak.

"You know, Ana, Cian has a point about…"

"Christian, Don't! I have enough security. Not to mention when am I ever away from you?"

"You heard what Cian said, now that we have dealt with Isabelle and Gino there might be a backlash. Can we not add more security for a little while and then when things have calmed down we can revisit the subject?" I didn't want to give him what he wanted but we always speculated that there may be a backlash once Gino and Isabelle were gone, but the idea of more security left me feeling like I would be a prisoner in my own home.

I looked up at Christian and the worry I saw on his face killed any fight I had against the subject…for now. "Fine, But this will be revisited, Christian. I won't live like Alice for the rest of my life. I refuse to be a prisoner wherever I am. Once the baby is born you can teach me self defence so that I can protect myself. You can teach me how to use a gun. Eventually, we will lower security. Promise me, Christian!"

"I promise, princess. We will revisit it and I will help you train. I just want you and our baby to be safe. I already nearly lost you once I can't go through that again. I think now that Gino and his fucking daughter were gone I relaxed until Cian came today and I guess my worry is back not that it ever fully leaves where you are concerned. I just love you so fucking much." Christian pressed his forehead against mine and pressed his hand to my stomach over mine.

"Okay, I won't fight the security. I don't want you worrying." The worry in Christian's voice made me frown because I suddenly realised that I didn't want him distracted with worry and then miss the danger that he might be in. So, if he knew I was safe he would be more aware of his own surroundings when he wasn't with me.

Christian sat back and smiled at me before pressing his lips to my forehead holding the side of my face lovingly with the hand that wasn't over mine on my stomach. It still shocked me sometimes that a man I knew could be so brutal and ruthless was capable of being so gentle.

I wrapped my arms around Christian and smiled loving the feeling of his arms wrapped around me. Filling me with so much love and safety.

It was at this moment that the feeling that Christian was my home solidified. No, that's not enough. Christian was my heart and soul! He was my everything and without him, I couldn't survive. I finally realised why when some people lose their partner then pass not long after, of what people say is a broken heart because I knew that that would be my fate.

"Hey, Ana. What's wrong, baby?" I was pulled out of my thoughts by Christian's concerned voice, as he pulled me in tighter. It was then that I realised I was clinging to Christian as tight as I could while tears fell from my eyes.

I took in a few deep breaths then pulled back and kissed Christian as the tears continued. I pulled at his clothes desperate to feel his skin against mine and after a slight pause, Christian started removing mine with a passion that could burn the world.

We continued undressing each other ignoring the sound of material ripping, As the sounds of our heavy breathing and kissing and slight moans were the only sounds in the room.

I pulled back from Christian once I was naked before straddling him and lifting myself enough to grab his hard cock and place him at my entrance then lowering myself down painfully slowly.

Our faces were inches from each other as our breaths mingled with one another and our eyes remained on each other. Christian was holding my face in his hands using his thumbs to wipe away the tears that continued to flow.

We remained silent as I slowly moved up and down my aching pussy squeezing him, never wanting to let him leave my body. If I could have frozen time in this moment I would have done so, forever.

As warmth seeped through my skin and melted my bones as the pleasure built with each stroke inside me my eyes slowly closed and Christian broke through our heavy breaths and soft moans.

"Open your eyes, Princess. I want to see the love I feel for you reflected in your beautiful eyes. Give me your heart, baby." I opened my eyes and pressed my forehead against Christians keeping my eyes on his as I spoke.

"You have my heart for eternity." My words had never been truer. I finally knew what it was like to have the love I had only dreamed about or read about in the books I loved so much. Only living that love in real life was so much more than I could ever have imagined.

The tears stopped flowing and Christian's hands had moved down my back to my waist holding me down so he was seated fully inside me and moved me back and forth so that my clit rubbed against him making the already building pleasure skyrocket and before I knew it, I was coming so hard that I couldn't catch my breath and began to feel a little light-headed, Which only added to the pleasure.

I still hadn't looked away from Christian's eye but not a single sound left my mouth as my pussy continued to contract around him and I could feel myself soaking The bedding and Christian's legs but I didn't care and neither did he.

Christian wrapped around my throat but didn't squeeze he just pressed his fingers lightly against my pulse. "Breath, Ana." It was then that I realised I had still not let out a breath since my seemingly never-ending orgasm had started.

I let out a breath that was followed by a loud moan and as soon as I did felt Christian release inside me coating me with his warm cum adding to the orgasm I was beginning to fear was going to consume me.

It was by far the most intense sex we had ever had which considering the sex we had had before now I had thought was as intense as it could get shocked me. Christian and I poured every bit of love we had for each other through our eyes and into each other's hearts and I knew then that from this moment our hearts would only ever beat for each other.

Rings, marriage certificates, ceremonies, dresses, churches, hen do's, bachelor parties, none of it mattered. I was already his wife.

Other women who would try to come between us because I knew there would be more, they didn't matter because they weren't his destiny. They weren't the other half of his soul. I was!

Nothing mattered anymore, apart from Christian and I and the family we created together. This was truly what being soulmates meant. I know no matter where we are or how many people are in between us, no matter how many lives or worlds are between us we will always find each other.

After a few minutes, Christian lifted us both and carried me to the top of the bed, pulled back the covers, and climbed onto the bed laying us both down, and somehow he never left my body as we rested on our sides facing each other.

"I'm never letting you go, Ana." I smiled at him and wiped his hair much to my delight curled when it was damp from his sweat-damp face.

"You can't." Christian smiled and pulled me closer by the waist.

"Oh, yeah, and why is that, princess?" My smile left my face as my eyes pierced his so that I could show him the seriousness of my words.

"Until I met you I never believed truly in soul mates and destiny. I wanted to and I wrote about it and dreamed about it but never really believed it, and then I met you. You came into my life and you changed it irrevocably. You gave me the love I never believed I deserved or thought was in my cards."

Christian opened his mouth to speak but I placed my finger over his lips and shook my head making him stay silent. "I see me in your eyes. I see my heart in yours. I live, breathe, and survive for you, and I know that it's the same for you because I see the same feelings reflected back at me.

I was shocked to see tears in Christian's eyes as he nodded his head in agreement. I hid the shock I felt because I had more to say and didn't want to ruin this perfect moment.

"So, you see, Christian, you can't let me go because I can't let you go. I don't work without you. I know now that I wasn't living before I met you. I was simply existing until I found you. If I lost you I know for certain that my heart wouldn't survive it. When we leave this world I want it to be together in a moment just like this one. After we have watched our children grow up and find their happily ever after. After we have watched them make lives for themselves. Have families of their own if they want." My breath caught in my chest as I held back a sob thinking about the family and life we would create.

"Only after we have lived our lives, seen all we want to see, done everything we wanted to do. Only then will I leave this world with you and ready to start our next." Christian grabbed my face in his hands and kissed me as his tears dropped on my face and mine mingled with his, joining us together in yet another way.

Once our kiss finished Christian pulled his face from mine and smiled with tears still shining in his eyes. "Deal, princess." That was all that needed to be said as I laid my head on his chest and fell into a deep sleep filled with dreams of our future that had replaced the nightmares of my past.

I know there would be more issues and bad people that we would face but we would face them together and no matter what we would do everything to win. For each other, and for our family.