Sweet Temptation

I’d never been present during a birth. Gaia hadn’t allowed me to witness this moment of a baby being born. I hadn’t insisted because I wanted her and our baby to be safe during labor. I didn’t want her arguing with me.

This time was different. In every regard. Giulia wanted me at her side, needed me. I held her hand through every new wave of pain, felt her body convulse under the force of it, marveled at her strength and her ability to gift me with her beautiful smile whenever she got a respite. Seeing her in agony was the worst thing I could imagine, but I was grateful that she allowed me to witness this.

“One more push,” the doula encouraged after almost five hours of labor.

Giulia clutched my hand, her face scrunching up. She was tired and sweaty. The floor was covered in fluid, my clothes were drenched with sweat and her blood. It was a mess, and yet the most beautiful moment in my life.

And then a cry rang out. I tensed, holding my breath at the same time as Giulia went slack with relief. I stared at Giulia’s red, sweaty face, contorted in pain only moments ago, now filled with a bliss I could hardly comprehend. Her eyes were frozen on the bundle the doula held up, but I could not tear my eyes from my wife, from the woman who’d saved me and my children from a dark path. Giulia slanted me a stunned look and finally, I dragged my gaze away from her to see the little baby that had caused her such bliss.

He was wrinkly and smeared with blood, and it clicked. That bliss on Giulia’s face… it crowded my chest, made me feel almost lightheaded with its force. The doula came over to us and put our son in Giulia’s arms. Gabriel was beautiful. I wrapped my arm around Giulia’s shoulders, kissing her temple, filled with more gratefulness than I ever considered myself capable of. Her smile was pure love, unrestrained joy.

I would have been happy with only two kids, but now that Gabriel lay in Giulia’s arms, now that I’d witnessed his birth, I knew this would make our life even more perfect.

Going through labor once was definitely enough, which was why I was entirely grateful that we already had three kids, two of which I didn’t have to squeeze out of me. I loved Daniele and Simona with all my heart, and Gabriel joining our little family didn’t change it. Still, I was glad that I experienced pregnancy, not so much the actual birth, just once.

The day after I’d given birth, Simona and Daniele visited the hospital with Elia. They both stared down at Gabriel’s sleeping form in his crib as if he was an alien.

I stifled a smile. Cassio touched their shoulders. His clothes were wrinkly from spending the night in hospital, and his stubble looked much scruffier than he preferred, but his eyes lit up with pride. “Now you have a little brother to watch over. That means you’ll have to stop fighting all the time or it’ll upset the baby.”

Daniele gave his dad a doubtful expression, looking right through him.

Nice try.

“You said he’d look cute, but he’s all wrinkly, and he’s shedding skin from his head,” Simona said with a wrinkled nose.

Cassio sighed. With a laugh, I got out of bed and slowly made my way over to them despite the pain in my lower body. “He’s a newborn. That’s how they look. I think he’s impossibly cute.”

“Was I a cute baby?” she asked.

“Yes,” Cassio and I said at the same time.

Daniele frowned. I wrapped my arm around him, whispering, “I love you.” He smiled, abandoning whatever dark thoughts had bothered him. “I’m glad you got me a brother and not a sister like Simona wanted.”

“You need to thank your dad for that.”

Cassio narrowed his eyes at me when Simona and Daniele looked at him for answers. Grinning, I walked up to him. “Maybe you need to have the talk about the birds and the bees soon.”

“I talked to Daniele, and Simona doesn’t need to know anything until she’s sixteen or seventeen.”

I rolled my eyes. “I was seventeen when we got engaged.”

“Don’t remind me.” He kissed my lips, causing our children to make disgusted faces.

“It worked out well.”

“It did,” he agreed, peering down at our sleeping newborn son.

In the afternoon, Mom, Dad, and Christian came to visit. I had seen my parents at Mansueto’s funeral, but we had only exchanged public pleasantries. We hadn’t really talked once since our fight. They probably held it against me that I asked Luca to threaten them. That was why I was surprised to see them.

Cassio hovered beside the window, not greeting either of my parents as they stepped in. He shook hands with Christian, however, which made me smile. My brother turned to me then and hugged me awkwardly because I cradled Gabriel in my arms. “Congrats. From Corinna as well. She would have come but she’s feeling sick often.” His wife was pregnant with their third child.