Falling for My Ex’s Mafia Dad — Episode 72
Fay bought three pregnancy tests from different pharmacies, as if variety could change biology. She took them in Janeen’s bathroom while her mother waited beyond the door without offering false reassurance.
All three turned positive. The lines appeared quickly and without ambiguity. Fay sat on the closed toilet, one hand resting against a body that suddenly contained a future no plan had anticipated.
Janeen entered only when invited. She hugged Fay, then asked what she wanted rather than what Kent, Lorenzo, or either family would demand. The question made Fay cry harder than congratulations would have.
She wanted time. Pregnancy in their world was not private news; it could affect bail, inheritance, alliances, and physical safety. Grant had already imagined using a child before one existed.
Mara arranged a confidential medical appointment under another name. Ultrasound was too early for detail, but bloodwork confirmed the pregnancy and placed conception near Fay’s first night with Kent.
The doctor discussed options neutrally. Fay chose to continue the pregnancy because she wanted the child, not because bloodlines, romance, or fear required it. She wrote the sentence down before anyone else could rewrite the decision.
She told Daniel next. He stared, then laughed and cried at once. The absurdity of becoming public ex-fiancé, secret almost-brother, and future uncle overwhelmed them both.
Daniel promised help but warned the pregnancy could make Lorenzo more dangerous. An unborn Lippert-Alden heir represented the alliance Fay had dismantled and a claim neither don controlled.
Victoria reacted with terror. Lorenzo had used infant Fay to bind her decades earlier. She begged her daughter to disappear before history repeated itself.
Fay refused to build motherhood around flight. She would increase security and protect medical privacy, but the child would not grow inside a life defined entirely by hiding.
Ivan learned accidentally when he arrived for a legal meeting and found prenatal vitamins beside Mara’s files. His face revealed heartbreak before professional caution returned.
He asked whether Kent was the father. Daniel told him the question did not deserve an answer. Fay answered anyway because secrecy would become leverage the moment Ivan guessed.
Ivan said Grant’s archive contained contingency plans for a Lippert heir. Some files had vanished during deletion, including one labeled *Succession Pressure*. Lorenzo might already possess copies.
Fay ordered a search for every reference. She would not allow men to transform her child into a strategy before the first heartbeat could be heard.
Telling Kent required a protected legal visit. Mara warned that detention calls were monitored and pregnancy could be used to argue Fay would help him flee. The news needed attorney privilege.
Before the meeting could be arranged, Lorenzo held a press conference. He announced that Fay had been medically compromised by stress and that the Alden family would assume temporary oversight of her public obligations.
The statement contained no pregnancy disclosure, but its wording suggested he knew something. Fay checked the clinic system and discovered an unauthorized query of her laboratory alias.
The query originated from the same Alden medical company controlling the prison wing. Lorenzo had linked her confidential test to the shell network.
Fay prepared her own statement rejecting his authority. Before releasing it, a courier delivered a silver cradle charm that had belonged to Victoria.
The attached note read: *Congratulations, daughter. Bring me my grandchild, and Kent may live long enough to meet it.*