Isaac's POV

"Isaac," Hailey speaks softly as she continues to trail her fingers up and down my bare back.

"Hmm?" I hum, keeping my eyes closed not moving a single inch from the spot I'm in. Which is in my wife's arms, laying on top of her on the couch, in our living room.

We've been living on our own, in our own house for about half a year now. It's been about six months since Isaiah, our son, was discharged from the hospital. He was admitted for a total of five weeks, a little over a month.

After he got released we stayed at my parents house for about a month so that my parents can help us out with being new parents, my mom more than my dad of course. She's honestly been a true blessing, an amazing grandmother helping Hailey out as much as she could, she's back to being her normally bubbly loving self.

It definitely took a while for her to forgive my father for everything he put her through, she even threw him out of their bedroom, apparently the second Hailey and I moved out to make him really grovel.

Things slowly started falling back into place about three months ago at most. Even the air in the atmosphere was starting to feel a lot thinner, no one was walking on eggshells around anyone.

Parenthood has definitely been hard with Isaiah being a preemie baby. The doctors say he's prone to get sick a lot more easily than the average infant so the past few months have definitely been stressful and scary. It felt as if we were spending our entire day in an urgent care room every other two to three weeks, but things finally seem to be settling down and looking up.

Isaiah has not needed any medical care in the last two months and I pray to God that it stays that way, I hate feeling entirely helpless not being able to know what's bothering my little guy. I hate seeing how distressed my wife gets every time she can't calm our son down and we're rushing to his pediatrician.

"Isaac," Hailey trails her fingers into my hair, making little small circular motions. "Baby you gotta wake up."

I shake my head, tightening my grip around her, "twenty more minutes," I grumble.

"Babe, you've been sleeping for over an hour. We gotta get up and get ready before guests start showing up."

I inhale a deep breath slowly starting to stretch my body out, turning to lay on my side. I look up at my wife. "Remind me why we decided to do this here in our house."

Hailey smiles, brushing some hair strands from my face and leans down to kiss me on the forehead, "because it wouldn't be a surprise party if we did it at his house."

I smile and reach a hand out, placing it on the back of her neck. I keep her in place so that I can turn on my back and kiss her on the lips.

She instantly begins to giggle as she tries to push away from me. "Isaac!"

"It's not too late to cancel," I say in between kisses.

She playfully smacks me on my shoulder blade, "stop it, be nice, it's your dads birthday. We haven't celebrated anything in a while together."

"We also haven't had sex in a while," I grumble playfully, which is also very true. I haven't touched my wife in over three weeks now, maybe a month or so and it's started to drive me insane.

Hailey smiles and leans down to kiss me, "and whose fault is that, Mr. I'm gonna work late again tonight. Mr. Give Isaiah a goodnight kiss for me. Mr.-"

"Alright, I get it," I chuckle. "I'm sorry. Things have been pretty hectic now that Pops is officially locked out of everything."

She smiles nodding her head, "you warned him ahead of time that if he didn't stop meddling you were going to cut him off and he didn't listen."

I nod.

Pops trying to wing off boss and enjoy retirement is definitely a lot harder than he thought it would be. He kept putting his two cents where they didn't need to be, trying to do things here and there his way still, stating that he was only trying to help to take some stress off. I warned him a month ago if he didn't quit it that I was going to have the tech team completely lock him out of everything and they did.

He no longer had any type of access to any of my logs, any of the notes, files, anything, he wasn't even allowed on the warehouse premises anymore, another reason why Hailey wanted to throw him a surprise party. He genuinely has nothing to do nowadays so she thought he could use a little distraction and pick me up.

"Get up," Hailey taps her hand on my shoulder. "I gotta go shower."

I nod and sit up, "I'll be in there in a minute."

"And leave our son unattended," she points to Isaiah in his playpen. "Nauh. You could've been in this body an hour ago, but you chose to nap instead," she smiles smugly. "Check his pampy," she pats her hand on my lap. "I won't be long, I'm not washing my hair."

I nod my head kissing her on the lips before she takes off upstairs.

I get up from the couch a second later and walk over to my 7 month olds play pin and pick him up in my arms. "Come on little man, it's me and you for a bit," I tell him as I begin to head towards the stairs, checking his diaper. "You potty?"

His diaper is nearly clean but a little damp so we continue our way into his nursery. Isaiah is hardly ever in this room though, Hailey and I usually only bring him in here to change him, he sleeps in the bedroom with us in his crib, of course after he falls asleep in Hailey's arms because my boy of course is a big momma's boy.

Heading towards the changing table/dresser I set Isaiah down, undoing the onesie he has on.

There's a soft knock on the open door moments later and I'm quickly looking over to find Cris standing in the door.

"Hey," I frown and glance up at the clock on my son's walls. "You're early," I point out. "Where's Pops?"

He shakes his head, "out with your mom, she's bringing him in a couple hours."

"What's up? Why do you look like you're about to pass out?"

He scoffs, "I t-think I just might." I quickly look back over at him. "I fucked up little bro."

My frown deepens but I stay quiet allowing him to continue as I finish changing my son's diaper.

"It's Gabby."

Gabby, also known as Gabrielle, is or was, I don't know anymore- Cris' friend with benefits, girlfriend, to ex girlfriend, to girlfriend again.

They met at the hospital when Cris was last admitted and she was one of the CNA's on his floor.

Cris immediately became infatuated with her and they started hanging out here and there. They instantly hit it off and immediately fell in love with the little brunette and asked her out officially about three months ago.

She obviously knew who he was, who his father is, family are now, and was reluctant to start a relationship with him and turned him down a couple times stating that they should just stay friends, afraid of what my father will think.

Did I mention that Gabrielle isn't italian? She's Hispanic mixed with something else I can't remember, but definitely not Italian.

Cris and I have gotten a lot closer with each other these past few months since everything got aired out that were related and he's always running to me with his and Gab's issues.

Hailey and I actually double dated with them a couple times and agreed that we like her for him. She's a sweetheart, she might be even more anxious than Hailey and she loves that because she can finally relate to someone. She can finally have someone that can look up to her but it's also the same reason why I had to warn Cris to take things slow and remind my wife not to get attached to her new friend.

Pops was more than hesitant when Hailey and I first started dating, It definitely took some time for him to warm up to her. He may be a different man now from a couple years ago but I know him better than Cris does and bad habits die hard. As sweet as she is, I told Cris about what happened with Hailey and I because I wasn't sure just how accepting he would be if he found out that his first born was now also dating an 'estranea.'

And he wasn't.

My father obviously has a handful of men who would still jump in front of a bullet for him and went behind my back and told my dad that his other son was too dating an outsider.

I quickly took care of the situation, the snitch. Pops definitely wasn't happy about losing one of his OG men but he was no longer in charge and learned the hard way that he can't continue meddling into things he no longer has rights too, even if that meant I had to lose some very good men. That was his official wanting that he didn't heath.

I guess in a way Pop expected better from his first born. He swears that he's just trying to save him from all the heartache and problems Hailey and I went through but this city, my city, was no longer a threat to this family.

Cris obviously felt some type of way when my father had his conversation with him and he immediately cut things off with Gabrielle. Afraid of letting our father down of course, not afraid of her getting hurt.

It took awhile for me to see it but letting people down, disappointing people was Cris' biggest trigger from the man who he used to think was his father.

Cris honestly doesn't show it but Cristo definitely did a number on him.

After breaking up with Gabby, Cris ended up getting drunk and showed up at my house in the middle of the night crying his heart thinking my father would disown him for falling in love with someone who wasn't a part of our lifestyle. He even went as far as referring to Pops as dad finally; crying that he didn't want dad to hate him.

Being so intoxicated Cris actually opened up about a lot of things that night, one of those things completely making me sick to my stomach.

Cristo may have not been physically abusive like my father was but he was definitely mentally abusive, he just found other ways to punish his son when he was misbehaving, one of them being locked up in their basement apparently.

My blood instantly began to prickle as my older half brother poured his heart out, telling me how the longest Cristo would leave him locked up down there was for a week straight with no sunlight, no water, no food, just a sad broken little boy in his own head and fears.

He opened up about so much that night that I instantly felt our brother bond immediately tether and lock into place because I wanted to bring Cristo back from the dead just to rekill him for putting Cris through everything he went through.

Cris also opened up about his sisters, he rarely ever speaks about them but he started telling me how much he loved them and if it weren't for them he probably would've ended his life a long time ago. How they would sneak him in food through a little opening through the wall when their father wasn't home. It wasn't much to begin granted, mainly granola bars, small fruits, snacks, anything to attempt to keep his hunger at bay.

I felt sick, I was uncomfortable, livid, by the time Cris knocked out and stayed with him a little while longer that night to make sure he was genuinely sleeping and immediately called my father, telling him what had happened.

My dad practically flew to our house the second he hung up the phone and came to check on Cris, needing to see if he was okay for himself, seeing the instant guilt in his eyes for triggering such a horrid feeling.

It took a while but I convinced him to go back home to my mom and Ayra. Cris would still be here in the morning, he could come back then and talk to him.

Pops actually started tearing up that night seconds before he left and pulled me in for a hug apologizing yet again that he wished he could've been the father I needed, that he wished he could do things differently.

I reassured him that everything was fine, I forgave him months ago like I told him. Life was giving him a second chance with Isaiah and Ayra, he needed to move on and forgive himself so he could be the best grandpa/father they need now.

Pops and Cris had a very heartwarming heart to heart that morning when I texted him to tell him he was awake. My dad reminded him that he was safe, that there wasn't a thing on this earth that he could do to make him hate him, we weren't going anywhere, family's fight, they get upset but it didn't mean that he didn't love him any less and gave him his blessing to date Gabby if it meant he was happy.

He's actually been wanting to meet Gabs for a while now but they weren't exactly in a good place at the time so Pops told him to take things slow, to learn from his mistakes, from my mistakes, to enjoy each others company and life, yet here this fucker was about to drop the biggest fucking bomb on me.

I shake my head and chortle as I lift my son up from the changing table. I already fucking know what the fuck he's gonna say and I don't want to hear it, not today, not on Pops birthday.

"Don't you dare fucking say it."

I look over in his direction to see his forehead beaded with sweat, an ashy gray look all over his face.

"She's pregnant."

"Cazzo! I told you not to fucking say it! Now I'm involved in your fuck up!"

"I'm freaking out here dude, I- I don't know what the fuck to do."

"Calm the fuck down," I snarl walking in his direction. "Here," I hand him Isaiah.

Cris frowns looking down at his nephew and in my direction in the next, his chest starting to rise up and down. Isaiah immediately gets happy the second I put him in his uncle's arms pulling at his chain.

I watch Cris bring up another shaky hand, placing it behind Isaiah.

"You drop my son and I'll hurt you, Cris."

He shakes his head, "I won't."

"Good, just focus on him while I figure this shit out."

"I don't want to be a dad, Isaac, I can't, I barely know how to be an uncle."

"Shut the fuck up," I wave a hand in his direction. "When did she find out?"

"This morning," he answers. "She took two tests because she realized she was late but we assumed it was because of stress. I rushed her over to the clinic for blood work, in denial I didn't want to believe it."

"Where is she now?"

"Back at my place. She freaking out, crying her eyes out."

"And you just left her?!" I raise my voice.

"What? No! She was sleeping when I left!"

I pinch the bridge of my nose inhaling a deep breath, "out of all the days you guys could've chosen to take a test you just had to choose today huh."

"Things are barely starting to get better, Isaac, she's finally starting to get comfortable again, now she doesn't even want to come tonight."

Cris was bringing Gabrielle to Pop's surprise party tonight so he could finally meet her.

"Stop. You're a grown ass man, it's not like you're a teen introducing your sixteen year old pregnant girlfriend. We're all adults here."

"It hasn't even been a year yet and I'm already dumping shit on him.. Happy birthday dad, this is Gabby, by the way I did the one thing you told me not to do and got her pregnant."

"Gabby's pregnant?"

Cris is quickly turning to look behind him as I smile at Hailey who's now standing in our son's doorframe.

I nod, "looks like uncles getting promoted to daddy."

"That's not funny. I can't be a dad yet, I don't want to be a dad, I don't want kids."

Hailey smiles as she walks up to Cris and is reaching for Isaiah, "should've thought about that before you shot your load into some innocent poor girl."

I grimmance and shake my head as I chuckle, "gross, can we please not use the word load while speaking to my brother."

"What?" She smiles. "That one is straight from your vocabulary!"

"Exactly! My vocabulary!" I grin. "Those words should never leave your mouth, babe!"

She smiles, looking back over at Cris. "Where's Gabby? How is she doing?"

"Back at my place. She's scared."

"Of what he might say? Or being parents?"

Cris nods, "both, more of how he'll react."

Hailey shakes her head as she continues to hang onto our son.

Motherhood definitely suits her. I can stare at her endlessly when Isaiah is in her arms, when she's being a mom more than a wife, I fall in love harder every day when I wake up with her and Isaiah in bed.

"He'll get over it," she says. "I can't guarantee you that he won't lose his shit because this is Carmelo we're talking about, but he'll get over it once the temper tantrum goes down. After all, Gabby is adding to his bloodline, his blood runs through your veins and yours in hers now."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Cris mutters. "I didn't exactly give her the reaction she wanted and she lost her shit, threatening to do it alone if I didn't want any part of it. What if she decides to leave and he loses his shit?"

There's a now worried look on my wife's face.

"Cris-"

She immediately sticks out her hand, shutting me up.

"Do you love this woman, Cris?" He nods. "Then suck it up and stop being a pussy."

Both Cris and I initially look at each other, shocked, me more amused than surprised, Hailey's potty mouth has definitely progressed this past few months.

"This life, your life, Isaac's life, shit even my life definitely ain't easy on account of who you're biologically related to, but it doesn't mean you have to live in fear, Cris. You either love that woman so much that you'll do anything to protect her and that little life she's now growing! Whether that means you grow a pair and stand up to your dad or you let her walk away and hide her from this world, she should not want anything to do with us of course."

She looks back and forth from Cris and I.

"Honestly I'm a little annoyed and disappointed that you would think Carmelo would have any type of negative reaction. Yeah he might get upset but the man who used to be the deadliest fear mafia leader is now a big softie. He's nothing but a family man now, he's been the world's best grandpa ever since Isaiah was born, give him some credit."

"He only gets mad because he tries to paint out and pin point our lives the way he wished he could've lived his, Cris." I chime in. "Pops didn't get to enjoy his childhood because of who his father was and even after he couldn't enjoy his 20s because he was a completely changed man after the accident. He met my mom and had me almost instantly, he never got to enjoy life for himself."

Cris inhales a deep breath, looking over in Isaiah's direction.

"Hey." Cris shifts his attention to me. "You are not him. You'll be nothing like Cristo."

He nods.

I walk over to him placing my hand on his shoulder, "you're not letting anyone down. You're not alone."

He nods again.

"Call Gabby. Tell her to get her ass over here before I send a truck for her." Cris snorts softly. "We're with you bro. We're with her, I got her back, we're family."

Hailey lets out a small squeal. "How exciting, Isaiah's gonna have a cousin to grow up with, along with Iridiana and Milo's baby!!"

***

Two hours later my entire backyard is filled with our closest friends and family.

My dad definitely lost his shit the second he walked into our house and saw everyone standing around, expecting to only walk into a room filled with our family.

Pops hates surprises, genuinely hates them, which is why Hailey decided that we should throw him a surprise birthday party for his 46th birthday. She loves nothing more than bringing that man or anyone for the matter out of their comfort zone and I loved that about her.

Today is also the first time that all the families get together since I've taken over the faction and have my first sit down as boss. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous of having all the attention on me, it's a little nerve wracking having to fill in some very big shoes because Pops was known to give phenomenal speeches at these things.

Pops party is also a welcome back/welcome home for my aunt Veronica. She's been back at home with Sal and her family for about two months now but hasn't really made an effort to leave their home, not that I blame her. It'll be her very first time back in the big world, back out in the open.

"Ready?" Dion walks up beside me, smiling as he tears gaze away from the families in front of us settling down in their seats.

I nod and inhale a deep breath, "why does it feel more real now than it did months ago?"

He pats his hand on my back and continues to smile, "because it's time for your big boy speech."

"Thanks, Dee." He frowns. "For never leaving my side," I explain. "For always having my back, no matter how ugly it got, I got."

"That's what family does," he brings a hand up in between us. I immediately clasp my hand with his and he's pulling me in for a hug. "We look out for each other."

I nod and pull away from him as we begin to walk down to the yard, "how's the wedding planning coming?"

Dee rolls his eyes playfully, "I'm over it, I'm about to cancel everything and get my money back if she changes her mind one more time and just take her to the court house."

I chuckle softly and shake my head, "makes me kind of grateful that Hailey hired a wedding planner to do all the hard work. She probably would've been the worst bridezilla because of the early hormones."

"Ang is too much of a diva in general to let anyone else plan her wedding besides herself."

I place my hand on his shoulder, eyeing my dad walking over towards us from the corner of my eye, "just wait till the day when your daughter starts taking moms side and they're both tag teaming you."

"Never gonna happen, she's gonna be a daddy's girl," he smiles, shifting his attention to my dad who's finally reached us. "I'll give you guys your privacy, I gotta go find my girls."

"Thanks, Ricci," Pops pats his hand on the back of Dion's shoulder before he takes off leaving us alone.

"Enjoying yourself old man?" I cross my arms along my chest.

"Watch it," he smiles. "I'm not that old."

"You're officially a grandpa, Pops, you're getting there."

He chuckles, sticking his hand into his slacks, "I got something for you."

"For me?" I frown. "It's your birthday Pops, not mine."

"Shut up and open it," he says, handing me a little burgundy velvet box.

I feel my heart instantly begin to go crazy as I grab the box and open it, seeing what's inside.

A ring. His-My ring. Our family heirloom.

I quickly look up at him.

He shrugs his shoulders, "Cris said they found it in the casket when they retrieved my body. I- I was trying to find the right time to return it back to you. It's not my ring anymore son, it's yours, you shouldn't have left it with me."

I nod my head silently and pull the ring out of the box, noticing the instant shine in it, he had it polished.

I place it on my right hand, flexing my fingers, opening my hand and closing it. "It hurt too much to keep it with me," I answer truthfully looking up at my dad. "I didn't feel like I deserved it anymore, it didn't have much meaning to me at the moment. The man that gave it to me was no longer around."

Pops inhales a deep breath and he's instantly wrapping his arms around me, pulling me in for a hug.

"I'm sorry, Isaac. I am so sorry for everything I put you through," his voice cracks. "I gave it to you because you were ready, because you deserved it, son. God, even after everything I am so proud of the man you've become."

I nod, tapping my hand on the back of his shoulder, "thanks Pops."

"Don't be nervous," he utters as he pulls apart from me. "You got this kid. Your mom already kidnapped Isaiah and has him at our table."

I glance behind my dad, sure enough to find my mom sitting at the closest table to ours, my son already on her lap as Ayra, their new adopted daughter continues to play with him, David and his fiancé sitting at the same table with them.

Pops chose not to sit at my table because he claims he doesn't want to take any type of spotlight sitting up front and chose to sit away from Hailey and us.

Veronica, Sal, Jess and Nate are sitting at the table next to them along with Fernando and his family. Our relationship was still nonexistent, I didn't care to have any type of connection with him but my mom definitely still has a sibling bond she's attempting to repair.

Angela's and Dion's parents are sitting on the other side of the yard, opposite of my family's side, near their kids. Ang and Dee sitting up front with Hailey and I since he's my second in command. Baby iridiana sitting with her grandparents as well.

Even though Cris continues to reject my offer of getting back into the faction, I asked him to sit up front with Hailey and I. Wouldn't be fair if I was missing my other brother up there with me.

Ric is sitting behind Dee's and Ang's parents with his girlfriend Paola, along with Emiliano and his pregnant girlfriend Brielle, and his mom.

The rest of the yard continues to divide into the rest of the faction as Sacramento's team stands towards the back keeping an eye on every corner.

I nod and place my hand on his shoulder, "thanks for the ring, dad. Ima go look for Hailey," I tell him, although I already know where my wife is at.

She's sitting a few feet to my left, in the chair she's supposed to be in, deep in conversation with her new best friend, my best friend, Angela.

The two have practically been inseparable ever since Hailey had Isaiah. Ang usually spends the entire day here at the house with the baby while Dion is out, which is nice this way neither of the girls are alone through the day.

I walk over to the girls and Hailey's immediately attempting to get up the second I walk up to them.

"Sit," I shake my head and lean down to kiss her on the lips.

She smiles while kissing me back, "but this is your spot, your chair," she mumbles against my lips.

"I don't see my name written on it," I smile, pecking her a second time.

She shakes her head looking up at me, "don't start breaking your rules, traditions, for me."

"They're my rules. And I want my wife, my queen, to sit in my chair."

She doesn't answer back verbally, she smiles nodding her head and I'm leaning back down to place a third kiss on her lips. My father was never really one to show any type of PDA during our sit downs or any other type of gatherings, but I didn't care who saw.

Dion settles down next to Angela, leaving her in his seat as well, sitting at the end of one side of the table as Cris and Gabrielle sit on the other side of me.

I don't take a seat in the chair behind me, I stay standing looking out into the small crowd sitting down in front of me instantly feeling my heart thump in my chest.

Being the center of attention quickly begins to settle in and I'm shifting my gaze toward my dad, who's now sitting next to my mom.

His brows furrow for about a second or so and he's inhaling breath, subtlety making a breathing motion.

I inhale the deep breath he instructed I take from a few feet away and avert my attention down to Hailey beside me.

She smiles up at me and I feel the instant tension in my chest evaporate as I turn back to my guest.

"It's been one hell of a year, hasn't it?" I smile.

A handful of people nod their heads agreeing.

"A lot has changed in a year. I've changed this past year, in some very good and bad ways." I admit.

"I've made some pretty rational and irrational decisions over half a year ago giving me- us," I slightly wave a hand in front of me. "Control over the entire city. The Matteo name will now be the only name that people are gonna remember about this city, the only name, the only family, that they'll have to fear in this city. We're the only ones left standing, not to pure luck, luck doesn't exist in this life, we got here by hard work, and alliance's," I glance over in Cris' direction.

"Not many people aren't blessed enough with second chances, and my family's been more than fortunate to not only get my father back from the dead but my aunt as well," I smile, looking over in her direction. She smiles back softly, grabbing ahold of my uncle Sal's hand on the table.

"It's a new day and age, the power moves stop now, they stop with me. Old ways, old habits, are out the fucking window, it's time for a new discipline system. New Habits. Consistency. Growth, and not just from you guys but from myself as well. My father always talked about how family is the most valuable thing we can have in life and I couldn't agree more with him," I look in his direction to find him smiling softly.

"I don't want to control everyone's loyalty, I want to earn it just as much as we earn each other's respect. Like I've said before, should you choose to stand behind me I will do anything and everything in my power to protect this faction like my flesh and blood. We stand by one another, we don't tear each other down, we don't turn our back on family whether it's blood or not, we respect one another. There's a lot more new faces to this faction. Family's are continuing to grow, including my own," I wave towards my son now in his grandpa's lap, David's.

"I am so much more than just a mafia boss. I am a leader. I am a friend. I'm a husband and father, and I want to be someone my son can look up to. I don't just want to be feared, I want to be respected. His dynasty starts now." I pick up the small glass of scotch sitting near Hailey. I lean down and place a quick kiss on her forehead, holding the drink up in front of me a second later. "To new beginnings, a new world, salute."

***

😭😭😭 crying brb, see ya in the epilogue next week.