Page 9 of Vows of Conviction
“Oh, Stefan.”I knelt down and wrapped my arms around him.“Shh, Dani's fine.She was in the water for a few seconds before you got to her.”I held onto his shaking body.
His arms quickly engulfed me, pulling my body to his.“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he repeated over and over again.
“She's fine.You're fine.”
His head shook from side to side.“What if—” was all he got out before his body shook again.
“It was an accident, Stefan.You saw Dani go under.And you saved her.Everything turned out fine.”
He raised his head and wiped his tear-streaked face.“It could have gone bad, Francesca.It could have gone really bad.”
Oh, this man broke my heart.He was devastated.And probably in a bit of shock.
“But it didn't go bad.And everyone's fine.A little wet—but otherwise fine.”I gave him a sad smile and stood, grabbing his hands.“Come to bed.Neither of us slept last night.And I need to take advantage of the babies' naptime to get some sleep.”He stood and let me pull him to our bed.I stripped and then took his clothes off.We crawled into bed, and he held me—my head on his chest.
“I love you, Stefan.”I kissed his chest and sighed.I wasn't sure if he'd be able to get any sleep at all.But at least this way I could hold him and try to be of some comfort.
“I love you, too, wife.”
4
Francesca
Avery, very, very loud noise woke me up.My eyelids didn't want to open.“What was that?”My mouth didn't want to work properly either.
Stefan muttered an exhausted, “Fuck.”
I rolled away from him, and we both yawned and got out of bed.
It sounded like someone was yelling downstairs, but I couldn't hear exactly what they were saying.Stefan pulled on his pants while I made my way to the closet.I grabbed my black robe, slipped it on and tied it.My brain felt like it was in quicksand or something.So did my legs.
I followed Stefan out of our room and down the hallway.
We spotted Giselle on the stairs.She was sitting there, crying and screaming.“No, Carlo.I can't stay here anymore!”she wailed.“It takes me a freaking year to walk to the kitchen.”Her hand flailed out to the side.“And we have to watch the kids every second to make sure they don't fall down this ridiculous staircase.I mean, who the heck lives in a castle like this?With kids?We can't childproof this place.I’m worried every second that someone's going to fall or get lost.I can't deal with it anymore.”
She shook her head and cried.
“Look what happened to Dani?There were three of us out there.Three of us, Carlo.And not one of us noticed her fall.If Stefan hadn't—”
Carlo tried to comfort her, but she pushed him away.“No!I'm going to fix the stupid plumbing myself if I have to.But I'm not staying here one more minute.”Then she stood by herself and started up the long stairs.
Near the top of the staircase, she and Stefan locked eyes.I wasn't sure I'd ever seen anyone glare like Giselle just had.
Yikes.
“Giselle,” Stefan said anxiously.He started walking to her.
“No!”Giselle put her hand out.“I'm not talking to you.”Then she turned and headed down the hallway.
“Fuck,” Stefan said under his breath.He sighed and peered down at Carlo and Nick.They were speaking quietly to each other.Their gazes hit ours, and Nick motioned for us to come down and join them.
So, that was what we did.When Stefan and I arrived at the bottom, he said, “I'll put a better lock on the doors to the patio.And we won't go out there until it's childproofed.”
Nick shook his head.“She's determined to go back to their house.”
Stefan frowned and stuck his hands on his hips.“That's not possible.She can't fix the plumbing situation by herself.”
Carlo sighed and cleared his throat.“She'll fix the plumbing situation—because there is no plumbing situation, Stefan.Nick and I made it up.Eve and Giselle were so worried about you two, they talked about nothing else.We wanted to let them see that you guys were okay.”
