Mafia's Final Play (Mafia's Obsession #3) - Summer Cooper Page 0,78

it or not, you do.” She sat up straight, took a deep breath, and spoke again. “Now, let’s go out and live the rest of our lives, shall we?”

“I’d love to, Marie, I’d love to.”

23

Two years later…

“We have to go, Matteo, now.” Marie shoved at her sleeping husband, excited and filled with wonder already. Her babies were on their way.

They’d found the perfect surrogate and she'd donated her eggs, used Matteo’s sperm, and now they had a daughter and a son on the way. The surrogate had called her - she was in active labor at the hospital.

It had been a long process; Marie had thought it over, talked it over with Matteo for a year. Research showed that pregnancy makes the Parkinson’s symptoms worse, and with her genetic mutations, they finally came to the agreement that they’d find a surrogate if they could. They’d been lucky with the woman they chose. She donated the eggs, and she looked similar to Marie so maybe the babies would look a little like her. Her name was Mariella too, so it almost seemed like fate when they found her.

Matteo finally woke up and blinked his way down to the stairs of their new home in a quiet neighborhood that didn’t constantly hum on the outskirts of New York City. There was a nursery and two rooms that would be theirs when they were old enough to have their own beds.

Trina met them at the hospital, her face as excited as Marie’s. “I’m here, oh my goodness, how is she doing?”

“I don’t know, we just got here too. Come on.”

They all marched down to the room Mariella was in and stood in the doorway. The young woman looked up at them, her face wreathed in pain, but happy. “Don’t just stand there, come hold my hand!”

Marie and Trina laughed and went in. Matteo hung out at the end of the room he was paying for, a private labor room, and put his head down, just like she used to see Anton doing. He was suddenly shy. She’d have laughed if Mariella hadn’t just squeezed her hand in a vice.

“Push, Mariella. Baby one is almost out,” the doctor peering between the surrogate’s thighs said.

Mariella pushed until she screamed, but their little boy slipped out of her body at 6:57 am, perfect and healthy. A half-hour later, their baby girl was born, with all her fingers and toes, a little sluggish, but she soon perked up.

“They’re perfect, Mariella. Oh my goodness. Thank you so much.” Marie rained kisses down on the young woman’s head.

“I don’t plan to have any of my own, as you know, but I wanted to have the experience. I could gift someone that experience, and I chose you. You two will be perfect for these two babies. I know it.”

“You don’t regret it?” Marie asked the hard question that had worried her so much.

“No, I don’t. I might later, I can’t swear I won’t, but you guys are going to keep in touch, right? You don’t plan to just disappear. And anyway, legally, they’re yours now. Even after this, I don’t think I’ll want to have children of my own, but you at least let me have the experience, so thank you.” Mariella, her face a little swollen, smiled, perfectly happy with the world.

She was right, though, the babies were legally theirs now. Marie would be listed as the mother, and Matteo was definitely the father. She saw his gray eyes when she looked at their daughter once the nurses handed her over. His chin was there on their son’s face when she took that baby too. Trina, almost more excited than the new parents, snapped a picture that would become all of their favorite because Marie was beaming so brightly it was almost goofy, but they didn’t care. She was happy and that’s all any of them wanted. To give Marie as much joy in life as she could get.

“Did you decide on their names?” Mariella asked.

“Well, if you don’t mind, I’d like to name her Mariella, after you. She’s going to know you as an aunt, and we can call her Ella for short. And he’s going to be Antonio, after Mommy’s favorite fella, after his daddy.”

“Those are wonderful names.” Mariella smiled tears of happiness in her eyes.

Marie had been impressed with her from the start. She was 25, completely healthy, and wanted to experience pregnancy and birth, but didn’t want to raise children. She’d had a rough childhood,