A Dangerous Enigma

35. Baby Russo

"What are we going to call him?" Leo asked as I held my newborn baby in my arms, close to my chest. He was barely hours old but I already felt a connection to him.

"I'm not sure," I answered honestly, looking up at Leo.

"Well we could always name him after me," Leo joked sending me a wink.

I didn't particularly want to name our child after his father, our baby deserved a name of his own. A name that shouldn't bestow standards on him at such a young age.

"No, he needs his own name, not his father's... I just don't know what we will name him," I sighed, looking back down at the sleeping baby in my arms.

"I understand bella, there's no rush to think of a name, After all, it will stick with him all his life," Leo said, I nodded my head in his words.

Suddenly, Leo's phone began to ring, startling the baby who began crying loudly. My heartbeat sped up, as I realised I didn't know what to do.

I looked back and forth between Leo and the baby, frozen on the spot. Leo stared back alarmed, with his phone still ringing in his hand.

"Comfort him Leah!" Leo yelled over the baby's crying. Instantly, I began shushing and rocking my arms, attempting to quiet him down, but it wasn't working. One minute the baby was like a sleeping angel, the next he was a ticking time bomb.

"Maybe he's hungry?" Leo suggested. I frowned at that, I had literally just fed him an hour ago... or maybe he was hungry.

I skillfully took my breast out of my nightdress and guided my baby to my nipple, just as the nurse had shown me and to my surprise, he started suckling fast.

Wow, was this child going to be the death of me.

"He's going to be a handful," I groaned, leaning my head back and sighed heavily. "He gets it from you, Leo."

"Well he is my son, so what do you expect," Leo chuckled, standing near me. He enclasped his hand with mine and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"I know he's just been born, but we do need to talk about what my mother said," I hated the words that came out of my mouth, it felt like I couldn't just accept the happiness that was bestowed upon me. It felt wrong to be happy when there was obviously something wrong with my life, we weren't safe.

"I don't feel safe Leo, how can we bring our son into the world knowing that there are people who don't want us to be happy and may want to do him harm?" I questioned my husband.

All throughout my pregnancy, my life and my baby's life had been endangered. It wasn't fair to bring an innocent life into our dangerous world.

Leo sighed, he ran a hand through his dishevelled hair, that was once tidy and slick back. I watched as he clenched his knuckles tightly, causing the bones to crack.

"I'll look into it, what was it your mother said? What kind of woman, young or old?"

"A young girl and she said that she didn't know her name, so perhaps she came from your side of the family?" I said unsurely.

Leo nodded his head, but the hard look didn't leave his face.

I looked down at our son, and saw that he was asleep, no longer feeding. I quickly covered myself up and lifted him in my arms, to burp him, rubbing his back soothingly. Despite him being asleep, he actually did let out a small burp, leaving excess milk to drip down onto my shoulder. I cleaned his mouth and placed a sweet kiss on his forehead.

"You must be tired Bella, let me take him and you can rest," Leo suggested standing, to take our precious baby.

I nodded my head, and lifted our baby up, Leo effortlessly took him in his arms and held him close.