My Sister's Best Friend

10.

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"I want to meet him too." Joanne said emotionlessly as she took another spoonful of the 'food'. "But I think we should talk before that, don't you think?"

Xander paused, looking between his phone and his wife.

She was right.

They needed to talk. Rubina had advised the same.

But he was reluctant to do that.

These were the band-aids that he thought needed some more time before they were ripped off. She did not have to take it all off right now and hurt herself.

"Hey... We will take it slow for now? Maybe after you get all better?"

"My mother killed herself... AFTER trying to get me killed." Xander was taken aback by the casualness with which she said it. "I think I am being completely reasonable when I say I want it all over with."

"How did you..."

"She's my mother, Xandy. I am convinced she lost her mind by the misfortune her daughter had to go through that she came up with her own twisted solution to all the problems." Joanne shook her. "They can't hurt her baby if her baby isn't even alive."

"Jo, Jackson killed her-"

Joanne looked up, her face contorted in an expression of disgust and mockery mixed together.

"Does that man have to have credit for everything? If she did die by his hand, then it's either because she let him or because he reached there before she could do it herself."

"Baby, why are you trying to justify Rodney? She tried to kill you, babe? And she almost succeeded." Xander sat down next to her, his eyes taking in her forest green ones. He was taking them in fear that he had not remembered every detail about them when she was comatose.

Of course, he was never letting her go through something like this ever again. But he did not want to go any more days not knowing what those eyes looked like.

But he did not like the way her eyes welled up as she bit her lips. "She is my mother. If I don't defend her, who will?"

"Baby..." Xander leaned forward, throwing his arms around her rigid frame, pulling her to his chest. She made no movement, nor did she resist. She did not know what to do with anything anymore.

Everything changed in that one afternoon.

Her entire world as she knew it, had changed.

Her love for her grandfather? For the man who loved her more than anything else in the whole wide world? It was gone. Gone gone. With no hope of ever returning.

He had let her down.

Her mother had let her down.

Her husband had let her down.

At that moment, she was all alone. And she had felt so unloved at that moment. That moment which would have been the last of hers if it wasn't for that little kid.

She remembered turning to him as a last resort. As a last resort to try to live.

"Yo Jo, sup?" Those were the last words she remembered hearing before she blacked out.

And he had saved her. She was indebted to that little rascal for life now.

She chuckled, despite the negative emotions swirling around her.

"When I was dying..." Xander's arms instantly tightened around her. He was holding her as firmly as he could without hurting her. "When I thought I was dying..." She rephrased for his sake. "I thought you hated me."

He moved his head, burrowing his face in her neck and taking in her scent hungrily. "You must have lost a lot of blood."

"Hmm?"

"And your brain must not have been getting enough oxygen."

"Hmm?" She tried to pull away but he wouldn't let her budge.

"That's why you were so delusional."

Joanne narrowed her eyes, struggling to get her fingers to his tricep so that she could pinch him. But he wouldn't move. Not an inch.

"It's gonna take more than a measly pinch to get me away from you, Jo." He breathed into her neck, sending shivers down her spine and heat up her neck.

"Like what?" She asked, somehow knowing exactly what he was going to tell her but somehow not wanting to hear it.

"Like stopping my heart."

Joanne hissed though her cheeks just kept getting hotter and hotter. "Have you been reading trash novels while I was out?"

"Oh yeah!" He chuckled, finally pulling away but hanging his arms loosely around her much slender frame. Joanne had always been plump. She preferred being curled up on a bed or couch to anything else and she loved cooking and eating all types of food.

But she had been on an IV line for three months and all her fluffy fat had disappeared. Xander did not like that one bit.

He decided that he needed to cook more and feed her.

He brushed a strand of hair from her face.

"Is something coming after the "Oh yeah!" ?" She asked.

He grinned at her. "I got my hands on your secret stash."

"WHAT?"

"So Olivia-"

"LIVVVYYY!!!"

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Olivia sneezed.

"Someone's thinking about you." Leon chuckled.

"Must be my teammates." She rubbed her nose. "Leon, can you hurry? I am late for the meeting."

"You have a very valid reason today." Leon grinned at her. "Just think how happy Jo's Uncle would be to hear she has woken up."

"If what happened three months ago was any indication, her parents are going to be back swarming over her when they get to know that she is finally awake." Olivia sighed. "I don't want that for her right now."

Leon took her hand in his. It had been over four months since she got the closure from Zach. And they had been slowly moving closer to each other but nothing like taking their relationship crossed their minds since the incident and then the following chaos, then baby Joe was born and Leon got busy with Gregory handling all that extra work and Olivia helping out with the baby. These three months were a blur, as much as they were painfully slow and agonizing.

But now, things were looking up. And suddenly, there were endless possibilities in front of them.

"Is there any way we can stop them from knowing?" He asked, his eyes on the road.

"I doubt it."

"How about we ask Mama to come to visit?" He asked. "You would love that. Jo would love that."

Olivia sighed. Things weren't too well back home either. The last she had seen her mother was the day of the gender reveal and with how things went down then, her parents and brothers had been extremely skeptical. And Olivia could not bring herself to actually face them so she had kept minimal contact with them. They did not even know what had happened to Joanne.

How was she supposed to explain any of this?

"If you keep pushing it, things will only get more complicated, Livy." He said.

Olivia looked over at him. His face was relaxed, almost stoic, giving away absolutely nothing of what he was feeling. She wished he would not do that right now, especially when it's not like him at all. But it was a reminder that she did not really know Leon at all. She knew he was a good man and she knew that he was supposed to be the most laid-back and fun brother among the four. And she did not even know what was under all those layers.

If one thing she had learned in the last year, it was that anyone could turn out to be anything. Never in her wildest dream would she have thought that the sweet guy Stella was marrying would be a man of the Mafia, or even wilder, that Joanne herself would be the next Boss of the American Mob. Anything could turn into anything and any person could have a completely different persona to what they exhibit.

It really was a scary thought.

"What are you thinking?" He asked.

"Nothing."

"This is not nothing." He glanced over at her. "Please don't go into character analysis right now. I am not in my best form."

Olivia raised a brow. "What?"

Leon looked over at her, his mask finally cracking and a small smile appearing. "Too much on my mind sweetheart, and too much happening. I think I am going to have an anxiety attack."

"What?" Olivia was confused. And even that would be an understatement. Was he alright?

"Chillax, wife." Leon grinned taking her hand in his and keeping their entwined hands on his thigh. "Just do your best at work today and don't tell Samuel anything unless Jo has."

"That's the plan."

"And call your mother." He gave her a stern look. "No buts about that. They are your family. We will go down there if we have to. It's not like they can take you away from me."

Olivia sighed, not unaware of the small endearments he had been throwing her way.

"I will call them. And I will talk it out."

"That's like my good girl."

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