Michelle
Esmeralda lay with her head resting against my chest, fast asleep. Soon, the little girl cuddled even closer, wrapping her small, slim arms around me and burrowing her head deeper into my chest, if that were even possible. I didn’t complain. It only made my biological clock feel like it was ticking at a hundred miles an hour. I could almost hear it—tick, tick, tick—echoing in my mind, reminding me that time was running out. But at this rate, there was no way I was getting married to the man of my dreams—unless, of course, he wouldn’t mind marrying me in the middle of a mafia compound.
Esmeralda eventually woke up, leaning away and rubbing her eyes in a way that reminded me of a princess from an old fairy tale. She quite literally looked like one, dressed in a gown that was ador
