Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 807 : Guest List

*Elio*

Cat left early in the morning to meet with her dress designer. I hoped she wasn’t too worried about Junior’s return. We talked about it and I’d tried to reassure her that I was handling things. I wanted her to just enjoy her day getting her wedding dress designed.

Anna was going with her to meet the designer and Matilde had an early morning appointment to attend to, so it was just me and my little girl.

By the time Emilia got up, Cat was long gone and I paused in making breakfast as I heard her start to cry over the monitor. She had just passed her eight-month mark, and I felt lucky to have the time to celebrate it with her.

It was something that Cat had left pouting about.

“Morning, princess.” I brushed my hands off on the apron I wore, smiling brightly as I approached Emilia’s crib.

Her eyes were puffy still, a little crust still shutting them closed and I gently washed her face for her until her bright green eyes were looking at me.

“Dada,” she babbled, smiling widely as she reached her hands up toward me.

I laughed, happily picking her up so she could cling to me. Her babbling was getting better. I had prepared myself for her to try to pull my curls out but this morning, she still seemed a bit tired.

She curled her head into the crook of my neck, fiddling with my apron as she yawned, but there was no hair-pulling or fussing.

“Aren’t you such a gentle princess today?” I cooed at her, getting her dressed and changed for the day.

She was more cooperative than usual and once I was finished, she was so adorable it melted my heart.

I put her hair up into the two little pigtails that Matilde had shown me how to do, dressing her with a little headband with a white lily and a matching onesie with a pink little tutu skirt. She was absolutely adorable, and I took her into the kitchen with a huge smile.

The cook, who was helping me with breakfast, gave me a smile and a nod as I settled Emilia into her high chair. She yawned as I handed her her bottle of formula, along with a plate of mashed bananas on mini bite-sized baby-safe pancakes.

I double and triple-checked to make sure she was okay to have them and since they were more like tiny drops of pancake batter, barely the size of my finger. They had more water in them to be more dissolvable, and the pediatrician said they were okay.

I was just excited to have her try my pancakes for the first time.

Meanwhile, I got my own plate of cinnamon roll pancakes with a side of sliced ham and cheesy scrambled eggs with a piece of toast and morning coffee, a perfect morning dish to wake me up.

Emilia ate the pancakes curiously, more dissolving them in her gums than trying to chew them, but I didn’t mind as she seemed to like them a lot. After breakfast, I took her to the living room for some play time and a little bit of her cartoons so that I could get my morning meeting done.

Trapped in her colorful playpen, Emilia immediately got to digging into her toys while I opened up my laptop.

The face-to-face meeting online was already up and running when I joined and I met the smug grin of my honorary uncle and leader of the Italy sect of the Valentinos, Alessandro. We were probably more like cousins twice removed or something like that, but uncle/nephew was a lot easier and felt right.

“Hey, nephew, how’s the wedding prep going?” Alessandro said casually, leaning back in his huge ass office. His hair had more gray in it than I remembered, and he had a few more wrinkles around his eyes.

I smirked at the tell-tale signs of aging.

Meanwhile, his wife Mia looked like she could still be in her early thirties.

“Very well. We decided on Vibiana Cathedral, and Cat’s getting her wedding dress made under a recommendation by Mom,” I told him, rather open about it all.

Alessandro nodded. “Simona, right? She designed Mia’s and it was gorgeous, so it should come out just fine. All expenses are paid, right? You’re not making her pay for her own custom wedding dress, right?”

“My money is hers,” I said honestly.

“Good man,” Alessandro smirked. “Now about that guest list.”

“You and Mia are coming, right? I instructed Franky to buy up a whole residential area for the family to stay in while they were here. He said a hotel would be too detectable.”

“He’s right.” Alessandro nodded in approval. “The housing is a good idea. Make sure you have enough for everybody. I contacted Mom and Dad and they said they’ll be coming up.”

“Sounds great.”

James Valentino was getting up there in age now. Regardless, he still looked great for his age. His wife, Becca, followed the trend of the family, being much younger. It seemed to be a common running theme starting from James and Becca. Even my own parents still had a massive age gap, though my father was not as old as James. I was following the trend but not quite to their extreme with the age gap between me and Cat.

“I’ll make sure everyone has a car, a driver, and everything they need,” I said calmly. “My parents are coming, along with Cat’s mom and her friends, Leo and Franky and their families, along with several of my associates and their families. So far, we’ve got sixty or so guests from our side agreeing to come.”

“Noted,” Alessandro said calmly. “Well, most of the lower members won’t be coming from over here, but a few higher-ups who were friends with Gio and Olivia are insisting. I called Tallon and Natalia, and they’ll be flying back with their kids. Dahlia is still abroad but she said she’ll make it even if she breaks international law doing so. Make sure Olivia knows that, by the way, or Dahlia will throw a fit.”

“Got it,” I laughed, knowing that my mom and my honorary aunt were still best friends even after all these years. They were going to love seeing each other again.

“Besides that, I’d guess about twenty or so more. Oh–” A devious look crossed Alessandro’s eyes as he said, “And a surprise guest of mine, so add in a plus one on my invitation besides Mia if you don’t mind.”

“Surprise guest?” I asked, suspicious at the look on his face as he smirked at me smugly. “What surprise guest?”

“You’ll see in three months when we arrive, Elio. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.” Alessandro cackled when I sent him a fierce glare and I rolled my eyes at his childishness.

Whoever this mystery guest was, there would be no pulling it out of him, I knew that. Alessandro was as tight-lipped as a spy.

“So, nothing else to tell me about? Everything going well over there?” Alessandro asked, giving me a raised eyebrow like he expected me to bring something up.

I frowned and then cursed once I realized what had happened. “Franky told you about Junior.” I crossed my arms, making a mental note to rake the snitch over the coals later.

“Don’t be too harsh on him,” Al chuckled. “He did fill me in, but it’s kinda his job. Plus we were the ones who sent the tip-off to Franky in the first place, which unfortunately didn’t come in time before he made a move. Nothing too major, though, right?”

“No, but the only evidence he left behind was his message to me that he was back in America. He has a much stronger crew working with him than last time, unfortunately, which means it’ll be tougher to drive him out.” I grit my teeth at that. Out of all of the past villains, Junior was the one I still held a horrible grudge over.

It still irked me that he’d seduced Cat, played her, and even manipulated her into a toxic relationship, betrayed her, shot her mom, and still dared to show up right before our wedding.

I’d take a bastard like Ignacio over Junior any day.

“Well, I’m planning to come at least a week early to help get rid of him before the wedding. Have you told your bride about it yet? They’re exes, right?” Alessandro asked.

“Barely,” I snapped, then I regretted it once Alessandro raised an eyebrow. I sighed. “After everything he did to her, I don’t want this to hang over our wedding. She should just focus on being happy.”

“Yeah, for a normal bride, sure,” Alessandro sent me a pointed look. “But she signed up to marry you and unfortunately, there’s no getting out of this. She needs to know.”

“I know.” I sighed, unhappily. “I’ll figure it out. Let me know before you come so I can get things ready.”

Alessandro nodded. “Don’t worry about it so much, Elio. We’re gonna get him this time.”

By the time the meeting with Alessandro was done, Matilde arrived to take over babysitting duties for me. I thanked her repeatedly, giving Emilia a kiss on her forehead before I took off to the warehouse for work. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Leo was the only one there as Franky was busy tracking Paul and cleaning up the mess from yesterday. He’d insisted that Leo and I finish the last few arrangements for the wedding, which Leo was more than happy to help me out with.

“Hey, brother!” Leo greeted me as I walked in. “I’m so happy for you and Cat, you know? And I’m honored you’ve chosen me to help you with the preparations. As your best man, I will make sure that it is the best day of you and Cat’s lives.”

“That means a lot,” I said with a close-eyed smile. “Let’s get started then.”

“Handwritten invitations?” Leo asked wide-eyed as I pulled out the over three dozen stacks of invitations with envelopes.

Cat had already finished most of it, but I had to double-check the guest lists with the cards and make sure it had my signature beside Cat’s.

“Yep,” I said, not happy about this time-consuming work any more than he was. I eyed him as he leaned away from the table as much as he could with a grimace. “You promised to help me instead of going with Franky.”

“Yeah but....”

He gave me a pleading look and then sighed, hanging his head as he grabbed a pen and the guest sheet. “I’ll double-check the list and you sign.”

“Thanks.” I grinned at him, settling down for what was going to be a long hand-cramping session of signatures. Before we started, I sent a quick text to Cat to check in, but there wasn’t an answer.

I figured that she must still be busy with the designer. I hoped it was going well and she got the dress she wanted, one that would make her look like she stepped out of a fairytale.