Elsa
My eyes welled as I could feel the pain, and my heart ached for them both. The fact that my mother was going to tell them, maybe even holding onto the hope that they could finally be together.
But no.
For her own protection, mine even, she had to accept that was how her life was going to be. And I couldn’t even imagine what Alexei must be feeling now. To know he was close to being told he was going to have a child with the woman he loved. But his own mother stood in his way and took the truth with her to the grave.
Nestor looked completely taken aback as he looked at my mother and followed Alexei once he came to his senses. I was sure Alexei needed some time to think it all through.
I didn’t say anything, giving my mother some time to gather herself. I looked at Nicholas ,he was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, already looking at me. I couldn’t tell if he was truly interested in the story or not as he wore a straight face.
Then I knew he wasn’t interested when he tapped the watch on his wrist, letting me know how was getting impatient and wanted me to get to the clinic now. I knew I had to go soon but i couldn’t leave after this.
She literally dropped a bomb on us all.
I smile as she returned to sit next to me.
“I know how it all sounds, but know you’re still the best thing that ever happened to me.” She whispered as she caressed my cheek. I smiled. I never doubted that for a second.
“The decisions I made are not something I am proud of… But, I had to keep you alive and safe for as long as I could. Fortunately, you look like me which made it easier. And I never wanted you to have the Volante name because you weren’t his, but I also couldn’t give you your real name. Instead, I came up with some excuse about protection and twisted the Cirillo name into Celano to make it sound Italian.” My mother continued to explain. Everything made so much more sense now. If Geotano knew I wasn’t his daughter, he would have killed us both on the spot.
“I liked the name Celano better than Volante.” I admitted, making her chuckle.
“I just had to continue the lie for a bit longer until I could find a way out. Bit by bit, I saved enough for us to get away. But of course, nothing was easy. Life never is. You loved him as your father and it broke me because was going to ruin it. But your well–being meant more to me, and if it meant you would hate me for taking you away, then that was fine with me. You just had to be safe.”
Guilt flooded me. I was so heartbroken when we left, and I did remember feeling a bit resentful toward my mother. But when I believed I was calling my father to talk to him, he never once picked up and even changed his number. I just accepted that was how it was going to be and lived life with my mother.
“How did you do it?” I asked.
“Well, for once I felt like I had luck on my side. I found out Geotano was cheating on me with Maria, and it gave me the perfect reason to go. I even made a scene to make it more believable that I was upset about it, and that was when we left.”
“You slapped him.” I said and my mother looked at me in surprise.
“How do you know?”
“Tessa and I heard you fighting. We sneaked out of the room and we saw you slap the fuck – I mean, we saw you slap him.” I quickly corrected myself. Who knew if she had a wooden spoon here? But it actually made her smile. She looked proud of herself and she should be.
“My biggest regret will always be not fighting harder for Tessa…” My mother looked frustrated with herself, and I gave her hand a small squeeze in comfort.
“You can’t change the past, you can only learn from it. What’s important is you can be there for her now.” I smiled and I took a quick glance at Nicholas ,I learned that the hard way. I never meant to hurt him but I did when I went away. It was something I still felt guilty about whenever I thought of it. But one thing was for sure, I would never do it again.
My mother then explained she was keeping taps on Geotano to always be one step ahead of him. But he never made any attempt of going after us when we left. That was when my mother left her old life behind and started a new life in Florida and worked to open up her own boutique for a steady income. She never believed it would blow up the way it did.
And then the news of Tessa ’s engagement party came.
“I’m not sure if you remember, but you got so angry at me because I wouldn’t let you go. I simply couldn’t risk it. You begged me for days, asking me why you couldn’t go when it was your father we were talking about. You started to ask too many questions. Questions I wasn’t ready to answer. I didn’t even know how I was supposed to tell you everything after so many years…”
I had completely forgotten about that episode. Now that she was telling me about it, I did remember how I was upset about she wouldn’t let the whole situation, not understanding why was upset about me go when it was my family we were talking about. I was just too happy I was finally going to see Tessa after so long.
“What you didn’t know was, I followed you to make sure you would be okay.”.
“Seriously?!” I gaped.
“I did. I never figured out why Geotano let us go that easily. In case anything was going to happen, I would be there to get you away. I went under disguise and dressed up as one of the servers to stay close to you. But then things took a turn the minute Nicholas grabbed you, thinking he knew the truth. It almost gave me a heart attack!” My mother exclaimed in exhaustion at the memory.
I leaned back on the couch, trying to process everything that was being thrown in my face. This was way, way deeper than I could have ever prepared for.
“So… You knew everything?” I asked, thinking back to the phone call about her flipping out because Tessa was marrying a Donavan.
“I did. I had to pretend I didn’t know a thing. But I genuinely didn’t know about you and Nicholas until you told me. And I knew I could recognize that man and the other one, Logan think his name was.” My mother pointed at Giovanni.
“You thought they were a couple at the restaurant.” I put a hand to my mouth to stop myself from laughing too hard as Giovanni gave me one displeased look.
“I apologize. But you did look great together!” She said brightly to him, making it even funnier as his frown deepened.
“Logan’s engaged and Gio has a girlfriend, but he won’t admit it.” I let out a playful smile when he gave me a blank look.
“Shame. I really hoped they would be together.” She whispered to me, having me shake my head in amusement. My mother sighed before continuing with the story.
Everything turned into a mess faster than she could have time to figure out what to do. When Geotano ordered Asher to take me to his office, which complicated things for my mother. She was trying not to attract any attention to herself because she had to pretend she was just a normal server. She was relieved when I got out of Geotano’s office. It was with Asher but she had some faith in him that he wouldn’t do anything to me since she practically raised him as well.
“That was when I thought I would show up at your hotel and take you back home. But Geotano caught me before I could get off there.” I let out a small gasp and my eyes widened.
“I have no idea how that bastard recognized me, but he did.” My mother frowned, still visibly angry about it.
“He revealed to me he knew the truth about you and I was positive he was going to get rid of me right at that moment and go after you next. Instead, he had me work for him under the radar and I was in no position to challenge him.” My brows raised in realization. Now it made so much more sense why he had reacted so angrily when he saw me at the engagement party.
It was because he knew I was the daughter of Alexei Vasiliev.
“I got sent back to Florida and followed every single instruction he threw at me, and then I was laundering money for him. He needed to use a business no one would keep an eye on. I had to put in many hours of work for it to even make sense, and that piece of shit always reminded me how easily he could hurt you if I didn’t listen. He sent me a picture of you sleeping at his house. Gun to your head.” She clenched her jaw as she spoke, and a cold shiver ran down my spine. Geotano was toying with my mother and had me thinking I was spending quality time with my father.
It had me feeling sick.
“And that was why you bought that property in Greece.” I stated. I didn’t need to hear anymore. I could connect to every single thing now.
My mother nodded.
“Yes. One big mistake when Geotano took over, was he forced the elders to retire early as a way out. Most have passed away but there is still one I have always been close to, and he helped me out with the property. I call him Uncle Belen.” She smiled at the mention of him.
“He was one of the very few that actually agreed I should be the new leader. He’s the type of person that sees everything but stays hidden in the shadows. Ask him anything, and he would have an answer for it. That is how I knew about Nicholas’s late fiancee.” I glanced at Nicholas at the mention of Sienna, knowing how he had reacted the last time my mother brought her up. But not a muscle in his face moved, having me raise a brow at him.
“You threw that at his face at the time. Why?” My tone let her know I was not pleased with it at all. I had no idea about their history at the time, but if my mother knew Sienna had passed and still brought it up the way she did, had me pissed on Nicholas ’s behalf.
“I brought her up to see how he would react to it. If he didn’t react to it that means he didn’t care, and you had gotten yourself into some deep mess. So, not only was I trying to get Geotano off our backs, but I would also deal with Famiglia di Donavan.Which is a hundred times worse than dealing with any other people.” My mother let out a breath, and I could feel all the stress she had to go through. I could now understand more why she reacted so badly to my pregnancy back then.
Even though I wouldn’t have been of any help back then, I still wished she would have told me everything. But I could understand why it was a necessity I had to be left in the dark for so long. They knew this dark world way better when I had only just seen a scratch of it at the time. And it made me feel a whole different kind of gratitude to my mother. So much she had done for me without me having any idea.
She would forever be my rock.
I wrapped my arms around her and embraced her tightly, taking her by surprise by the sudden action. My mother had done an amazing job of keeping me safe and living a normal life.
“I’m just happy you’re okay.” I whispered to her. The void that lingered in my heart after I thought she had passed, finally went away as she held her in my arms,
“Me too, honey. You have gone through more than I ever wanted you to, but you will always be okay. Do you know why? Because you have a good man by your side.” She said and I could feel the tension melt away in her body.
“I know.” I smiled. It came slightly choked out when a lump formed in my throat. I was barely able to keep my tears at bay.
I let out a breath and finally got to my feet. Only to wince in pain when my stomach cramped.
“Shit! I’m taking you to the clinic now.” Nicholas stormed to me while my mother was holding onto me with concern.
“What’s happening? Did you get hurt?” Her voice was laced with concern. I took a deep breath and forced a smile on my lips.
“I just found out I’m pregnant… And I’m most likely miscarrying right now.” My mother looked at me in pure horror
“What?!” Antonio and Giovanni erupted at the same time, rushing to my side as well.
“And you let me sit here and babble about this?!” My mother exclaimed.
“You need a doctor! I will go with you.” But I stopped her before she could hurry me out.
“I will be fine. Besides, you have things you need to sort out with Alexei.” I smiled. It was easier to say I was fine when in reality I had no idea if I would be. For now, I was okay with faking it until I knew for sure.
“No. He can wait.”
“I think he has waited long enough, mom. Don’t worry about me. I will come and see you after.” I promised before Nicholas almost went to carry me to get going. Antonio and Giovanni practically ran out to get the car going to get us to the clinic.
“Fuck, I can’t believe I listened to you on this.” Nicholas growled, angry with himself when I had to slightly lean into him for support.
“Nicholas .” I stopped him and he looked at me with worry in his eyes.
“What’s wrong? Are you in a lot of pain? Let me carry you.”
“No, you can barely stand on your own feet.” I placed my hands on his cheeks, feeling his stubbly cheeks under the palms of my hands.
“Thank you. Thank you for keeping her alive.” I told him. I wish I could truly tell him how thankful I was.
“I don’t know what I would do without you. Thank you for everything, and for always coming back to me.” His eyes softened and I leaned in to kiss his lips, trying to show him my love and gratitude, even though I knew it wasn’t near enough for the things he did for me.
“No need to thank me, my love.” He whispered against my lips. Nicholas placed a kiss on my forehead before taking my hand in his as we went to the car.
I halted before sliding inside when Alexei and Nestor showed up and made their way toward us. I looked at Alexei when he stopped in front of me.
“I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do. But I would like to get to know you. If you accept.” He had a small crease between his brows, and it almost seemed like he was nervous about his question.
“I would love that.” I gave him a small smile to which he returned. He looked at Nicholas, his expression turning serious.
“We have something that needs to be discussed. About her birthright.”
“I know. I will set up a meeting.” Nicholas replied and Alexei gave a firm nod before making his way inside the house.
“Nestor?” He looked at me.
“Make sure they don’t kill each other, please?” I asked with a small smile.
“It’s been my job ever since they met each other.” Nestor sighed but smiled as he promised me he would.
“Come. Let’s go.” Nicholas said.
I took another deep, trying to prepare myself for the worst as we went on our way to the clinic....