After the teary introduction, Dominic and the woman who had came with him moved two tables together so that they could all sit.
"I want a chocolate," Rory mumbled against Toni's side as she shyly snuggled against it.
"Wait a minute and I'll get it," she whispered back.
"She's beautiful," Dominic smiled. Toni smiled back at him. "Thank you" Rory mumbled.
"What's your name?"
"Aurora."
"That's a pretty name. I'm Dominic."
"Hi," she whispered back.
"She's precious" the woman beside Dominic said.
"Sorry I didn't get your name," Toni said.
The woman laughed, "Sorry, I'm Daniella, his sister."
"Oh well it's nice to meet you. This is Aurora, Joseph and Darren," She said back.
"I know," Daniella laughed, "I named you."
Toni's eyes widened and Dominic turned towards his sister. "That was a joint effort, Dani." The woman rolled her eyes.
"Can you...um...Can you tell me how you know my mother because I can't wrap my head around this," Toni stammered. Darren reached for her hand below the table and gave it a gentle squeeze. He was shocked by what was going on so he knew that Toni must feel ten times more surprised.
"Okay. Well I met Kelsey when I was sixteen. I lived in a pretty rough part of town but I'd see her cutting through our street to get to the REC center. She passed by me one day and...I don't know...I wanted her. I tried talking to her but she wouldn't even give me a chance," he shamefully chuckled.
"She was feisty," Daniella added.
Dominic nodded and continued, "She said she had a boyfriend but I didn't even care. I still wanted her. I invited her to a few parties, to my friends house, to family get togethers. She broke up with her boyfriend and then what we had started getting pretty serious."
Toni was left in awe. The way he spoke about her mom shocked her. Not even her dad--the one she grew up with--talked about her mom with such adoration.
"I got into some trouble-"
"More like a lot of trouble," Daniella mumbled.
Dominic rolled his eyes but continued, "A lot of trouble. I was in Juvie for nearly three years. I originally didn't know when I was getting out. It was ... awful." He shook his head and seemed strained to keep explaining. He still continued, "During the first month, Kelsey visited, telling me she was pregnant..."
Toni felt a tear roll down her cheek but was too stunned to wipe it away.
"I didn't know what to do. I couldn't do anything in my position so I...I told her that the best thing to do for the baby was to let me go. Like an idiot, I told her to get back with her boyfriend and to just forget about me because I didn't deserve her or the beautiful woman that you've become."
Toni sniffled and finally found the strength to wipe her tears.
"You used to call me Papito. The one time we met you called me that." He lightly smiled. "Besides when you were barely three years old, this is the first time I've really met you."
"So better now than later," Daniella commented.
"What do you mean?" Toni croaked, trying to calm her nerves. It helped that Darren was soothingly rubbing her back.
"I...uh...I have a disease, retinitis pigmentosa, and in the next seven or eight months I'll be completely blind."
"Oh my gosh," Toni breathed out, running a hand through her hair.
"But there's a very small chance you can have it or that your kids will."
"I'm sorry to hear about your condition but what you're telling me is...John isn't my dad, you are?"
He slowly nodded, gulping down the nerves that came with his confession. After years of only receiving emails from Kelsey--that he needed help to read--he finally met his daughter.
"I hope you're not disappointed," he softly said, gazing into her gray eyes that were the same as his.
Toni softly shook her head, not really knowing what to say. "I... I don't know how to feel right now."
"Want me to leave you guys alone?" Darren murmured, looking at Toni.
"No...I-uh-just need a coffee."
"You don't really drink coffee."
"I'm gonna start," she nearly snapped, narrowing her eyes at him. He bit at his lip, thinking he better leave it alone.
Joseph and Rory followed behind Darren to get their treats.
During those long five minutes Toni told Dominic that she needed time to soak all of it in. He understood completely but told her not to leave him waiting too long. She smiled and waited as Darren came back with the kids and their drinks. They all had a small chat and Dominic made sure that no sad topics would be brought up.
It was almost one in the afternoon when Rory started getting fussy and Joseph fell asleep against Darren.
"I think it's time for us to go."
"I see," Daniella smiled, "It was very nice to meet you."
"You too."
Toni stood up and picked up Rory who was slowly lolling to sleep. Dominic wrapped his arms around both of them and breathed in. "Don't be a stranger."
She smiled against his shoulder and answered back, "You have my number."
They let go of their embrace. Dominic and Darren shook hands and so did Daniella.
"He's so cute when he's sleep," Daniella cooed, nodding towards Joseph who was in Darren's arms.
"Hopefully he'll stay that way" Toni laughed.
"Bye, bella," Daniella smiled, waving at Rory. "Bye Bye," she whispered.
"Tan lindos son tus nietos," Daniella smiled at her brother. He smiled and nodded.
Toni turned towards Darren with a raised eyebrow. "What?"
"She said our kids are cute, Toni" he smiled with a slight tease to his voice.
Toni laughed and bit at her lip. She felt like her life made a little more sense. She was happy now. She wanted to focus on the future now and hopefully Dominic was going to be in it.
***
After putting Joseph and Rory to sleep for a nap the exhaustion hit Toni hard. Darren saw it and knocked her legs from under her before carrying her to his room. She didn't even have the energy to argue.
Darren took care of her. Taking off her shoes and changing her pants from the tight jeans she wore to some sweats.
"I can dress myself," Toni murmured, snuggling into his sheets.
"What kind of host would that make me," he smiled. He stripped off his shirt and changed into some basketball shorts before getting into bed with her. "So about today..."
"I don't even want to talk about it right now."
"That's fine."
"And since you want to be a helpful host, why don't you pack my bag?"
"Because I don't want you to leave."
Toni opened her eyes and just stared at him. "You know why I can't stay," she finally said.
"I know."
She bit her lip and scrunched her eyebrows. Darren knew she was thinking hard.
"Give me a month," she whispered.
"What?"
"Give me a month to work everything out and maybe staying here...I don't know. Maybe it could be possible."
"Really?" he smiled.
She slowly nodded as her own smile spread across her face. "I said maybe though. Don't get your hopes up."
"Well, I remember you always dreamed of living here in L.A," he teased. "Why would you pass this up?"
She shrugged as her eyes drifted shut.
He leaned over and kissed her forehead. "Go to sleep and by the time you wake up your bag will be all packed for tomorrow."
She lightly nodded and slipped into a deep sleep.
3 weeks later...
"Yes...I understand."
Toni couldn't breath, couldn't crack any kind of emotion.
"Again, I'm sorry for your loss."
"Bye," Toni finally breathed out and hung up her cell. She ran a shaky hand through her hair and bit her lip.
She felt a tug on her shirt and looked down to see Rory looking up at her with her wide doe eyes. "Wassa matter, mommy?"
That's when she burst into tears.
Authorities found him in his car...
She couldn't form a single sentence.
He drank himself into a shock and just...didn't wake up...
She couldn't just blurt out that the little girls' only means to a family was dead.
Kyle was dead.
Her mother was released from rehab but left across the country the first chance she got.
Kyle's parents were still so angry about Rory that they couldn't even stand the pictures Toni sent to them.
"Why you crying?"
Toni just shook her head and left out of the living room and back to her room, closing the door. She went though her contacts and dialed Mrs. Anderson's number.
"Hello," the woman croaked.
"When's his funeral?"
"Not important to you. You're not invited."
"His daughter needs to be there!" Toni shouted into the phone.
"We don't want to see that child at our son's funeral. Don't you think we have enough to grieve about?"
"That's his only child. Don't you have some sort of remorse? You haven't seen her in nearly a year and you still don't want to. Don't blame Kyle's infidelities on her. She's an innocent child."
"Fine," the woman gritted out, then gave the address to the funeral.
***
Understandable enough Joseph didn't want to go so taking him to his grandparents house was nothing. Rory on the other hand didn't understand. Toni told her that her dad left them and won't be coming back but she didn't know why they'd be visiting him. She loved her daddy even though he once hurt her. That was her dad. She wanted to see him really bad because she forgot to give him the tickets to her dance performance.
Toni kept explaining to her that Kyle got so sick that he just fell asleep. She didn't know what to say really. She didn't know how to explain to a three year old that her dad died.
"Why do we have to wear black?" Rory whispered as she snuggled her face into Toni's neck.
"Because black can sometimes be a very expressive color."
They were early and only because she wanted Rory to see her grandparents, uncle, and cousins for the last time. They all wanted little to nothing to do with her and Rory could see it all in their face.
"Where's daddy?" she whimpered, holding Toni tighter. She sighed and pointed to the open casket.
Rory pushed on Toni's chest, "Down," she whined. Toni let her down but before she could grab her hand the little girl sped off.
Rory ran to her dad, lying there motionless. "Daddy? Daddy wakey wakey, eggs and bake-" Toni picked her up and turned her away from the sight before she could say anymore.
"Why did you run off like that?"
"What's wrong with him? Why isn't he up?"
Toni couldn't even turn around to look at him. She couldn't even see him dead, how was she going to make Rory see that?
"I told you he's gone now. Let's go so we-"
"No!" The little girl thrashed in her arms, beating at her chest and begging to be let down. "Let me go!"
Toni, with pain shooting from her chest, let the little girl down. Rory ran back up to the casket and quickly dug into her dress pocket. She pulled out the crumbled piece of paper and smoothed it out with her little hands.
She reached over the casket and tucked the admittance to her performance in his suit jacket. "You promised." Of course she got no response but she just didn't understand why. Well...she understood completely but, as the little girl that giggled as he tickled her and bandaged her cut when they put together her bike, she didn't want to.
"Daddy!"
"Okay time to go," Toni whispered, picking her up once again.
"But he promised he'd come. He made the pinky one!"
"I know, baby. I know."
"I...but...he...I hate him!" she blubbered. Now outside of the building she was louder than ever.
"Hey! You don't mean that. You love him, Aurora."
"I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!"
"Rory-"
"Ahhhhh!!!!!!"
***
"What's wrong with Looney?"
"She's upset," Toni simply answered, keeping an eye on the little girl with the pouty lip sitting in front of the TV.
"She won't play with me," he grumbled.
"I know," Toni whispered, picking up her phone and dialing Darren's number.
"What's up?" he answered.
"I can't....I can't just sit here and act like this is okay," she said in a hoarse voice that let him know that she was going to cry. She left out of the room and into the bathroom.
"She still not talking?"
"No."
He sighed and tiredly said, "Give her time."
"It's been four days. I'm worried about her."
"Look, the fastest I can get there is in a week."
"Next week is valentine's day..." Toni thought aloud.
"I know this," he chuckled.
She lightly smiled and said, "Hurry because she's always happy when you're around."
"Okay, I'll be there."
"Thank you. I'll talk to you later?"
"For sure. Bye."
"Bye."
***
"My god..." she whispered, clutching onto her chest. "I mean, are you sure?"
Dr. Sully smiled at Toni and nodded.
Both women faintly heard Joseph talking to the TV in the waiting room. They laughed and Toni breathed out after.
"Wow...pregnant." She let out a laugh and ran her hand through her hair. "Pregnant."
A/N: Starting school on 8/26 and hopefully I can update before then. If not then please be patient. This year is gonna be very challenging for me. The next update is gonna be pretty good in my opinion.
I was in tears writing about Kyle and Rory. Kyle was a sucky husband and father for some time but after the divorce he actually came to his senses and stepped up. He only drank because he lost his job.
Question Time ! (Kids react voice)
What are your thoughts about Dominic and Daniella?
Kyle's death?
Rory's reaction?
Toni being pregnant...again!
Remember...only a few more chapters left!.
-Mone'