First Love Only Love (The Life 2)

I find it hard to believe; I can’t accept his words as truth because to do so would be accepting my own failure. To believe him would be saying that all these years while I’d had a hand in my child’s unhappiness. The child Adrienne and I had had so much love for.

I pulled off the road and jumped out of the car to throw up as the first kernel of doubt planted itself firmly in my gut. Could I really have been so wrong? What I believed all these years warred with the things he’d brought to light, and I struggled to find the truth among the dregs of my mind.

It’s true Gia and I had grown apart, but I put that off as growing pains. I thought all teenagers went through that phase, but now that I think about it, it had started much earlier than that. In my mind, I relived the many times I’d sided with Becky and Victoria, thinking I was doing the right thing, teaching my daughter how to be a giving and caring human being, what I knew her mother would’ve wanted her to be.

It never occurred to me that it was taking too long for her to come to terms with our new family dynamic. I just kept telling myself that with time things would work themselves out because that’s what Becky had convinced me of. But was I wrong? Am I guilty of all those things that kid had thrown in my face?

I couldn’t help thinking about the fact that Gia had been gone the whole weekend and hadn’t been in touch once. Does she really hate me that much? What the hell have I done to Adrienne’s daughter? The daughter I’d promised to love and protect after she was gone. I’d married Becky to give Gia a mother and a sister, two people she’d known before her mom passed, two people she’d shared memories of her mom with.

Was I wrong? Had I really made my daughter’s life hell? My mind ran through the many times Gia had complained to me as a child about some injustice she’d faced at their hands. I recalled some of the many times I’d brushed her concerns aside, always sending her back to the ones who I’m now being told were abusing her. I’d taken her family, my wife’s family, away from her.

Me, someone who’d been without familial bonds from a very young age, had done to my own child the one thing I’d feared most. I threw up until there was nothing left but dry heaves before crawling back into the car. I have to get her back; no matter what it takes, I’ll get my daughter back. But first, I need to get my house in order.

DRACO

When the hell did my kid take action? I could’ve sworn he was too busy playing lover boy all weekend to get up to anything else but apparently, he still had enough spare time to take a shot at the one in Sicily. As volleys go, it wasn’t a big one, but it was a strategic move. I felt equal parts pride and alarm. He’s really going through with it.

I tapped on a few keys and went digging a little deeper just to make sure he’d covered himself and didn’t see anything that could lead back to him for now, but I’m almost certain he doesn’t intend to keep it that way. I took a deep breath and turned off the screen in front of me. Because Gabe has been so good at hiding his actions from me, I’d decided to go the other route and watch Ricci’s movements instead.

The few million euro he’d cost Ricci was nothing to sneeze at; the man could afford it, but it’s the other people involved, the business deal he’d just scratched from behind the scenes that might cause an issue. I’m pretty sure he knows exactly that. The good thing is some of the leading businessmen in Europe, and the continent who were in bed with the less savory characters of their union wouldn’t look at an eighteen-year-old for this. But I have a feeling my son doesn’t mean to stay in the dark for long.

It’s my fault! When I take my family anywhere, my sole focus is always on them; I put everything else aside and give my wife and kids, along with our extended family, my undivided attention. It’s what my parents had done with Garrett and me, and it had only made our bond closer as a family, so I’ve been carrying on the tradition with my own.

Oh well, what’s done is done; no use stressing over it. I just have to be more vigilant from now on. Now to get to what I came in here for. I opened the desk drawer and took out the prepaid card I’d put there last Friday, and got up to go look for Gabe. I knew that I’d find the girl, Gia, wherever I found him, and I was right. They were now walking through the backdoor from outside.