The Life: Sacrifice (The Life 3)

Becky was still moving around upstairs, no doubt working on a way to hoodwink me into letting her stay. I had no idea the kids knew that the house wasn’t mine but was, in fact, owned by my daughter. Obviously, they’d learned this on their trip to Virginia. Something I hadn’t even thought of in forever.

I hadn’t kept the truth from Becky on purpose; it just never crossed my mind to. I didn’t see the need since I always expected that we’d all live here together until Gia got married. I imagined we had at least another few years; while the girls went off to college, they’d come home for the holidays and spend their summers home.

When the time came, and Gia decided that this is where she wanted to raise her family, Becky and I would find a place of our own, while Victoria went off with her husband to start a life of her own. So it wasn’t subterfuge that held me back from divulging that information.

Now I see that it worked in my favor, keeping that tidbit of information hidden. Who knows what tricks Becky would’ve pulled to cause trouble? Not that she could’ve done anything about the ownership of the house, Adrienne’s family has made their dislike of her more than evident over the years, so anything she tried would’ve gone over even worse than when she tried driving Gia’s car or when she wanted the heirloom jewelry Adrienne had left behind.

I lost all my strength as Greta’s words played themselves over in my head again and had to drop down on my seat before my legs gave out. There was a sick feeling in my gut, eating away at me and wreaking havoc on my senses. I felt the same mix of emotions I’d been battling all week—shame, despair, anger, and rage.

Most of it was against me, but even more, it was for Becky. I can’t bring myself to blame Victoria; she’s just a kid and one that I was legally responsible for. Besides, my lawyer had all but warned me that getting out of an adoption is almost as hard if not harder than divorce.

But when I think of the secret she’d kept all these years, my anger at her is just as fierce as what I feel for her mother. Shouldn’t it work both ways, this adoption? As her father, shouldn’t she have told me the truth before today? How much truth was in her words? Had Becky really been the mastermind behind all that happened, while Victoria had been little more than a victim herself? That would mean that I’d failed not one but two daughters, leaving them both at the mercy of that monster.

I heard her footsteps on the stairs and fought to hide the hate on my face. I’d had the whole week to think about this since receiving that call. There was doubt, of course; how could it be true? I’d never seen that side of Becky, the side of her that could kill a friend in cold blood then go on with her life as if nothing happened.

But after this day’s revelations, there’s no way I can overlook this, no way she can talk me out of believing the truth. I wanted so much for it to be a lie, some sick joke someone was playing. Even after hearing the less than positive things others had to say about her and her actions behind my back, I’d still held onto a glimmer of hope that she wasn’t the evil bitch everyone was making her out to be.

I admit it was for my own selfish reasons that I refused to accept. I needed to do that because if it were true, then everything I’d done since Adrienne’s death would be tantamount to the worst betrayal. But there’s no way for me to hide from it now; it was out in the open for all to see. And I have the feeling if I don’t handle this right, I’ll lose my daughter for good this time.

I hadn’t foreseen Becky being ousted from the home, but along with my denial in the last few days, I’d been working on the other side of that count. I’d played the what-if game morning, noon, and night and had more or less come up with a plan of action if it proved to be true. Now I’ll have to rework some of it in my head since she would no longer be in the house.

“Aren’t you even going to look at me?” She spoke from the doorway before making her way into the room when I finally looked in her direction. “Felix, come on, you know this is all lies. That Russo boy hates me for some reason, no doubt because of the lies that little bitch told about me.” She recoiled back from the look I gave her.