“Did you hear that baby, she’s not your mom, I know that was bothering you so could you please stop stressing over it now? Give little peanut a break okay.”
She nodded and clung to me her body a lot less tense than it was before.
“Thank you Chase.”
“You’re welcome baby.”
“So you mean…..she’s mine?” I’d almost forgotten the other people in the room until Vito spoke.
“It looks that way if you’d like to have proof ……..” I didn’t really know what was to become of this, if one more person rejected or belittled her worth I was gonna lose my shit.
“No, no, no, that won’t be necessary, she’s her aunty Tessa all over again, I don’t need anything else to tell me she’s mine, besides like I said, I remember meeting this Joann woman all those years ago, more than once. But she never said……..”
He turned to look at Delia, I guess all that he’d heard so far was replaying in his head as he put the pieces of the puzzle together, I’ll have to fill him in a little later.
This time when he walked over to Delia I didn’t try to stop him, he stood right in front of us, just staring at her with a longing expression on his face.
“I didn’t know, had I known I would’ve come for you, I promise, I didn’t know,…….Maxwell.”
My father came and led the big strong man with tears in his eyes from the room.
“And once again she lands on her feet, how could an unwanted piece of garbage have so many fucking lives?”
I wasn’t quick enough to stop Delia as she flew across the room and slapped her sister across the mouth.
“That’s for trying to hurt my baby.” Celine had a scared look on her face as she held her bruised cheek and drew back.
Okay then; Delia turned and came back to me with a scowl on her face. I guess she was too pissed to put together all that was going on around her right now, like the fact that she had a new father.
My mind was going sixty miles a minute, if Vito Escalante accepted her as his daughter, which looked more than possible knowing my godfather she had just become the heiress to a fortune that could rival mine. And the daughter of one of the most powerful men in the country if not the world.
Celine has no idea.
Chapter 14
When Vito and dad came back to the room he was a bit more composed. I can’t begin to imagine what it must feel like to a man who had believed he would die childless, to find out at his age that he had an almost adult daughter. He must be in a state of shock.
He gave Delia a long look before turning to Celine who was now sitting on the floor rummaging through her bag looking for who knows what.
“Young lady, I need some answers and since you seem to be the only one here with any insight into my daughter’s life I’ll be asking you……”
“I’m all talked out, unless there’s something in it for me, after all why should she reap all the benefits?”
“While my young godson threatened to break your neck, I assure you, my punishment for you would be much more severe. Maxwell has filled me in on some of what you and your delightful family have done to her so far, I wouldn’t break your neck, for what you’ve done to my daughter, I would have you tortured before I fed you to my dogs, do not fuck with me.
Excuse me Delia and Rhina.” He bowed his head in apology to the two ladies like the gentleman he was.
Celine spluttered all over her face, but in the end self preservation kicked in and the whole story came pouring out.
She talked about how she used Joann’s fear of discovery against her, making sure neither Joann nor Carl ever showed one ounce of affection to the new baby.
How She played on her father’s guilt for not being there when his little girl was supposedly raped.
The more she spoke the more I wanted to be sick, Vito looked like he wanted to kill her and Delia was crying her heart out, while my family was deathly still.
No one moved as the ever mercenary little bitch told her tale with hardly any inflection or emotion in her voice.
When she spoke of how she went out of her way to make Delia’s life a living hell I thought I would really snap and end the bitch.
There was a commotion out in the hallway before whoever was there rushed into the room.
Santino and Rocco Escalante came into the room, both men were a few years older than their brother, Santino was the eldest of the three, with Rocco two years behind.
“Where is she?” Santino spoke, his eyes searching the room until he lit on Delia.