“What can’t you do?” There was no point in getting angry, she had a legitimate reason for feeling the way she did, it’s fucked, but it’s true; but I’d be double fucked if we were gonna lose each other over this, no way I was letting them fucking win. She’s mine, she’s gonna stay mine.
“I did a bad thing.”
“Okay Delia, listen to me now, the fact that Celine might be your mom, does that change the way she treated you your whole life?”
“But I ruined hers…..”
“Would you treat peanut this way, for any reason?”
She quickly covered her stomach with both hands.
“Of course not, I would never…..no.”
“So there was no excuse for the way they treated you, get that through your head okay, now there’s something you need to know.”
How the fuck did I do this?
“The man they’re accusing of being your father……is my godfather.” She started again, body flinching, face losing color.
“Listen to me Delia, as soon as I’m done here I’m gonna call him, and we’re gong to get to the bottom of this, he’s not that type of man, he’d never molest an underage child, so either Celine lied about who fathered her child, or something else is going on here entirely.”
‘Do I have to see him?”
“You don’t have to see anyone if you don’t want to, all you need to do is rest and take care of yourself and peanut, you haven’t done anything wrong, I promise you this, there’s nothing for you to be ashamed or scared about.”
I brushed her hair away from her face, at least she didn’t flinch away from me that time.
“Do you believe me?” She nodded her head as her eyes began to close.
“Do you still love me?” I held my breath waiting for her answer.
She pulled my head towards her and kissed my lips. It wasn’t a blazing passionate kiss but it was enough for now.
“Look at me Delia, I will take care of this, we will be fine, nobody’s going anywhere, I don’t care if Celine is your mother or sister, it makes no difference to us, the only one who should feel guilty about any of this, is me, I’m the one who went after you, you understand? You have nothing to feel guilty about, please don’t beat yourself up about that.” I said it but I knew she would, that’s why I had to get all the answers.
It was sheer providence that I got a call from Jameson telling me that he’d finally found Celine..
“I’ll send the plane to get you, bring her in.”
I didn’t wonder about how he was gonna pull that off, I don’t care, if he had to hogtie the bitch so be it.
I went and found mom and dad, filling them in on what the hell was going on.
“Vito would never do such a despicable thing.”
“I know dad, that’s why we need him here, I need to look in his eyes when I speak to him….”
“Call him, you know your Godfather will come for you, just call.”
I reached for the phone and made the call, the Escalantes lived only about twenty minutes from here, the three brothers, Vito, Santino, and Rocco were recluses, they had more money than Croesus, but for some reason never married, never had children and still lived together in their rambling old mansion.
“He’s on his way, mom I’m going to need help with Delia, if this turns out to be somehow true, then I’m afraid of what it’ll do to her mind…..I…..I slept with her mother……” I couldn’t even finish, it was one thing to tell yourself you didn’t care, that there was no doubt, but saying it out loud like this, especially to my parents, made it seem too fucking real.
“Son, the fault is not in you, you had no idea, now granted you shouldn’t have been messing around with Delia while engaged to Celine, but you explained the circumstances and why you acted the way you did, you weren’t having relations with both at the same time, that would’ve been harder for her to overcome, this might take time, but I believe Delia’s a strong girl, she’ll bounce back.”
“I hope so cause I’m not letting her go…ever.”
“It’ll be fine son, remember who you’re dealing with here, these people are pure evil, you saw that first hand, we all did, no matter what, there’s no excuse for the way they treated her, whether she was their daughter or granddaughter, do you think your mom and I could’ve ever treated you or your siblings this way, for any reason?”
What he said made sense, I knew these things, but I was so worried about her fragile state of mind, all the stress of the last few months, now this.
“Look who I found.” Drew came into the study followed by Vito. My godfather was about dad’s age maybe a little older, which would make him late fifties early sixties, he had a full head of hair, walked with a cane because of some boyhood injury, and still had a sparkle in his eyes.