AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I'm looking forward to tonight.”
I sigh. “I was calling about that, Seraphina. I'm so sorry, but someone has flown in to see me, and this is the only night they have available to meet. I was not aware until only a moment ago. I really hope you don’t think I'm avoiding you. I very much want to take you out to dinner. Can we reschedule for tomorrow night? Same time? Same place?”
She is quiet for a moment, and I hold my breath.
“Of course we can.” Relief washes through me. “Tomorrow night is great.”
“I really appreciate this. Thank you for understanding.”
“Honestly, there is no problem at all.”
“Not busy enough to keep me away from you, beautiful girl.”
She laughs again, and I hold the phone tighter against my ear.
“I'll see you tomorrow night, then.”
“Until then.”
At least she let me reschedule and seemed very easygoing about it.
It's already late in the afternoon, and I should get ready to meet my aunt.
I don’t know what to expect. I could walk into a trap, but I have been in that type of situation before, and I know I can handle myself well.
Being ruthless is a part of who I'm, and it's the reason I'm rarely confronted. I had to make a name for myself and for my business.
I own the law. They are all on my payroll, which makes me untouchable.
I hold a certain power here in Hong Kong that is unquestioned, and that means I have very little to fear.
Ninety minutes later, I find myself at a table in a secluded corner of a quiet restaurant, far from the usual hustle and bustle. The moment Rebecca enters, there's no doubt in my mind—it's her.
Her foreign appearance makes her stand out here, but more than that, I recognize the resemblance. After hours spent poringover pictures of my father, the similarities in their features are unmistakable. She is his sister. However, she's much younger than he was, a gap of perhaps twenty or so years between them, placing her closer in age to my mother, maybe slightly older. It leads me to wonder, could they have been friends?
I stand up and raise my hand so that she can find me easily. She waves and rushes over. She doesn't hesitate - she wraps her arms around me and pulls me into a hug as though we have known each other for years.
“Antonio, oh my goodness, you are like the perfect mix of your mother and your father. I can see both of them in you.”
I return her hug, watching around me to see if anyone appears to have followed her.
I see nothing out of the ordinary.
After fifteen minutes of generic conversation, she says, “I can’t believe I'm meeting you. This means so much to me. I only wish your mother could have seen how beautiful you grew up to be. You look just like them.”
“Did you know my mother well?”
“We were so close, her and I. We were almost the same age. She was one of my most favorite people in the world.”
“Her and my father - what was their relationship like?”
“Your father was obsessed with her. His entire world revolved around her. I have always longed for a love like that, but we are not all so lucky. They meant to be together. I used to sit at the family dinners and events and just watch them together. They were always close, touching, holding each other. He would spoil her, and she would smother him with affection. They had these secret looks they gave each other as though they could speak without words. The love they shared was something unique, very special. I think it went far deeper than even I can imagine.”
I like my aunt. She is friendly, sweet and kind. She tells me stories about my parents make me smile. It deepens the longing in my heart to have been able to meet them. I wonder again how it would have felt to be their son, to be raised by them, to experience their love. I have never felt love like that. I don’t feel as though I have ever experienced any kind of love.
My foster parents are absolutely amazing individuals, but their constant derogatory remarks about my father, my flesh and blood, have left me questioning if they could ever genuinely love me. Unconditional love. Perhaps it was just my own guarded nature, defending that part of myself that is my father’s blood. Perhaps not. It's just how I feel.
The women who have come and gone from my life - there was no love there either. Sometimes it was about money; sometimes it was sex. Perhaps it was just me and my inability to let people get too close.
