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“And you’re my daughter, too,” my father said softly. “I know I might not be your biological dad, and I know that Callie here is mad at me and has a lot of questions, which I understand, and I want to atone for my sins, but I love you, Callie. And I made a huge mistake many years ago, betraying your mother. I will never be able to take any of that back, but I will do my darnedest to show you all that I’m a changed man. And Elisabetta, I know you have no reason to want me as a father figure in your life, but I want you to know that I will be that person if you want me to be.”
Elisabetta looked at him and nodded. “Thanks,” she said. She looked over at me, and I could tell that she was touched by his words, but she didn’t want to acknowledge them because of how I would feel.
“It’s okay,” I said, smiling. “He’s not a bad dad. Very overprotective and a bit of a liar,” I looked back and glared at him, “but he was loving.”
“Would you guys like something to drink?” my father asked quickly. I thought he had been pleased with my words and didn’t want me to drift off into another line of thought.
“I’ll have a Coca-Cola, please, if you have some,” Elisabetta asked, and he nodded.
“And you, Callie? Passion fruit juice?”
“Yes, please.” I nodded, smiling. My dad always got me passion fruit juice. He knew how much I’d loved it since I was a little kid.
“What would you like, Phillipa?” he asked my mother.
“I’ll have some passion fruit juice as well,” she said with a small smile.
“So what have you two been up to?”
“We went to look at apartments with Gia,” Elisabetta said, then paused. “Sorry, I don’t know if you wanted me to say anything.”
She looked over at me, and I shrugged. “It’s fine. I have no secrets from Mama. And I guess you tell Dad everything.”
“We’re still friends,” my mom said, smiling at me. “I understand why you’re hurt and upset at your father, but our marriage, it hadn’t been going well for a while.”
“That doesn’t mean he should have cheated.”
“I know,” she said, nodding quickly. “And if I were married to him still and just finding this out, I’d be devastated, but a lot has gone on,” she said, “and ultimately, he’s not the worst man in the world.”
Her eyes bore into mine, and she seemed to have drifted off back to a bad memory. I could see her shivering slightly and wondered if she was thinking about Don Roberto. I wondered what he’d done to her. My heart broke for her. No one should be imprisoned for that many years and used and abused. I reached out and squeezed her hand. “You can talk to me, Mama, if you need to.”
“It’s okay,” she said softly. “I speak to my therapist, and I go to a group, and it’s helping.” She nodded. “I’m just taking it one day at a time.”
“But if you ever…”
“No,” she said, “I will never burden you or Elisabetta with what happened. I’m just grateful that I’ve been given a second shot at life, that I have you both here with me. I never thought I’d see either of you again.” She reached out and touched Elisabetta’s hand. “My darling, I know that you may not believe this, but when you were born, I loved you, and I still love you. You are a part of me, and nothing will ever make that not be true. My two beautiful girls,” she sat back, “I never thought I would be in a moment like this. I never thought I’d be sitting back in this apartment, having a passion fruit juice with your dad, and staring at my two beautiful girls.” She sounded nostalgic as she patted her lap.
She started humming a song, and I smiled. “I always remembered you singing to me, Mama. Remember you always used to sing ‘Hush, Little Baby’ to me?”
“That’s what kept me going.” she said. “Thinking about the way you’d look up at me when I sang that song, as if I was the only person in the universe that mattered. And of course, you were a baby, and I was the only person you knew in the universe at that time, but I knew that as long as we had that connection, as long as I could remember you, there was still hope that I’d get out of there.”
I could feel myself becoming congested. I wanted to cry, but I needed to be strong. I didn’t want to break down in front of my mom.
My dad returned to the room with our drinks, handed them to us, and sat down. “So, are you sure you want to get an apartment and not move back home?”
“Dad, really?” I looked at him and rolled my eyes. “You cannot be serious.”
“I mean, I just was thinking that it might be nice.” He leaned back. “Too soon?”
“Way too soon. And I know I didn’t want to hurt your feelings before, but your overprotective nature has just been too much.”
“I know,” he said, “but I wanted to protect you. I knew of Don Marchesi. I didn’t know if he knew that I’d had an affair with his wife, but I knew he was not a man to be messed with. And when things started going wrong, I just… Well, I was worried.”
“Dad, I don’t understand how did you not know that Mom had been kidnapped? It just doesn’t make sense to me.”
“There was a body,” he said, looking at me, his eyes wide. “We buried a body. I thought it was your mom. I was so drunk back then, so guilty, I didn’t even ask to see her. I should have. Maybe if I had, I…”
“It’s okay.” My mom put her hand on his arm. “We’ve all done things that we regret, but it’s time to move on. We can’t dwell in the past. We have each other. We can move forward. We still have plenty of life left to live.”
