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“It’s me,” the voice on the other line sighed. He sounded exhausted and worn, like he had been up all night. “I’ve got her.”
“Maleah?” I questioned just to be sure he wasn’t talking about Kenzi, who had disappeared without a trace several months ago after she had nearly attacked her sister. If I ever got my hands on the arrogant asshat who called herself Caesar—
“Yeah,” he responded tightly. “She’s in bad shape. Sick fucker had her strung from the ceiling. She’s got a dislocated shoulder, broken leg, several cracked ribs. Her body is wrecked with scar tissue. I don’t know what to do.”
Running a hand down my face, I groaned in frustration. This was not what I needed right now. “Take care of her,” I told him.
I was met with silence. There was a time when Neil had been head over heels for the Ford girl, but rough times had changed him as much as they have undoubtedly changed her. It didn’t matter though.
The moment I laid eyes on Maleah Ford, she became mine. My obsession. And I wasn’t going to stop until she was begging to be mine and only mine.
“I don’t know…” He trailed off, no doubt hesitant about the job I was giving him.
There was a reason I had tasked Neil with finding her. He needed redemption and this was how I was going to give it to him. “You owe her this much,nipote.”
“Mr. Romano?” The doctor strode through the double doors, holding a small bundle in his arms. I hung up on Neil without saying goodbye and shoved the phone into my pocket as I approached the doctor.
“Congratulations, Mr. Romano.” The doctor handed me the infant, swaddled in a pink hospital blanket. There was a smile on his face, but it didn’t reach his eyes, which were drawn with sadness and regret. “It’s a girl.”
I stared down at the bundle in my arms, and my heart filled with a warmth that it hadn’t felt since the birth of my daughter. That day, as happy as it had been, was tinged with sadness. Sestra still refused to celebrate her birthday on that day, opting instead for a Halloween celebration each year. The doctor’s next words barely filtered through my ears as I continued to gaze at the baby girl I held tightly to my chest.
Kendra was dead. There had been no saving her.
It didn’t matter.
No one would miss her.
“Congratulations, Dad.” Armando walked into the room with a smile on his face and the car seat in his hand with his sister trailing behind him holding the hospital bag I had packed.
“Papá.” Sestra placed the bag on a chair and strode over to give me a kiss on the cheek. She looked down at her new sister and cooed. “She’s so beautiful.Bella.” The infant in my arms yawned and opened her dazzling blue eyes, peering up at us curiously.
“Bella,” I repeated thoughtfully, and the baby cooed. Kendra hadn’t bothered to think up a name for her own child. Over the past few months, she had become withdrawn and frustrated at once again being pregnant. She had never wanted the child, and had originally planned on doing away with the pregnancy until it became the only thing keeping her alive. I chuckled at the girl’s reaction. “Do you like thatpiccolo?”
The bundle smiled.
“I think she does.” Armando chuckled as he leaned in to catch a glimpse of her.
“Then little Isabella it is,” I whispered lovingly. “My beautiful girl. You will always be loved and cherished and protected.”
Her siblings looked up and smiled at me.
“Forever.”
The End
