Page 45 of Redemption
“Rory could sleep through a hurricane and not wake up. Keira and I were both stunned when Mardi Gras didn’t even wake her.”
Marco smiles at my sleeping daughter. “She’s a Giordano through and through then. Our father could sleep through the end of the world and miss all the festivities.”
The mention of our father draws my immediate attention. I have so many questions, but I start with one. “What is he like?”
Marco’s smile dims its wattage as he leans back in his chair. “You will meet him soon. He is … he is hard to describe. As dark as you and me in coloring and occasionally in his mood as well. He has his own demons that he wrestles with, of which he does not speak. He can be a hard man, but he is a good father. Firm. Exacting. But loving in his own way. He took being a father very seriously. He wanted to make sure I became a man who could handle the responsibilities that would come upon my shoulders, and he is proud of who I have become … although he does not approve of all of my decisions. He would have been happier if he could have made them all for me instead. But he is a good man. A strong, proud man. You will like him. He will like you very much. He will be amazed at who you have become and what you have accomplished without any of the resources that you should have had at your disposal.”
Marco’s description of our father leaves me wondering what I will think of the man who sired me. I understand having demons to wrestle with that you can’t speak of with others. Perhaps he and I will have more in common than I would have guessed.
“I look forward to meeting him.”
My brother’s smile brightens once more. “It will be the shock of his lifetime. To see you—a copy of him at a younger age—and both of us together.” Marco laughs, as if anticipating how our father will react in his mind, before continuing, “I don’t know that he will believe his eyes at first. But once he touches you, he will know you are in fact real. I cannot imagine how that will change him to know that you are alive and safe and prosperous.”
In that moment, it hits me that Marco might have grown up with extreme wealth, luxury, and parents, but every moment of his life was affected by my absence. While I knew nothing about my family, except for childish daydreams I would indulge in when reality became too hard to face, they all knew I existed and was stolen from them. From how he spoke of our stern father and eccentric and reclusive mother, my absence must have felt like a ghost haunting them all.
Not knowing what I was missing, I made the best life that I could out of the cards I had been dealt. The Giordano family instead lived a life that was forever altered by my disappearance.
Our conversation falls into a lull, overtaken by the drone of the jet engines for several minutes.
When Margarite reappears with place mats and cutlery, she pauses before setting them down on the table between us. “May I?”
“Of course,” Marco replies with a wave of his hand. “Although I do not know how my brother will eat with a baby in his arms.”
“It won’t be the first time,” I reply with a wry smile. “Fatherhood has taught me more lessons and tricks in a short time than I ever thought I would learn. Doing things one-handed or one-armed has become the norm. At least for now.”
“Why do I get the sense that you wouldn’t hand her off to me for the world?” Margarite asks with her tone just above a whisper.
“Because you’re a perceptive woman, clearly,” I reply, looking up at her. “And this little one is my princess. She’s safest in her father’s arms and always will be.”
Margarite presses one hand to her chest. “Oh, my heart. I believe it just melted. There’s nothing like a father besotted with his daughter.” With a genuine smile, she spreads out navy place mats and white cloth napkins before carefully setting out the cutlery piece by piece.
As she retreats once more, Marco meets my gaze. “Given the events of your day and what I gather about your life … your sentiment about your daughter delights me but also surprises me. Although perhaps it shouldn’t. Our gentle mother is fierce, like a lioness, when it comes to me—and now you. Our father, however, has never been quite as demonstrative in his affections.”
I shift Aurora against my chest, where her heart beats against mine. “I never knew I could love anyone as much as I love her. Like our parents, I know what it’s like to have her stolen from me.” I shudder involuntarily at the memory as the remaining traces of the gut-wrenching, heartrending moment sweeps over me. “It was absolute horror. Like something out of a nightmare.”
“I can’t imagine,” Marco says quietly. “I thank God with you that she was safely returned.”
I nod, breathing in her sweet baby scent. “Before she was taken, I loved her and spoiled her. Now, it’s hard for me to be away from her. I want her in my sight as much as possible. In my arms is even better. She’s a treasure. The most precious gift I’ve ever been given. I want to shield her from everything dark in this world—because I know how much there is. That’s the reason we’re on this plane. If it were just me and Keira, it would be different. But not with my princess Aurora. She deserves far better than the life she was born into, even though it was a life of luxury. It was tainted. Hell, I’m tainted. But … she’s my second chance. My chance to be the man I didn’t know I could be. And I want to be that man for her. I want to give her the world. A perfect, beautiful world that’s nothing like what I’ve known.”
“That perfect, beautiful world is awaiting you, brother. Life is giving you exactly what you didn’t know was always yours.” His gaze dips to Aurora’s dark curls of the same color. “And she will be the princess at the center of it. She will want for nothing. She will have the best of everything. And more than that, she will be safe. You all will be.”
A niggling thought pushes its way into my mind. “I don’t think you can guarantee that. Even you said someone tried to kill you, thinking you were me. Where? When?”
“I was in New York. It’s not a city I enjoy. But do not worry about that. He cannot tell the tale. And on our family’s properties, you will be completely safe. Italy knows nothing of Lachlan Mount. You might have been famous in other circles, but they do not extend there. Otherwise, we would have known of your existence much sooner. Someone would have said something about the similarities between us. Our worlds do not collide, brother. Have no fear of that.”
His reasoning isn’t exactly as sound as I’d like, but once I sort out the situation, I’ll make sure Keira’s and Aurora’s safety is guaranteed. That’s a job I take seriously every single day and will for the rest of my life. Now, it’s my purpose in life, for as long as I get to live. And for the first time ever, instead of being haunted by the thought of what would happen to them after my own death, I feel something that approaches peace.
My brother will take care of them. And my father. And my mother.
They’re words I’ve never thought before, but they fill me with hope for the future. A future I never knew could be possible.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Mount
When Margarite arrives with our meal, Keira doesn’t even twitch at the scents.
She is exhausted, I remind myself. Where I was used to being nocturnal, she has always slept soundly. But not this week. She has barely slept at all. Like me, she didn’t want Aurora out of her sight. It was too much for her.
