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My heart ached for them both. The fact that my mother was going to tell him, maybe even holding onto the hope that they could finally be together.
But no.
For her own protection and mine even, she had to accept her life with Gaetano. I couldn’t fathom the turmoil that Alexei must be experiencing right now. To have been on the verge of learning that he was going to become a father with the woman he loved, only to have his own mother hide the truth and carry it with her to the grave.
Nestor was frozen in shock as he looked at my mother before gaining composure and followed Alexei.
I remained silent, allowing my mother the space she needed to compose herself. My gaze turned to Damiano, who stood leaning against the wall, arms crossed, and a neutral expression on his face. I wondered if he was interested in the story or didn’t care at all.
He quickly let me know he wasn't interested when he impatiently tapped the watch on his wrist, urging me to hurry to the clinic. I knew I had to go soon, but I couldn’t leave after this. My mother literally dropped a bomb on us all.
“Mamá?” I called after her. She faced me, giving me a soft smile as she returned to sit next to me.
“I know how it all sounds but know you’re still the best thing that ever happened to me.” She whispered as she caressed my cheek. I smiled, never doubting that for a second.
“The decisions I made are not something I am proud of, but I had to ensure your survival and safety for as long as possible. Thankfully, you resemble me, which made it easier. I never wanted you to carry the Volante name because you weren’t his child, but I couldn’t use your real name either. Instead, I made an excuse about protection and tweaked the Cirillo name into Celano to give it an Italian ring.” My mother continued to explain.
“I actually prefer the name Celano to Volante.” I confessed, making her chuckle.
“I just had to continue the lie for a bit longer until I could find a way out. Bit by bit, I saved enough for us to get away. But, of course, nothing was easy. Life never is. You loved him as your father, and it broke me because I was going to ruin it. But your well-being meant more to me, and if it meant you would resent me for taking you away, then that was fine with me. You just had to be safe.”
Guilt overwhelmed me. I had been heartbroken when we left, and I remembered feeling a bit resentful toward my mother at the time.
“How did you do it?” I asked.
“Well, for once I felt like I had luck on my side. I found out Gaetano was cheating on me with Morella.”
I gasped.
“No! Really? With Morella?”
“I know.” My mother scoffed at the choice, making me bite back a laugh. “It gave me the perfect reason to get away from him. I even made a scene to make it look like I was genuinely upset about it, and that was when we left.”
“You slapped him.” I blurted, and my mother looked at me in surprise.
“How do you know?”
“Cara and I overheard you two arguing. We sneaked out of our rooms, and we saw you slap the fuck - I mean, we saw you slap him.” I quickly corrected myself. Who knew if she had a wooden spoon here?
Instead, my mother broke into a smile.
“My biggest regret will always be not fighting harder for Cara.” She confessed with guilt laced in her voice. I gave her hand a small, comforting squeeze.
“I know, but we can’t change the past, we can only learn from it. What’s important is that you can be there for her now.” I told her, my gaze briefly shifting to Damiano.
I had learned that lesson the hard way. I never intended to hurt him, but I did when I went away. It was a guilt I would forever carry with me. However, one thing was crystal clear; I would never repeat that mistake.
My mother continued to explain she was keeping taps on Gaetano to always be one step ahead of him. Surprisingly, he had never attempted to come after us after we left. It was at that point that my mother decided to leave her old life behind and start anew in Florida. She worked tirelessly to establish her own boutique, never imagining it would become as successful as it did.
And then the news of Cara’s engagement party came.
“I’m not sure if you remember, but you got so angry at me because I wouldn’t let you go. I simply couldn’t risk it. You begged me for days, asking me why you couldn’t go when it was your father we were talking about. You started to ask too many questions. Questions I wasn’t ready to answer. I didn’t even know how I was supposed to tell you everything after so many years.”
“I completely forgot about that. I was too happy to see Cara after you agreed to let me go.” I admitted.
“I know. What you didn’t know was I followed you to make sure you would be okay.”
“Seriously?!”
