Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Father

Gifts

Chapter 15 – A Pawn in their Game–1

Alden narrows his eyes at me and looks back at Kent. I’m a little shocked, I admit, that he hasn’t addressed me yet. I stand awkwardly in front of him and Daniel quietly takes my hand, giving it a squeeze of support.

“Is this for real, Lippert?” Alden asks, a threat behind his glare.

Kent nods slowly. “We did a test. It’s a 99% genetic match for paternity. I can show you the paperwork upstairs, and you can have it verified by your own doctors. But, with that kind of proof at hand, Alden.” He spread his hands out, hoping Alden takes him at his word. “Why would I lie?”

Alden nods and returns his gaze to me, staring for a moment. Then, he shocks me again by breathing out a huge breath of air and rubbing a hand down his face. “Damnit, but you look like your mother,” he mutters.

eyes.

My mouth falls open when I see the glimmer of tears in his My heart goes out to him, then. He’s a solid rock of a man, but I can see that deep feelings run beneath.

“Where is she?” he demands.

Surprised, I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. “She died,” I say, grimacing inwardly at my bluntness. Alden’s face falls minutely. Surely, after all these years, he knew it would be unlikely that she would be alive, but still – he’s upset by the

“When?” he asks.

“Years ago,” I whisper, sorry to be the one to tell him. “I was young – I had just turned six.”

I feel horrible – I had no idea that he cared for her as much as he clearly does. I had assumed she was

–

what had Fiona called

herself? a goomah. His mistress, or his girlfriend, not someone he really I cared about.

crossing his arms over his

accident,” I say, my voice hardly more than a

together. “And where has she been laid to rest?” Alden asks, not looking

the churchyard. I can take you there, if you like,” Isay,

at the flip of a switch. He turns his burning eyes to me. “In a churchyard?” He shakes his head. “He didn’t

to anger. How dare he suggest that

I take a step forward. Daniel holds my hand tighter, in a warning that comes too late

nothing,” Alden growls.

“He raised me

the words rip from Alden’s

back, my eyes going wide. Alden takes a heavy step towards me, intimidation in every muscle of his

about your

it, I stay silent, keeping

eyes at me. “He kept you from me,

of things my mother must have gone through. She must have experienced moods that made her decide to pack up and leave him, to give up

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Gifts

– A Pawn in

Game–2

in the place she’d so desperately left. Why did I let myself get so

Kent’s voice rings out behind me, cool

angry eyes to him but Kent holds his ground.

to announce,” Kent says, his teeth gritted, making clear that his pleasure is only a formality. He nods pointedly at the ring on my hand, “that our agreement, years ago, to unite our families through marriage is holding strong. Your daughter is engaged to my son. I anticipate that the wedding will be swift, in the

“This is a trick,” he says. “How can they be engaged, when you just found her yesterday?”

“We met before, by some miracle,” he says, giving Alden a small but earnest

the fact that we broke up.

in on this. He and his father carefully planned this meeting, this conversation. In one swoop, they gave

suddenly angry again. It doesn’t matter what I want at all, whether or not I want to marry Daniel. Because Daniel, too, is a player in this game, moving me around like the pawn that I

mouth to protest, but Alden interrupts