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.

arms over his

I say, my voice hardly more than a whisper now.

sharply and then turns his head away, gathering himself together. “And where has

small cemetery by our home – in the churchyard. I can take you there, if you like,”

of a switch. He turns his burning eyes to me. “In a churchyard?” He shakes his head. “He didn’t respect her, then, the man

find my own emotions turning, then, from pity to anger. How dare he suggest that David was anything but an

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

nothing,” Alden growls.

“He raised me

you from me,” the words rip from

cower back, my eyes going wide. Alden takes a heavy step towards

girl,” he says, taking another step. “Did he know about your parentage? Did he know where she

to deny it, I stay silent, keeping

thought so,” he says, narrowing his eyes at me. “He kept you

afraid of this man. That if this is what he’s like the first time meeting his daughter, then I can’t imagine the kind of things my mother must have gone through. She must have experienced moods that made her decide to pack up and leave

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Gifts

15 – A Pawn in their

Game–2

I was, in the place she’d so desperately left. Why did I let myself get so wrapped up in this

voice rings out behind me,

to him but Kent holds his ground.

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 next few months,

throat. “This is a trick,” he says. “How can they be engaged, when you just

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

the fact that we

over at mine, and suddenly realize that Daniel is in on this. He and his father carefully planned this meeting, this conversation. In one swoop, they gave Alden back his daughter and

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

protest, but Alden interrupts me.