Chapter 2 #3
“Sure, if you want to call it that. Our family has always been powerful, and when the mayor slighted our family Alexander didn’t take kindly to it.
He never has to authority. Anyway, we actually got in pretty easily.
Climbed the side of the house, got in through a balcony door. Your father always made it look easy.”
“And?” I ask, already knowing this isn’t going to end well.
“And we found the damn cigars, right where we thought they’d be. But then…” Luca’s face twists like he’s trying not to laugh. “Then we hear this sound. This deep, low growl.”
I wince. “A dog?”
Luca leans in, eyes gleaming. “A monster of a dog. The biggest Rottweiler I’ve ever seen. And guess what your brilliant father does?”
I shake my head. “Oh no.”
“He looks at me, completely calm, and says, ‘Luca, don’t run.’”
The table erupts into quiet chuckles. Even my mother hides a smirk behind her wine glass.
“And what do I do?” Luca continues. “I run. Like hell. And what does the dog do? It chases me. I’m knocking over furniture, breaking vases. Meanwhile, Alexander? That bastard doesn’t move. He just watches me suffer.”
I bite my lip, trying not to laugh. “And how did you escape?”
Luca sighs dramatically. “Your father finally decided he should maybe help, so he throws a steak from the kitchen across the room, and the dog goes after it. We barely make it out, and guess what he says to me when we get back home, smoking a stolen cigar?”
“What?”
Luca deepens his voice, imitating my father. “‘I told you not to run.’”
The whole table bursts into laughter, even Cameron shaking his head at the ridiculousness of it all. I find myself laughing too, picturing my father, cool and composed while my uncle was running for his life.
Luca smiles at me. “So, there you have it, Magnolia. Your father, the great Alexander Donati. A genius, a lunatic, and the best friend I ever had.”
I don’t know why, but something tightens in my chest. Maybe it’s the way Luca says it, like he still misses him. Like he still sees him, even now in me by the way he stares into my eyes with a wistful gaze.
I swallow past the lump in my throat and manage a smile.
“Sounds like he was something else.”
My mother nods. “Oh, sweetheart, he was everything.”
I cling to every word, every little detail about him. It’s like piecing together a puzzle of someone I never got to know.
A cousin, I think his name is Nico, leans forward, grinning. “What about you, Magnolia? Do you have any bad habits we should know about?”
A small laugh escapes me. “I don’t break into homes, if that’s what you mean.”
Laughter ripples through the table, easy and warm. I don’t know what I expected tonight, but I didn’t think it would be this.
Cameron and my mother lean forward, eager for information about me, but I don’t feel comfortable enough to open up quite yet, and I think everyone gets the hint.
My mother raises her glass, and the table quiets.
“To Magnolia,” she says, her voice thick with emotion. “To the daughter who has come home.”
Glasses lift, and a chorus of ‘To Magnolia’ follows.
I stare at the glass in my hand, at the family surrounding me, at the warmth in their eyes.
Being with Sin, I felt like I belonged for the first time in my life, but here… I feel more.
As the evening wears on, the conversation flows naturally, each word a small step towards bridging the gap between my past and my present. I realize that this is just the beginning. There’s a lot to learn, a lot to understand, but for now, I feel like I’m on the right path.
Maria’s voice breaks into my thoughts. “Magnolia, would you join me on the balcony?”
A chill whispers across my skin as I step onto the balcony, folding my arms for warmth as the chatter from the dining room fades as the doors close, leaving only a view of the sprawling city out of reach.
The soft click of heels against stone sound as my mother steps beside me, silent for a long moment, before she finally exhales. “It’s beautiful out here.”
I don’t look at her. “Is that why you came out here? To talk about the view?” I try to hide the resentment in my tone, while the stories around the table fill me with warmth that pools in my chest something else resides there too, hurt.
She’s quiet, and when I finally glance her way, I see it. The sorrow in her eyes, the weight of years pressing down on her. “No,” she admits. “I came because there’s so much I need to tell you. So much I should have told you years ago.”
I turn fully toward her. “Then tell me. No more secrets. I want to know why I was abandoned.”
She takes a small step back as if my words sting.
“You were only two weeks old,” she begins softly, her voice barely above a whisper.
“So small I could fit you in the crook of one arm. Your father used to just… sit there for hours, staring at you like you were the only thing in the world that made sense anymore.” Her voice wavers.
“You and Cameron were our entire worlds.”
My chest tightens, my breath shallow. I’m about to find out the truth I’ve wanted for so long.
She looks past me, like she’s staring at something long gone. “Right before your father was murdered…” She swallows, voice breaking. “He called me.”
A sharp inhale drags through my lungs. “What did he say?”
“I didn’t get to the phone.” She cries, “I was feeding you, you were such a restless baby.” A laugh escapes her, but it sounds like pain. “He left me a voicemail.”
“I’m sorry you didn’t get to talk to him, because of me.”
She shakes her head, “Never apologize for me taking care of you, that is my job.”
A question we both know I’m going to ask slips out. “Do you still have it? The voicemail?”
She nods.
“Can I hear it?”
With a shake of her head, she frowns. “You don’t want too.”
“I do.”
Her manicured nails tap along the wrought iron railing, “He dies on that voicemail, Magnolia. You…” she looks me in the eyes, “You will hear your father die. Cameron has never heard it, and I won’t allow him too. But I will leave it up to you.”
She steps back, pulling a phone from her bag and places it in my palm. “I have it saved on this phone. I swore I would never let another living soul hear this, but you more than anyone deserve to have that choice.”
The gravity of what’s in my hand doesn’t escape me. The first time I hear my father’s voice will also be his last words. “Can I have some time alone? To think, to decide?” I don’t know.
The back of her hand touches my faces gently, swiping across my cheek, wiping away a tear I didn’t notice had fallen. “Of course, my darling.”
As her footsteps recede with the soft click of her heels, I sink down into a nearby chaise, looking out to the city skyline and wishing more than anything I could call Bria right now to hear her voice and ask her advice.
But her family is the one who killed my father, and as much as I love her, I don’t know how to feel about that.
My thoughts as usual drift to Sin, he would want to protect me from hearing this. Would advise against pressing play.
Which is why, as I look down to the phone and click the side button to turn it on, I push thoughts of him aside.
The background photo is a little boy holding a baby.
It’s me and Cameron.
Sitting on a comfy couch with his hands around me, he’s giggling and I’m asleep.
I steady myself and navigate to the only voicemail available, then I press play.
“Maria, Darling.”
I pause it, inhaling sharply. Wanting to first hear his voice and then remember that and nothing else I’m about to hear. I know I can’t escape it, but any sliver of my life is important. Even the night that shattered our family.
“I don’t.” I pained gasp escapes him. I hear the purr of an engine, “I don’t have much time.
I love you, my girl. Please, protect them.
” A shot rings out, and tears drip down my face in a storm.
So low it’s barely audible he whispers into the phone his last words.
“Take Magnolia… somewhere safe. Away.” He’s fading, coughing, sputtering. “Away from us.”
A death rattle.
Then… silence.
I don’t know how long I sit there, staring out into nothing and seeing violence and loss.
I come out of myself as she returns, a sorrowful expression marring her pretty face. “Are you okay?”
I shake my head, not knowing what to say. “I’m so sorry.”
She dips down beside me on the chaise, wrapping her slender arms around me. “I’m sorry too.”
That’s when I lose it. Crying into her chest, breathing in her perfume for the first time. She pats my hair, trying to soothe me. She hasn’t done this in over eighteen years. The last time she held me, she was letting me go. Putting me somewhere safe, away from the dangers of this world.
Just like I tried to do with Sin.
I can’t fault her for that, I can’t blame her for going through with my father’s last wishes either.
I lean back to look into her blue eyes, and I cup my hands on the face that’s so similar to mine. “I forgive you.”
A low, guttural sound escapes her and once again we embrace, crying into each other’s arms.
My pulse pounds in my ears as we wipe our tears. “But why did Cameron get to stay? Why was I the one who had to go?” My tone isn’t accusatory anymore, no more sense of fight left in me. She did what she had to do.
“I wanted to take you both and run away from this world, this life.” She dabs her face with the sleeve of her gown. “None of it mattered without you.”
“Why didn’t you?”
A pained look crosses her face. “Because Cameron is the heir. People knew of him, you were so new to the family, birthed right here in our home…” she wipes a tear, looking back to the amber glow of the house.
“No one was supposed to know of you yet… but they did.” She throws her hands up in defense, and I know she’s referring to the Donati family.
“A son in this world is seen as an investment,” she says, voice laced with bitterness. “A daughter is a liability. Cameron was meant to grow up and lead the family one day. Killing him would have been a direct challenge to the Rusco’s. A declaration of war.”
I shake my head, trying to piece it together. “But I was just a baby. What threat was I?”
She turns toward me fully now, gripping my arms like she needs me to understand. “You weren’t a threat, Magnolia. You were a weakness. They could have taken you, used you against us, tortured you to control me or Cameron. You would have been a pawn in a game you weren’t even old enough to play.”
“Would they really?” I let the words linger in the air, yet another thing I don’t understand about these families. “Hurt a child?”
She nods and the truth settles like a weight in my chest. “So, you sent me away.”
She finally turns to me, and for the first time, she doesn’t shield the ache in her eyes.
“Because Cameron was five. Old enough to understand orders, to hide when told, to be trained. If I had disappeared with both of you, they would’ve known.
They would’ve hunted us like animals. But one baby…
?” She swallows. “A single child could vanish into the system unnoticed. An infant could be placed far away, and no one would ask questions.”
My heart clenches.
“I sent you away because it was the only way to keep you alive. You were defenseless. Cameron, for all his fear, was old enough to stay by my side. I couldn’t protect you both, not in that moment.
I had seconds, Magnolia. Seconds. And I chose what I thought would save your life.
No one even got to say goodbye.” She chokes on a sob, waving her hand towards the people inside.
Silence falls between us like ash, making me realize she not only lost her husband but her new baby too, all in one tragic night.
“I hated myself for it,” she whispers. “Every single day. But if I had run with you… you wouldn’t be here right now. They would’ve found us both. They would’ve used you to make us bleed.”
I feel something hot slide down my cheek.
“Your father’s last words… they became my mission.
I honored them, even though it tore me apart.
You were never abandoned, Magnolia. You were protected.
And I would do it again if it meant you’d live.
” I don’t know what to say. I just lean toward her, and she pulls me into a hug that trembles around the edges.
She smells like rosemary and something warm something like home.
“The plan was always for you to return to me.”
And for the first time, I start to understand the kind of love that breaks you apart just to keep your child whole.
A tear slips down my cheek before I can stop it, recalling Sin’s interception when I was leaving the orphanage. “Sin stopped my return.”
Her breath hitches. “That’s a story for another time.”
Silence stretches between us, thick with years of pain.
She lets out a broken laugh. “I wanted you back every day. We had so much planned for you, then you didn’t show up…” she looks away.
I stare at her, searching for something, anger, regret, love. I find all of it.
For so long, I thought I was abandoned. Unwanted. “I thought each day that passed that I was unlovable.”
“You were unadoptable by my choice, because I knew one day you would return. You were wanted Magnolia, and I am so sorry that this war and my actions caused you to feel less than that.”
I nod because now I know the truth.
I wasn’t abandoned.
I was saved.
And it breaks me just the same.
I should feel out of place. And I do.
But at the same time, there’s a dangerous, quiet part of me that wonders… what if I had been raised here?
Would I feel different? Would I feel whole?
I don’t know if I belong here.
But I do know that, for the first time since arriving, I don’t entirely hate the idea.